affection, good will, love, benevolence, brotherly love
from the root meaning: to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly
It is a love that springs forth from faith. To do for others with pleasure (as opposed perhaps to obligation). To esteem one another.
Is His Agape Love in you or are you just making charitable gifts? (Luke 11:42, John 5:42) Having His Love (agape) in us is so critical because it shows all men that we are truly His disciples (John 13:35).
Are you keeping His commandments? (John 15:10, I John 3:24) Yehoshua (see December 22nd), Jesus says "IF you keep my commandments THEN you will abide in his love (agape)." If you want to experience His goodwilled affectionate love then you must guard (keep) his commandments ... is this a new teaching? No, He is referring to the many teachings of the Tanach. What then you ask is the "Tanach"? The name "Tanakh" is a Hebrew acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Tanakh's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah ("Teaching," also known as the Five Books of Moses), Nevi'im ("Prophets") and Ketuvim ("Writings") - hence TaNaKh. The elements of the Tanakh are incorporated in various forms in Christian Bibles, in which, with some variations, it is called the "Old Testament."
To guard or keep His commandments was not a new teaching, it is a very, very old teaching that started back in Genesis "shamar mitzvot" ~ guard the commandments! (Genesis 26:5, Exodus 15:26, 16:28, 20:6, Leviticus 22:31, Deuteronomy 4:40, 5:10, 30:10 and 15, Proverbs 7:2, etc.) If/Then ... then what? Then you will abide ... this is a beautiful word "meno" and it means to remain, not perish, to endure, to tarry as a guest or to lodge with, to be present with continuously ... Perhaps the meaning here is that when you are doing or acting on His WORD and He is His WORD (see John chpt. 1) then you have Him with you, by acting out His WORD you are bringing God into the situation if that makes sense? It is an unbroken fellowship ... when we fail to do His WORD or what He commands then we break fellowship and we therefore are not abiding or "lodging" with Him. So all of this to say ... abide in his Agape Love!
Without His Agape Love we are just making a bunch of noise ... as a mother of two young and very active girls, I can appreciate this verse!! There are times my girls "make noise for the sake of noise" ... how often are we like this in our walk?? Are we just making a bunch of noise or are we truly showing and abiding in His Love?
Without His Agape Love we are NOTHING (I Corinthians 13:3-4) Oude heis "no one" ... and of no advantage and of no profit. We might as well not exist if we are without His Agape Love. You can give all you have to the poor and have the hugest faith and understand things that most people have no clue about, but you might as well not even exist if it is without love! Those are some pretty strong words that Paul uses here ... In mommy terms I can be the best mommy there is in outward appearances and if it is without love which he goes on to define in a minute then what good is it?? As a wife ... I can do every good deed, but if it is without love, so what?? I can teach and be an active congregant and a friend to many, but without love, why bother?? Oude heis ...
I want my life to count for something ... I want to live out the LOVE of our Savior! What does that mean? How do I demonstrate this kind of love?
First of all I do not lose heart, to be patient in bearing the offenses and injuries of others, slow to anger, slow to punish. The LORD is not slack ... but is longsuffering wishing none to perish and desiring repentance (II Peter 3:9). If He is this patient with me ... how much more so ought I to be patient with those around me.
Secondly, to show one's self mild, to be kind, use kindness. Be ye kind one to another tenderhearted forgiving one another (Ephesians 4:32).
Thirdly, it is not to be heated or to boil with envy, hatred, anger. Joseph's brothers are an example given for us of this in Acts 7:9 where it says the brothers were moved with envy and sold Joseph into Egypt. This word zeloo is the opposite of Agape Love. Zeloo causes us to do things that we should not basically do. It pushes us to the brink instead of being longsuffering and kind and forgiving.
Fourth, another "does not do" a self display, employing rhetorical embellishments in extolling one's self excessively. Big words basically meaning it does not go on and on and on about what a great thing you did for that person ... I have been guilty here lately especially in my immediate family of this one. Often we feel neglected, like what we do does not matter and so we tell all those around us how much all we do matters.
