AGAPE, GOD LOVE

Probably one of the most difficult concepts to learn about from our Holy Bible is about   GOD’s definition concerning LOVE.  In our English speech one can say, “I really love cigars” and turn to a wife or children and tell them I really LOVE you.  So we depend A LOT upon the context to really fill in the missing spaces.   Other wise  communications really breaks down and a wife and kids could think that a cigar was what dad was thinking about when he said he loved them.

The Greek language was a lot more expressive, they had many words for love.   Sex as in marriage was  eros,   It was life giving love.   I am sure you know what sexual love is all about.  And in having 8 kids my friends were always wanting to make sure I was up to speed on the knowledge.   That Greek word eros means in English,  intimate love.   Then there is the Greek word ( storge ) for family affection, meaning beloved or dear or prized as a long term good friend with care , respect and compassion.   Then there was the Greek word Philia for Brotherly Love  that unites.  However, what our Creator God has in mind for us to know about and to learn to walk out with Him is the kind of love where you would lay down your life to help or save another person as Jesus did for us.  John 3:16.   Rev 12:11 takes us to that place in the ultimate victory over lucifer, We let lucifer in (in Adam) and in Jesus we get to boot him out.  Our Creator is in the process of creating an Agape Family for HIS home.

Agape (Pronounced: Uh-GAH-pay) is the highest of the four types of love in the Bible. This term defines God’s immeasurable, incomparable love for humankind. It is the divine love that comes from God. Agape love is perfect, unconditional, sacrificial, and pure.

Jesus Christ demonstrated this kind of divine love to his Father and to all humanity in the way he lived and died: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

Following his resurrection, Jesus asked the apostle Peter if he loved him (agape). Peter replied three times that he did, but the word he used was phileo or brotherly love (John 21:15–19). Peter had not yet received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; seems he was incapable of agape love. But after Pentecost, Peter was so full of God’s love that he spoke from his heart and 3,000 people were converted.

I was watching a WWI flick the other night and a guy did exactly that on the battle field with bullets like cord wood and the Holy Spirit really touched me that I truly needed to grow more.  If it had been me, I would not have done all that to save that worthless guy.   Next day at a restaurant  for lunch the janitor was very crippled yet doing a very special job of keeping the place.  Some kids had spelt juice under a table, very very difficult for him to get down and clean up but he was totally committed to doing a 1st class job, no matter what.   The Holy Spirit then told me to go talk to him and give him the 34 healing scriptures that I knew where to find.   So I got out of my seat and tracked him down and told him what a good job he was doing and how I appreciated his work ethics.  We talked for a minute and then I pulled out a tract with directions on how to find the 34 verses on healing that a person had used in the 1970 to be healed of terminal cancer.  The expression on his face totally changed, he gave me a really big grin and wanted to make sure that he could find the scriptures clearly on the web.  And as I set down I felt a touch of God’s Agape Love as an overflow of what the man had felt as God really did love him and that he was not forgotten of God nor just a crippled  janitor in a quick foods restaurant.  I also felt that I had a lot more to learn about God’s Agape Love that HE wants us all to have and give away for HIM.   So let’s try to digest just a few important teachings from our Holy Bible on the subject.   The Bible is a LOVE letter of God’s LOVE to and for us and all we can share it with.

1 Cor.13:1-3:   “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not [a] love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction]. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing. 3 If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body [b]to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all.”

Eph. 3:17-19: “ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, 18 be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; 19 and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].”

Phil. 4:8: “Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].

John 4:16-20: “We have come to know [by personal observation and experience], and have believed [with deep, consistent faith] the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides continually in him. 17 In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love [dread does not exist]. But perfect (complete, full-grown) love drives out fear, because fear involves [the expectation of divine] punishment, so the one who is afraid [of God’s judgment] is not perfected in love [has not grown into a sufficient understanding of God’s love]. 19 We love, because [a]He first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates (works against) his [Christian] brother he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Yours, In HIS great love and wonderful Grace & Mercy,   Ken<><   www.OhanaChurch.Life