Tenchi
Member
- Oct 10, 2022
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Psalm 63:1
1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 84:2
2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Psalm 42:1-2
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
I was sitting with a group of Christians a week ago, now, discussing with them the question "What is agape-love?" There were the usual replies:
"Agape love is an action word."
"Agape love is self-sacrifice."
"Agape love is an act of the will. It's a choice to do right."
"Agape love is obedience to God."
When the group had stated all of these things, I said the following to them:
Imagine a man laying in a hospital bed, dying of cancer. His wife enters his room and moves to his bedside, kissing him on the forehead in greeting. The dying man smiles and says, "I love you, sweetie. More than anything in this world."
His wife begins to weep, her face beaming with love for her husband. "I know. I love you, too," she replies.
Why? What is it that the man had communicated to his wife without self-sacrifice, without concrete action, that had so touched her heart? He's just lying there, too weak even to embrace his wife, and yet, what he has expressed to his wife is so real, so intimate, so beautiful that she's brought to tears by it. What is it that the dying man has indicated to his wife? What does he mean by, "I love you?"
The group was silent. Finally, one man said, "She wouldn't love him if he'd never shown her that he loved her."
I agreed. Nonetheless, what was it the dying man was indicating to his wife as he lay helpless, in bed, I asked. The silence resumed. After a few moments of quiet, I asked the group, "What do you mean when you say, 'I love chocolate,' or, 'I love cats,' or, 'I love to watch action movies,' or whatever? What is the term 'love' expressing?"
Uncertain of how to answer, the group offered no response, so I continued, "When I say, 'I Iove chocolate,' at bottom, I'm saying, 'I greatly desire chocolate.' I want - that is, I desire - to eat it. And because my desire for chocolate is strong, I may eat too much of it."
The group laughed but they were all clearly considering what I'd just said, evaluating my explanation. "Because I love chocolate," I went on, "I go to places where I can purchase it, sacrificing financially to obtain chocolate. I make sure I don't leave the chocolate where it can be stolen, or ruined in some way. And, when I'm able, I happily eat it, enjoying the sweet taste of chocolate enormously. Buying, caring for and eating chocolate are all effects, though, of my desire for chocolate. I would do none of these things if I didn't want chocolate, right?"
By this point, it was pretty obvious to the group that "love," at its core, meant "desire" and that they had been confusing the effects of desire with desire itself.
Is this, though, what agape love means? Is divine love also at its core desire? If so, of what sort, exactly?
Yes, it's desire that is at the heart of agape love, too. In the case of agape love, what is meant is a desire for intimate communion among the three Persons of the Godhead, which has always existed in God and has always been perfectly satisfied, prior even to Creation. This is what is implied, in part, when Scripture says that God IS love (1 John 4:8, 16). Incredibly, God has turned to us, His creatures, and offered us fellowship (communion) with Himself, also. We are invited to partake - in a necessarily limited way - in what God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit have enjoyed with one another eternally. If we desire - if we love - God, if we want to enjoy something of the intimate, personal communion of the Godhead, we may. In fact, God commands us to so desire Him. It's what we're made for.
Matthew 22:36-38
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
Is it useful to make this clarification on what is meant by agape love? What harm is there in mistaking effects for cause when it comes to agape love? Actually, there are some very seriously destructive things spiritually that may arise from doing so. Many Christians, for example, want to claim that because they "follow the rules" of Christian living, because others can see that they do, they have proved that they love God. Agape love is obedience to God, right? Those who love God keep His commandments. That's in the Bible, you know.
It's possible, though, to be obedient to God's commands and have a heart that is far from Him. This was the case for the Pharisees. Of them, Jesus said,
Matthew 15:7-8
7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Jesus also called the professionally obedient Pharisees, scribes and Sadducees "white washed tombs full of dead men's bones," and "sons of hell," and "the brood of vipers," and "hypocrites." See Matthew 23. Though keeping God's commands what was these men were known for, though it was their "claim to fame," they were actually haters of God, even murdering His only Son (Acts 2:22-23).
