The Love Study: Agape
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
Love is one of the biggest subjects in scripture. What is it? Why is understanding love so important. Certainly, understanding it would determine how we go about interacting with others. Why, though? What is it about a christian’s love that stands apart from the love any human being, believer or not, possesses?
We must look to the Word. Remember, the original text of scripture was not written in English but Hebrew, Greek and some Aramaic from my understanding of study. If anyone speaks more than one language, then you can attest to the fact that some words or phrases just don’t have a perfect counterpart across languages and we have to do the best that we can to get our message across. So it is with the word love.
As I have begun using a lexicon in my personal Bible study, I have come across a few variations of the use of love. They are as follows:
Phileo - brotherly love, friendship, affection, kinship
Eros - romantic, intimacy
Hesed - God’s loyalty to His covenant
Agape - sacrificial and total; the form of love used in reference to the love of Christ
Agape is the specific form of love used in the verses above that we’ll dive into today. It is different. It is a deeper kind of love. This one is not a feeling. It does not fluctuate or lend itself as only responsive action, though it can certainly serve as an appropriate response to God’s love for us. Ultimately, Agape is the initiative! It is a choice independent of another’s behavior. This is the kind of love that moves Jesus, and his children housing the Holy Spirit, to love the unlovable, like the unlikable, to willingly forgive in spite of pain. This is a supernatural power!
It’s so easy to misuse the word “love” isn’t it? It is imperative for us as believers to recognize that the love of Jesus surpasses human emotion. It is among the most powerful tools that the Lord gifts us with in order to bring glory to Himself and reclaim union with mankind. It is the very power that makes blind see, lame walk and hardened hearts to soften. It is what changes us! Jesus’ compassion toward us comes from a heart of AGAPE. His love brings a peace that “transcends all understanding” (Phil 4:7) Phileo and Eros are easily derived out of human emotion. While they are still important, any man or woman can conjure up the love of friendship and romance. Nonbelievers experience that love often and can do so well. This detail in translation is the line in the sand that distinguishes between the vain effort of man with the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Agape is love that is not conjured out of a natural heart but a redeemed one!!! Agape is Jesus love! To be welcomed into sharing such a love for the Lord and a love for each other, to have the ability for compassion is solely by the indescribable, astronomical grace of the Almighty Father! You are so loved! You are cherished. You have been given a great and unearned gift in your ability to agape love and a tremendous POWER to move and sway unbelieving hearts to Jesus by it! We must never take this for granted.