Along with that, the Scripture says love is not "puffed up" to inflate, blow up, to cause to swell up. Basically this is us just blowing a bunch of hot air, right??!! It means to blow up or to blow out ... ever had a blow out?? Ever blow up?? I have! Definitely not a picture of Agape Love!
Next, he says love does not act unbecomingly or indescently or in a deformed manner and it does not demand it's or one's own way. Basically these are both saying the same thing that we do not force ourselves on one another. Most of us have seen a child throwing a tantrum trying to demand it's own way, this is not Love. Let us be mature and descent in how we act with one another (speaking to myself first of course!).
This next one goes with the first one, love is not irritated, provoked or aroused to anger easily where we might think, feel or act wrongly or cause injury or be destructive to another person. This is a biggie right? How often we (I) say things because I'm irritable or I allow someone to provoke me?? And in response I think, feel or even act back in that manner, in anger or in an irritated tone. Yesterday we had this happen in our house where our 4 year old was "just trying to help" ... the end result was she got her feelings hurt because of the response to her because she did not do it right ... I could see that more was at stake than just the thing she was trying to help with. This time it was not me, but how often it has been when the words I have said have caused hurt and been destructive to their tender hearts. We must act in His Love and cause Him thereby to lodge or abide in our very homes with us ...
Next, Agape Love, is not glad or excited about injustice or unrighteousness of heart and life or a deed violating law and justice or sin. While we should not act out of anger at the same time we are not just to cover lightly over sin and unrighteousness. It's a "friends don't let friends drive drunk" kind of thing. We don't just look past the sin ... we take truth on as our personal excellence. We put away pretence and deceit and deception and we live in truth with each other. It is not loving to act in pretence ... but we speak honestly with each other. This one is hard though, right?? Does this give us liberty to say everything on your mind?? For some it does perhaps, and yet I do not think we have to say everything on our mind to live honestly with one another. I think what Paul is trying to say here is don't cover up sin, call sin honestly what it is. But it doesn't mean you have to tell your friends and loved ones that their cooking is horrible or that they should or should not do something a certain way, it's not a license for critism and a judgemental spirit, neither of which is helpful or loving.
Getting to the end of our passage here today, Paul summarizes and says that Agape Love is a love that protects and preserves and "covers to keep off something which threatens, to bear up against, hold out against, and so to endure, bear, forbear". You become like a roof or a house, a place of refuge for those to whom you are showing HIS Agape Love to. What a beautiful picture of Love!
It believes ... it has confidence in and thinks the truth and the best about those we love. Is this not the very thing that God does for us? We are sinners, awful, horrible, filthy rags, but God does not see us this way ... he looks at us through the blood of His Son and thinks the best about us. Even Yehoshua, Jesus, our Salvation, stands before the Accuser and says "no, that is my child!" He thinks the world of us and we ought to do that for those around us.
Love entrusts in others and entrusts things to others ... again, this is thinking the highest about those we Love. It is a very trusting kind of relationship, not superficial, but something much deeper. Thinking only the best of them.
And finally it does not flee or go away in times of trouble. This is not your "fair weather spectator" kind of relationship. True love stays even or especially when the going gets tough! I like the definition of this word "to preserve: under misfortunes and trials to hold fast to one's faith in Christ". We stay because of our faith in Christ the Messiah, not because we are better than the next person and can hold on somehow by our own strength, but because of our faith.
True love sticks ... you don't fall out of love, you don't fall down from love or fall off of love, true love doesn't lose it's effectiveness or fall powerless. True love NEVER fails!! This is not talking about some "happily ever after fairy tale" although I love those! This is bigger and deeper than that, because Who is Love? God is Love and God will never fail even when we do!! How often I respond unseemingly and out of anger and without patience and in an irritable way ... all of which we have just said is not loving ... how often I lord my boastings over those closest to me to tell them how much I must love them because I can recant the many ways and boastings of what I do for them ... not love ... God is Love - the only true example I know of that did it right and is doing it right, right now! He was silent before His accusers (not necessarily our Accuser), He waits patiently for us everyday while we mess it up ... and somehow loves us still ...
Paul's final words and exhortation:
True love NEVER fails and the greatest of these (being faith, hope and love) is LOVE.
Walk in love today ... His love ...
Be blessed!
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