Is obedience to God's commands, then, always certain proof that one loves God? No. Many other reasons may prompt a person to such "obedience": Fear, guilt, obligation, self-righteousness, peer-pressure, habit. The horrible thing about this sort of "obedience" is that God rejects all of it. Because it doesn't arise out of obedience to the First and Great Commandment, as all Christian living ought to do, such obedience is actually disobedience.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Here, then, it's possible to see how mistaking the effect of agape love - obedience to God - for agape love itself can lead to, and foster, Christian hypocrisy. Though the believer's heart may be cold and hard toward God, because they "go through the motions" of Christian living, doing "good things," they feel they can boldly claim to love God and angrily defy any who suggest otherwise.
What about, say, the idea that agape love is known by its self-sacrificing character? Do non-Christians ever act self-sacrificially? Of course they do. Many non-Christian soldiers, firefighters, police officers, and even just average citizens, have sacrificed their lives for others, dying, often, in order to save strangers. So, then, is self-sacrifice a sure basis upon which to claim that one is expressing agape love? It doesn't seem so to me. A Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, or atheist might sacrifice himself for another person, having no love for God whatever. And Christians, too, can act self-sacrificially without necessarily expressing agape love.
Be careful, then, not to deceive yourself in these ways, thinking you're loving God with His own agape love - which is the only love He wants from us - when you're not. It is the Holy Spirit's own love, his own desire for perfect, intimate communion with the Father and the Son, that must answer the First and Great Commandment in our lives. The only way this is the case, however, is as the Christian person "walks in/by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16, 25) and so, is filled with him and the love, joy, peace patience, etc, that he is.
Romans 5:5
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love...
If the Spirit dwells within you, all the agape love God can give you is already yours. But that love only fills your life and flows out of it as you're living in submission to God, to the Spirit, all the time. God will not fill rebels with Himself.
Matthew 23:12
12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he who shall humble himself shall be exalted.
1 Peter 5:6
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
James 4:7
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God...
James 4:10
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Romans 12:1
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Luke 22:42
42 ...not my will, but yours, be done.
Your own human love isn't enough. God doesn't want your sin-cursed, contingent, selfish human love. Only His own perfect, agape love will do. Are you living, then, in the way God has said to do so that His "living water," the Holy Spirit (John 7:38-39), may flow from you in rivers, not only of love, but of joy, peace, patience, gentleness, and self-control, too? This is the only way to ever properly fulfill the First and Great Commandment.
1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 84:2
2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Psalm 42:1-2
1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
I was sitting with a group of Christians a week ago, now, discussing with them the question "What is agape-love?" There were the usual replies:
"Agape love is an action word."
"Agape love is self-sacrifice."
"Agape love is an act of the will. It's a choice to do right."
"Agape love is obedience to God."
When the group had stated all of these things, I said the following to them:
Imagine a man laying in a hospital bed, dying of cancer. His wife enters his room and moves to his bedside, kissing him on the forehead in greeting. The dying man smiles and says, "I love you, sweetie. More than anything in this world."
His wife begins to weep, her face beaming with love for her husband. "I know. I love you, too," she replies.
Why? What is it that the man had communicated to his wife without self-sacrifice, without concrete action, that had so touched her heart? He's just lying there, too weak even to embrace his wife, and yet, what he has expressed to his wife is so real, so intimate, so beautiful that she's brought to tears by it. What is it that the dying man has indicated to his wife? What does he mean by, "I love you?"
The group was silent. Finally, one man said, "She wouldn't love him if he'd never shown her that he loved her."
I agreed. Nonetheless, what was it the dying man was indicating to his wife as he lay helpless, in bed, I asked. The silence resumed. After a few moments of quiet, I asked the group, "What do you mean when you say, 'I love chocolate,' or, 'I love cats,' or, 'I love to watch action movies,' or whatever? What is the term 'love' expressing?"
Uncertain of how to answer, the group offered no response, so I continued, "When I say, 'I Iove chocolate,' at bottom, I'm saying, 'I greatly desire chocolate.' I want - that is, I desire - to eat it. And because my desire for chocolate is strong, I may eat too much of it."
The group laughed but they were all clearly considering what I'd just said, evaluating my explanation. "Because I love chocolate," I went on, "I go to places where I can purchase it, sacrificing financially to obtain chocolate. I make sure I don't leave the chocolate where it can be stolen, or ruined in some way. And, when I'm able, I happily eat it, enjoying the sweet taste of chocolate enormously. Buying, caring for and eating chocolate are all effects, though, of my desire for chocolate. I would do none of these things if I didn't want chocolate, right?"
