‘Behold, the Lamb of God’
ide
o amnos tou theou
College Study
40th teaching
6.10.2013
“God’s Love: Divine Agape”
Introductions.
Project
Scriptura:
Announce next week’s topic (God’s Jealousy),
challenge each person to find ONE Bible verse about this attribute of God to
share next week, you may use any resource as long as you find just one verse.
Review:
Last week, we continued our on-going series on
God’s Love. The week before, we examined characteristics of God’s Love. What
was our specific approach this past week? What were the Greek names of the four
loves we studied? What is Xenia? What is Storge? What is Phileo? What is Eros?
What do these human loves tell us in reflection upon God’s own Love?
End Review
Tonight we come to the heart of the matter. In our
study of God’s Love, we have seen how the Divine loves in ways like xenia and
storge and phileo and eros, but the clearest and best definition of God’s Love,
the word which is closest to the actual reality of His Love is the topic before
us tonight: the Greek word Agape.
Our study tonight is entitled: “God’s Love: Divine Agape”.
As the guest speaker said this past Sunday, if there is one
truth to be grasped it is this: know that the Lord loves you. Of all the
fundamental truths of the Christian life, this is at the center. Here is the
heart of the matter, the heart of the Christian life and the heart of the
Eternal Love Himself.
Time Magazine
once described John 3:16 as “one of
the most famous and well-known Bible verses. It has been called the ‘Gospel in
a nutshell’ because it is considered a summary of the central doctrines of
Christianity”. And certainly, we know from our own experience of American
culture that John 3:16 is easily the
most recognized and the most quoted Bible verse ever. And rightfully so.
If love is the heart of the matter and the heart of God,
then this ought to be the most-remembered verse of Scripture. Yet it seems that
while this is easily the most famous verse of the Bible, it is at the same time
teaching a truth which is so easily forgotten.
Think of how many people, how many Americans, how many
unbelievers and even Christians are crippled, paralyzed because they hold a
concept of God as being upset with them, not wanting anything to do with them,
a great cosmic Kill-joy, a frumpy, grouchy, cranky old man so far removed from
the actual truth described by this ever-famous and oft-quoted verse. The truth
is that while we know the words and can even quote them verbatim, how many
actually act upon them in practical living? How often we envision God as
unloving and unforgiving, cold, distant and always frowning down, when we are
told that God so loved the world.
Let us then turn to this oft-quoted verse, read it for
ourselves. Turn to John 3:1-21.
Apparently, the phrase “so
loved” in Greek not only uses the word agape,
but it uses it in such a way that the language stresses both the intensity of
the love and the manner in which that love is expressed. So it is saying, then,
that God “so loved” the world, passionately, purely, fiercely and intensely
loved the world. And it is also saying that God “so loved” the world in that
His love motivated Him to take action and send His Son as Savior.
In this famous verse, the Greek language stresses both
intensity and action for God’s love. This is not a mere “liking” that God takes
up for the people of the world. This is not some flirtatiousness or
affectionate-tendency on the part of the Divine. This is burning desire for the
good of humanity at its most intense!
Now our word agape
appears multiple times in this passage, in describing not only the love of God
for the world (v.16) but also the love of men for darkness
(in v.19). Interesting that God
loves the world unconditionally, despite the world shaking its fist at him, whilst
men love darkness, despite the hurt and the grief immorality holds for
humanity.
But to learn more of this word agape, let us consider FOUR points tonight:
1.
Agape Defined
2.
Agape Compared
3.
Agape Commanded
4.
Our response
1.
Agape Defined
What is this word? Why is it so well-known, maybe one of
the most well-known Greek words?
In English, agape
simply means love, because of the
limitations of our language. But as we discovered last week, Greek is a very
specific language. And in Greek, agape
has deeper meaning than what our simple English equivalent expresses.
A few facts on agape:
Agape of course
is Greek, but it belonged originally to a kind of Greek known as Koine Greek,
AKA “common” Greek. This was the particular Greek spoken during the Roman period. Koine Greek was also the language of the
Christian New Testament and the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament.
Now while agape
is then a very old word, belonging to “common” Greek, I was surprised to find
that the same, unchanged word agape
is still used in modern-day Greek to mean love. In that area of the world today, you may, if you’re particularly
attractive, hear someone tell you s’agapo
which is how to say I love you in
modern Greek.
While that might not seem that amazing that a word like agape remains unchanged after 2000 plus
years, let’s put it into perspective in our language. Look at an image of the
original text of the epic poem Beowulf.
Believe it or not, this is English, albeit Old English, but English as it was
written and used for this poem as early as the 8th century. So even
if Beowulf is that old, you can see
all the drastic change that the English language has undergone in about 1300
years.
