Crazy Love Podcast: “The Immeasurable Love of God” with Francis Chan (October 6, 2025)

Episode Overview

This episode centers on Francis Chan’s reflections about the transformative power of truly knowing and experiencing the love of God—not just understanding it intellectually, but living in a way that is rooted in God’s unconditional, immeasurable love. Drawing on themes from his new book Beloved, Francis explores how easy it is for believers to slip into striving for God’s affection or to unconsciously believe that His love fluctuates based on their performance. Instead, he urges listeners to rest in the reality of God’s unchanging love, and to allow that truth to shape every aspect of life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Resting in God’s Presence and Love

• Francis opens with a prayerful reflection on not striving or trying to conjure up God’s presence, emphasizing a posture of resting and confidence in His desire to be with us.

  • Quote: “If Jesus walked in the room, why would we feel any need to conjure something up by our own power? We just rest in his presence with us.” [00:52]

• He recalls the central message of the cross:

  • Quote: “That's what the cross was all about. We weren't pursuing him… He looked at us and says, ‘I want to bring them to me.’” [01:23]

2. The Gap Between Knowing and Experiencing God’s Love

• Francis confesses the disconnect between believing in God's love intellectually and truly knowing it at his core:
  • Quote: “Most of you would say, you know, that God so loved the world. But do you mean that, like, from the core of your being?” [03:46]
• He admits, “It's easier for me to say I love you than it is to say, I believe you love me.” [04:17]
• He urges listeners to pray, “God, show me where I've been deceived,” acknowledging the subtle ways the enemy twists our understanding of God’s love. [05:31]

3. The Trap of Performance-Based Acceptance

• Chan discusses Romans 5:10, sharing how he often intellectually understands salvation is by grace, but emotionally slips into thinking God's affection is conditional day-to-day:
  • Quote: “Somehow I get this sense, like, he loves me more when I've been obeying him through the week. Or this week he loves me less.” [07:52]
  • He relates this to Paul’s warning to the Galatians—starting with grace but falling into works-based mentality.

4. God’s Steadfast Love: Before and After Salvation

• Francis points out the faulty thinking that God’s love somehow diminishes after we become His children:
  • Quote: “He loved you back then when you were rebellious and an enemy of God—now that you’re a son of God, how much more...?” [10:07]

5. The Infinite Nature of God's Love

• Francis uses analogies of strength and intelligence to highlight how God’s love, like His power and wisdom, is truly infinite:
  • “Compare [the strongest or smartest person you know] to God. It’s comical, right?... Why do I have this gap where, when it comes to the love of God, I treat it different from his knowledge, his strength?” [13:46]
• He challenges listeners to grasp that God’s love is as boundless as His other attributes, never to be reduced to human terms.

6. The Importance of “Tasting” God’s Love—Not Just Knowing It

• Francis references church history, noting early leaders were more concerned that people knew the love of Christ experientially, not just mentally:
  • “You can tell me all the ingredients in a recipe… but if you've never tasted it… Is that the love of God in your life, where you just go, I am so loved by him?” [15:52]

7. The Enemy’s Lie: Mistaking Humility for Doubt in God’s Love

• He identifies a twisted tendency to downplay God’s intense, personal love out of false humility:
  • Quote: “There’s some twisted side in me that thinks, ‘Oh, I should be humble and kind of go, well… he loves me because he loves the world’ rather than tasting it and looking you in the eyes and going, I promise you this: God loves me so much.” [17:06]

8. Living From, Not For, God’s Love

• Francis explains the vital difference between serving Christ from His love, rather than striving for it:
  • “If not, you’ll end up doing things for Christ’s love rather than from his love. And it’s so easy to fall into that.” [18:02]
• Illustration: He compares this to a child needing to perform for parental love, pointing out how this would offend even a human parent—and how much more it grieves God.

9. The Kindness of God Leads to Repentance

• Citing Ephesians 2:4, Francis emphasizes that it’s God’s astonishing kindness—not just His holiness or fear—that draws us to repentance:
  • “But he says in scripture, no, it's my kindness because I'm patient with you. I'm so kind. Do you think of him as just kind, this holy, all powerful God?” [20:40]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I want to know your love. I want to know it… not just in my head.” [02:54]
• “It’s easier for me to say I love you than it is to say, I believe you love me.” [04:17]
• “If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now… shall we be saved by his life.” [09:22] — Romans 5:10 paraphrased
• “God loves because he is love. It's out of who he is.” [11:45]
• “Do I believe that God is love and his love is infinitely beyond any of ours and that he feels that way about me today, this week?” [15:22]
• “If not, you’ll end up doing things for Christ’s love rather than from his love.” [18:02]
• “It's your kindness that makes me want to repent. It's the kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance.” [20:40]

Important Timestamps

• 00:50 – Resting in God’s presence; God’s longing for relationship.
• 03:46 – The challenge of knowing God’s love at the core.
• 07:52 – Subtle performance-based thinking in daily life.
• 10:07 – God’s love does not diminish after salvation.
• 13:46 – Comparing human love, power, knowledge to God’s infinite attributes.
• 15:22 – Experiencing (not just knowing) the love of Christ.
• 17:06 – Pushback against the false humility of doubting God’s personal love.
• 18:02 – Living from, not for, God’s love; illustration with his son.
• 20:40 – God’s kindness as the motive for repentance.

Final Thoughts

Francis Chan vulnerably shares his own struggles and “twisted thinking” about God’s love, inviting listeners to honestly pray for God to reveal deceptions and distortions in their own hearts. His hope is for each person to not only know, but be changed by, the immeasurable love of Christ—a love that isn’t earned, doesn’t diminish with failure, and is infinitely greater than any human love we could ever imagine.

For further reflection, Francis’ new book Beloved (releasing October 7, 2025) delves deeper into these transformative truths about God’s relentless, unfailing love.