By this point, it was pretty obvious to the group that "love," at its core, meant "desire" and that they had been confusing the effects of desire with desire itself.
Is this, though, what agape love means? Is divine love also at its core desire? If so, of what sort, exactly?
Yes, it's desire that is at the heart of agape love, too. In the case of agape love, what is meant is a desire for intimate communion among the three Persons of the Godhead, which has always existed in God and has always been perfectly satisfied, prior even to Creation. This is what is implied, in part, when Scripture says that God IS love (1 John 4:8, 16). Incredibly, God has turned to us, His creatures, and offered us fellowship (communion) with Himself, also. We are invited to partake - in a necessarily limited way - in what God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit have enjoyed with one another eternally. If we desire - if we love - God, if we want to enjoy something of the intimate, personal communion of the Godhead, we may. In fact, God commands us to so desire Him. It's what we're made for.
Matthew 22:36-38
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
Is it useful to make this clarification on what is meant by agape love? What harm is there in mistaking effects for cause when it comes to agape love? Actually, there are some very seriously destructive things spiritually that may arise from doing so. Many Christians, for example, want to claim that because they "follow the rules" of Christian living, because others can see that they do, they have proved that they love God. Agape love is obedience to God, right? Those who love God keep His commandments. That's in the Bible, you know.
It's possible, though, to be obedient to God's commands and have a heart that is far from Him. This was the case for the Pharisees. Of them, Jesus said,
Matthew 15:7-8
7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:
8 “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;
Jesus also called the professionally obedient Pharisees, scribes and Sadducees "white washed tombs full of dead men's bones," and "sons of hell," and "the brood of vipers," and "hypocrites." See Matthew 23. Though keeping God's commands what was these men were known for, though it was their "claim to fame," they were actually haters of God, even murdering His only Son (Acts 2:22-23).
Is obedience to God's commands, then, always certain proof that one loves God? No. Many other reasons may prompt a person to such "obedience": Fear, guilt, obligation, self-righteousness, peer-pressure, habit. The horrible thing about this sort of "obedience" is that God rejects all of it. Because it doesn't arise out of obedience to the First and Great Commandment, as all Christian living ought to do, such obedience is actually disobedience.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Here, then, it's possible to see how mistaking the effect of agape love - obedience to God - for agape love itself can lead to, and foster, Christian hypocrisy. Though the believer's heart may be cold and hard toward God, because they "go through the motions" of Christian living, doing "good things," they feel they can boldly claim to love God and angrily defy any who suggest otherwise.
What about, say, the idea that agape love is known by its self-sacrificing character? Do non-Christians ever act self-sacrificially? Of course they do. Many non-Christian soldiers, firefighters, police officers, and even just average citizens, have sacrificed their lives for others, dying, often, in order to save strangers. So, then, is self-sacrifice a sure basis upon which to claim that one is expressing agape love? It doesn't seem so to me. A Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, or atheist might sacrifice himself for another person, having no love for God whatever. And Christians, too, can act self-sacrificially without necessarily expressing agape love.
Be careful, then, not to deceive yourself in these ways, thinking you're loving God with His own agape love - which is the only love He wants from us - when you're not. It is the Holy Spirit's own love, his own desire for perfect, intimate communion with the Father and the Son, that must answer the First and Great Commandment in our lives. The only way this is the case, however, is as the Christian person "walks in/by the Spirit" (Galatians 5:16, 25) and so, is filled with him and the love, joy, peace patience, etc, that he is.
Romans 5:5
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Galatians 5:22
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love...
If the Spirit dwells within you, all the agape love God can give you is already yours. But that love only fills your life and flows out of it as you're living in submission to God, to the Spirit, all the time. God will not fill rebels with Himself.
Matthew 23:12
12 And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he who shall humble himself shall be exalted.
1 Peter 5:6
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
James 4:7
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God...
James 4:10
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Romans 12:1
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Luke 22:42
42 ...not my will, but yours, be done.
Your own human love isn't enough. God doesn't want your sin-cursed, contingent, selfish human love. Only His own perfect, agape love will do. Are you living, then, in the way God has said to do so that His "living water," the Holy Spirit (John 7:38-39), may flow from you in rivers, not only of love, but of joy, peace, patience, gentleness, and self-control, too? This is the only way to ever properly fulfill the First and Great Commandment.