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John 3: 18 says whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s.
As we have already seen, God does not want to condemn anyone to hell, so why would he send anyone there? John 3: 18 tells us that it is because of our unbelief. Many believe there is a God but this belief is not able to give us eternal life. A better way of looking at this is if we have put our complete trust in God.
In Matthew 7 we have the story of people that are trying to enter heaven, believing what they had done during their lifetime was God’s will. They believed that they had put their complete trust in God, but he said that he did not know them. Their trust was based on their own understanding of who God was and what he wanted his children to do. Their misguided trust may have steamed from not knowing the word of God, lack of a prayer life, a misunderstanding of what God wanted them to do or even the refusal to do what God called them to do.
The refusal to do God’s will is the only condition that will condemn us because we do not have our trust in God. This refusal means that we do not trust God to do what he says he will do nor that he knows what is best for us. Our trust is in ourselves and is often against the will of God.
The other conditions can be a sign of immaturity in our walk with God. There are times when our preconceived idea of scripture is not correct and only studying the word can correct this. Another area we can fail at is our prayer life. Prayer is a conversation we have with God through the Holy Spirit where he will give us instruction and guidance. There are times that Satan can sound like God and therefore misguide us. As we mature we should be able to know the difference. Because we are human we will always have the ability to misunderstand what God wants us to do, When this happens happens we need to admit our mistake and change our ways as soon as possible.
We are commanded to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind and as we imitate
Christ our love for him will increase.