AGAPE - God's Love In Us
Agape
This week we come to the fourth and final type of love in this short series. We have examined Storge, the instinctive love of a parent for a child. The love we have seen so easily corrupted, Eros, is seen in both positive and negative since. In the world, Eros is seen in the sexual exploitation and abuse of the young and vulnerable. Within the bounds of a healthy marriage, Eros is expressed in a god pleasing way. Philos is a love which is valuable and true! It is a true, heartfelt love which is also self-sacrificing and committed. But this love focusses on the one who loves in return. We love those who love us, and we hate those who hate us!
Today we turn our attention to AGAPE! Agape love is found first and foremost in the heart of God Himself. While God is a lot of things; righteous, pure, holy, just, all-knowing, ever-present, and all-powerful. These, and many more descriptions, are truly attributes of God. When look past the attributes to Who God truly is and what He is like, we find one word. AGAPE!
God is Love! This is how John put it (1 John 4:8). This means that love is at the very core of who God is in His nature. Because God is love, His love is exhibited in the attributes which reveal what He is life. God is righteous because God is Agape! Agape moves God to be One who is pure and holy in every way which is seen in His righteousness. God is just precisely because as a God who is love, He cannot do anything which is contrary to His own nature. Everything God does flows out of His heart of God. It is impossible for God to act contrary to His own being!
The notable difference between AGAPE and Philos (which we examined last week) is that Agape is a love which loves those who return love, but Agape also loves those who hate and despise in return. Where Philo is unable to love the unlovable, Agape loves everyone equally, those who are good as well as those who are evil.
The extent of AGAPE is seen when Jesus came into this world to accomplish our forgiveness through His death and resurrection. We did not deserve such a sacrifice, “but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God’s agape love is unmerited, gracious, and constantly seeking the benefit of the ones He loves. The Bible says we are the undeserving recipients of His lavish agape love. God’s demonstration of agape love led to the sacrifice of the Son of God for those He loves.
Think for a moment of Jesus as He hung upon the cross. He was giving 100% of who He was into death. He was suffering we wrath and judgment of God on all the sins of humanity. He was deserted and abandoned by everyone who had declared their loyalty to Him. His fellowship and relation with God the Father was broken as He became sin for us. Mull that over in your mind for a moment! He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). How must was Jesus loving us at the moment He was hanging upon the cross? The answer is not just 100%, but He was loving us with all His being! He loved us unto death!
In response, what was Jesus receiving from us at the exact moment He was suffering and dying for us? He was receiving ZERO! We were the ones responsible for Him being judged and put to death.
On our own, as sinful human beings, we do not love God, and we would not choose Jesus as our Savior. We would spit in His face and turn the other way, which is exactly what most people alive today have done. We hate Him and in response He loves us.
This ability to truly love your enemy is not even possible for we who are sinful. True AGAPE can only come from its source and the source of all Agape is God Himself. It is only when we have experienced the grace of God in conversion and have been drawn to Christ to see Him as our Savior that we begin to understand Agape. We experience it as God adopts us as His child, having washed us clean in the blood of the Lamb. We now stand before our Father in heaven, forgiven, pure and clean. We are acceptable to Him and loved by Him, even though we were deserving of nothing but rejection and judgment.
One we have experienced the Agape of God we begin to be enabled to have Agape for both God and other people. Our love grows and we, hopefully, come to the point that our relationship with God is more important than anything else in our lives. Being loved by God and loving Him in return enables us to lift our eyes off ourselves and love other with the same Agape we have experienced from God. Remember, Agape can only flow from its source and the source of all Agape is God Himself.
As sinful human beings we still struggle at times with loving the unlovable. Our instinctive, sinful desire is to see the evil people of this world punished and damned to hell. When God looks upon the most evil person we can imagine, He sees a son or daughter Jesus died on the cross to save. He is moved to look past their sin to the possibilities of what can be if that person comes to Christ as Savior.
Because God is Agape, His desire is to save and restore, not judge and damn. Agape loves the unlovable and seeks to bless the one who does not deserve love. This Agape we have experienced from God and which we are not enabled to have for others is what sets the Christian apart from all the people of this world. It is as we Agape the people around us, God is seen for who He truly is, and He is able to draw them to Himself and fulfill His heart’s desire. For there is nothing God desires more than to seek and save the lost.
