Watch the video above and talk about it with a friend or mentor.

To many Mormons, God seems like a harsh judge. But in the Bible he reveals his unconditional love, even for sinners.

The Bible says that God is love, but how do we actually experience that? Latter-day Saints believe that God loves them. They see him as Heavenly Father. But in practice, Mormonism can present a God who seems like a harsh judge. In the Bible, God reveals his unconditional love. When we understand that God is love, it changes our whole experience of God.

Video Highlights:

  • God as a harsh judge. Mormons (and others) have an experience of God that is motivated by fear. They fear God is looking down waiting for people to mess up, seeing everything we do wrong and ready to crush us for it. The extent of God’s love feels like it is dependent on us and how worthy of God’s love we make ourselves.
  • God’s unconditional love. God’s love is not conditional based on what we do. God loves us so much he made a way for us to have a relationship with him. He initiates love toward us, and we love him in return.
    • 1 John 4:19 (NIV) We love because he first loved us.
      • If we don’t believe God loves us, we won’t be inclined to love him very much.
    • John 3:16 For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
    • Romans 5:8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
      • God expressed his love in the sacrificial death of Jesus even when we had done nothing to be worthy of his love..
    • John 3:17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
      • Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it!
    • 1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
      • Envision God is like a loving parent, looking down from heaven on our sin, not with a sledge hammer, but with tears in his eyes.

God truly is love. Your relationship with him can be so different when you realize how much he cares about you and how he wants you to have a relationship with him.

[Related: Attributes of God]

[Related: God’s Compassion]

Read more
Read less

Key Points:

  • God As a Harsh Judge
  • God’s Unconditional Love

See Also: Tags

Talk About It
  1. Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
  2. What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
  3. When you were LDS, what was your view of God’s love?
  4. What does it do to a person’s relationship with God when they think his love has to be earned?
  5. Read Romans 5:8. How do you know God’s love is unconditional?
  6. Read John 3:16-17. What does this say about how God feels about his people?
  7. Write a personal action step based on this conversation.

This is part of the Understanding God After Mormonism series.