How to Explain the Unexplainable Love of Jesus

How do you explain the incredible, upside down, unconditional love of Jesus to someone? We don’t mean explaining the biochemical reactions that occur within your brain, or how philosophers have attempted to encapsulate love within the confines of words. No – how do you convince someone that the God of the universe loves them despite who they are or what they’ve done? 

In his book Practicing the Way, John Mark Comer says, “As a general rule, we become more loving by experiencing love, not by hearing about it in a lecture or reading about it in a book … We let God love us into people of love.”

And in Ephesians 3:19, Paul says that his prayer for that church was that they would “know this love that surpasses knowledge.”

How do you explain something that surpasses knowledge? And when Jesus asks us to share the love of God with everyone (Mark 16:15), what does He mean? How are we meant to do that?

It’s true that most of the responsibility for this lies with Jesus! He will reveal Himself to someone when He chooses (Matthew 11:27), but there are things you can do to share the unique, profound, unconditional love that Jesus offers.

Here’s three ways you can do that …

Highlight the difference between human love and Jesus’s love.

Everyone seeks deep, unconditional love, but we usually receive conditional love from others. Unfulfilled, we turn to things like relationships, success, escape, and distractions for satisfaction. A practical way to share Jesus' love is by demonstrating how other types of love cannot fully satisfy our deepest desires. Only Jesus can meet our ultimate need for love.

Here’s some ways that Jesus’s love differs from human love:

We often restrict love when we’re hurt; Jesus loves no matter what. Our capacity for love goes down when we’re hurt. It’s totally fine, but it has consequences. It often means letting someone down or disappointing them. However, Jesus’ love never leaves or forsakes us. (Read 1 John 4:9-10)

We often narrow love when we disagree; Jesus loves without no matter what.
‍It takes deep maturity to put yourself in someone else’s shoes–especially when that position is one you disagree with. In our frail humanity and sin, that means we often narrow love to certain worldviews and certain people groups. However, Jesus’s wisdom, maturity, and capacity for love is infinitely greater than ours, and He loves no matter what. (Read Romans 5:8)

We often limit love to protect ourselves; Jesus put Himself in harm’s way to protect us. Instead of an easy, convenient, safe love, Jesus chose a love that defied social norms, a love that sent Him to the cross, the love that put Him in harm’s way to protect others. (Read John 15:13)

Share your experience of Jesus’s unconditional love.

Take Jesus’ unconditional love from the abstract and make it practical: “Here’s what it looks like in my life …” Give a wide range of examples to show how He moves and that He moves. A testimony, or a witness, to the unconditional love of God is a powerful thing (Revelation 12:11).

Pray that they would have a personal revelation of Jesus’ love.

Even though it’s listed last, prayer isn’t a last resort. Prayer has incredible power that doesn’t always make sense to us—can we really change God’s mind? (Exodus 32:11-14) How do we know what to ask for? (Romans 8:26) 

In his book, Prayer for Beginners, Peter Kreeft says, “The reason this prayer is so powerful is that the name of Jesus is not just a set of letters or sounds.” Pray works because of God’s power, not our own. 

When you pray for your friend to have a personal revelation of Jesus’ love, it’s not like you’re praying for a sports car—He’s not the kind of God to refuse something as beautiful and important as revelation.

It’s a powerful thing when someone understands unconditional love. Trust that Jesus wants this for your friends too! He will reveal Himself to people in His perfect and wise timing, but remember that He wants to use you as well! So your part to play is simply showing people that the answer to their deepest longings lies in the unconditional love of Jesus. Get out there and spread the love!