Ulterior Motives

When Jesus loves us, He loves us with a fierce and unconditional love.  He has no ulterior motives. The definition of an ulterior motive is

  "A motive, object, or aim which is beyond that which is acknowledged openly."  

He does not love us because He expects something from us in return. He does not love us because He wants to us to give Him the Glory. He does not love us because His kingdom might gain from it. He does not love us because He expects us to give Him our lives in return. He does not love us so that we will love Him in return. He does not love us so that we will in turn spread His Gospel. He does not love us for any other reason than that He made us and He simply loves us. That's it. He doesn't love us to gain anything.

It is our belief that He has ulterior motives for loving us that makes us think at any moment for any reason that He has stopped loving us. We subconsciously hold the belief that He loves us with the expectation that we will love Him back; then when we fail Him we think that because we did not love Him back He will stop loving us for however brief a time.

Now don't get me wrong; He does want all the Glory. He does want our lives to benefit the kingdom. He does want us to give Him our lives. He does want us to love Him in return. He does want us to spread His Gospel. However if we fail to do any of these things He still loves us with exactly the same love. When all ulterior motives are removed, there remains a pure coexistence where He can love us freely, expecting nothing in return; and we can serve Him freely, expecting nothing in return. Both simply loving because they adore the other.

Jesus has no ulterior motives. He does not love us for any reason other than that He loves us. W are to follow His example and love God and others without ulterior motives, loving simply because we love Him.

Abba, give me a heart to love like You love, without any expectations or attachments. Help me to see when I fail that You love me in the same way as always. I love You.