Blessings on your week,
Pastor Russ
This week we come to the fourth and final type of love in this short series. We have examined Storge, the instinctive love of a parent for a child. The love we have seen so easily corrupted, Eros, is seen in both positive and negative since. In the world, Eros is seen in the sexual exploitation and abuse of the young and vulnerable. Within the bounds of a healthy marriage, Eros is expressed in a god pleasing way. Philos is a love which is valuable and true! It is a true, heartfelt love which is also self-sacrificing and committed. But this love focusses on the one who loves in return. We love those who love us, and we hate those who hate us!
Today we turn our attention to AGAPE! Agape love is found first and foremost in the heart of God Himself. While God is a lot of things; righteous, pure, holy, just, all-knowing, ever-present, and all-powerful. These, and many more descriptions, are truly attributes of God. When look past the attributes to Who God truly is and what He is like, we find one word. AGAPE!
God is Love! This is how John put it (1 John 4:8). This means that love is at the very core of who God is in His nature. Because God is love, His love is exhibited in the attributes which reveal what He is life. God is righteous because God is Agape! Agape moves God to be One who is pure and holy in every way which is seen in His righteousness. God is just precisely because as a God who is love, He cannot do anything which is contrary to His own nature. Everything God does flows out of His heart of God. It is impossible for God to act contrary to His own being!
The notable difference between AGAPE and Philos (which we examined last week) is that Agape is a love which loves those who return love, but Agape also loves those who hate and despise in return. Where Philo is unable to love the unlovable, Agape loves everyone equally, those who are good as well as those who are evil.
The extent of AGAPE is seen when Jesus came into this world to accomplish our forgiveness through His death and resurrection. We did not deserve such a sacrifice, “but God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God’s agape love is unmerited, gracious, and constantly seeking the benefit of the ones He loves. The Bible says we are the undeserving recipients of His lavish agape love. God’s demonstration of agape love led to the sacrifice of the Son of God for those He loves.
Think for a moment of Jesus as He hung upon the cross. He was giving 100% of who He was into death. He was suffering we wrath and judgment of God on all the sins of humanity. He was deserted and abandoned by everyone who had declared their loyalty to Him. His fellowship and relation with God the Father was broken as He became sin for us. Mull that over in your mind for a moment! He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). How must was Jesus loving us at the moment He was hanging upon the cross? The answer is not just 100%, but He was loving us with all His being! He loved us unto death!
In response, what was Jesus receiving from us at the exact moment He was suffering and dying for us? He was receiving ZERO! We were the ones responsible for Him being judged and put to death.
On our own, as sinful human beings, we do not love God, and we would not choose Jesus as our Savior. We would spit in His face and turn the other way, which is exactly what most people alive today have done. We hate Him and in response He loves us.
This ability to truly love your enemy is not even possible for we who are sinful. True AGAPE can only come from its source and the source of all Agape is God Himself. It is only when we have experienced the grace of God in conversion and have been drawn to Christ to see Him as our Savior that we begin to understand Agape. We experience it as God adopts us as His child, having washed us clean in the blood of the Lamb. We now stand before our Father in heaven, forgiven, pure and clean. We are acceptable to Him and loved by Him, even though we were deserving of nothing but rejection and judgment.
One we have experienced the Agape of God we begin to be enabled to have Agape for both God and other people. Our love grows and we, hopefully, come to the point that our relationship with God is more important than anything else in our lives. Being loved by God and loving Him in return enables us to lift our eyes off ourselves and love other with the same Agape we have experienced from God. Remember, Agape can only flow from its source and the source of all Agape is God Himself.
As sinful human beings we still struggle at times with loving the unlovable. Our instinctive, sinful desire is to see the evil people of this world punished and damned to hell. When God looks upon the most evil person we can imagine, He sees a son or daughter Jesus died on the cross to save. He is moved to look past their sin to the possibilities of what can be if that person comes to Christ as Savior.
Because God is Agape, His desire is to save and restore, not judge and damn. Agape loves the unlovable and seeks to bless the one who does not deserve love. This Agape we have experienced from God and which we are not enabled to have for others is what sets the Christian apart from all the people of this world. It is as we Agape the people around us, God is seen for who He truly is, and He is able to draw them to Himself and fulfill His heart’s desire. For there is nothing God desires more than to seek and save the lost.
Blessings on your week,
Pastor Russ
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