Compare that to the Greek word agape, literally unchanged and spelt the same exact way that it was
over 2000 years ago.
Now agape was a
Greek word, but it was rarely used by Greek writers outside of the New
Testament. While Plato and a few other ancient authors used agape to loosely describe love of a
spouse or family or just simply affection, it was the numerous usages of agape in the New Testament which
provided a new flavor and definition of the word, seeing as how the New
Testament does us this word over 100 times.
Therefore, agape
came to be a Christian-word, a God-word. The apostle writes “God is agape”. The early Church viewed agape as an ideal love, the love that
best described the love of God. It was a love that was unconditional, voluntary
and volitional, selfless, charitable. Indeed, if you read a KJV version, you’ll
see the word charity pop up a lot of
times. That’s a translation of the word agape,
a kind of unselfish and generous love that gives to others, AKA charity.
Agape is known as the “love of the soul”.
Certainly this is the love that best describes God. With
each sin, God’s continued love should deepen in awe in our sight.
Since last week we considered four other Greek words for
love, let us now compare the other loves to this perfect agape love in order to broaden our learning about it:
2.
Agape Compared
First, the word xenia. Recall that xenia
was a cultural and religious word that referred to the custom of Greek
hospitality, specifically the “love” between host and guest.
It seems to me that xenia
love and agape love are hugely
different. Agape is passionate and
intense whereas xenia is merely a
courteous and polite duty to be hospitable. Agape
also is unconditional. There is no meriting it. But xenia on the other hand was a cultural agreement between host and
guest, where the one would provide and the other would not become a burden. The
focus was the meeting of needs. There was not necessarily any interest in the
traveler that became the guest. Agape
on the other hand is a lot more personal, a lot more voluntary and is certainly
not any part of an agreement between two parties: in other words,
unconditional.
Agape, then, best
summarizes God’s love, not xenia.
Doesn’t mean xenia isn’t love. It
simply isn’t the best.
Second, the word storge. This word, you remember, can
mean a kind of natural affection, such as between parent and child, in families
and in friendships. It was C.S. Lewis who identified storge as affection for “good old” such and such, that it is a love
bred by familiarity. The word fondness summarizes storge, “I’m fond of these old couches, they’ve been with me
awhile”.
Not to devalue storge,
but you can see that it nowhere near matches up to agape. You don’t get the idea that storge desires to bless or possess the object being loved, whereas
God loving in an agape way desired to
save our souls and to possess us as His own. And that was not because God was
simply familiar with us, that we were “good old” humanity in need of saving,
but because He passionately and intensely loved. As with xenia, storge is just not
a strong enough word for the love of God. Agape
is.
Also, storge
seems to require the object to be familiar, whereas agape requires nothing of its object, it loves without condition.
Third, the word phileo. Recall that phileo is also known as the “love of the mind” but agape is known as the “love of the
soul”.
While phileo is a
kind of “wishing the best” kind of love, it’s a love that thinks to love, an
almost casual love that is friendly and community-oriented, the love of brotherhood…
though agape contains all these
things, it is a deeper and truer love than just phileo.
Though they share similarities, such as practicality (phileo and agape are interested in accomplishing good for others), the
difference is in their intensity. Our word passion simply does not best
summarize phileo, while it certainly
fits agape like a glove. Phileo is a thought-love, a love that
originates in thinking the better for someone, whereas agape loves the soul, a closer and more central, more intimate love
for an individual.
A good example of the difference between the two is found
towards the end of John’s gospel, 21:15-19.
The words agape
and phileo are used here, with Peter
emphasizing phileo love and Jesus agape love, the man stressing a pragmatic
thought-love, the Savior expressing truer and deeper love of the soul.
While agape and phileo are both loves that take action,
there is still a difference of intensities, with the greater power going to agape. Clearly, God’s love is more like agape than phileo, a more passionate less casually friendly love.
Fourthly and
finally, eros. Eros we remember is a close and intimate love, often times a
sensual love, the love of lovers. Eros
is known as the “love of the body”.
In my opinion, while agape
combines elements from each of the four loves, I think it is the love of eros which is closest to the love of agape. Both eros and agape are
motivating loves. Both eros and agape are passionate and deeply intimate
loves.
However, one difference is that, in the words of C.S.
Lewis, “Eros in all his splendor… may urge to evil as well as good”. Certainly eros as sexual desire has led to many
evils in the world: rape being one of them.
In contrast, no evil can come of pure agape. How could it? How could unconditional love lead to evil?
Even that term unconditional leads to another contrast
between agape and eros. Eros, as we discovered last week, is also known as the love of
beauty. Even in the Platonic sense, it remains a love that appreciates inner
beauty. Therefore, eros loves the
beautiful.
That is not the case with agape. Agape loves
without condition, even without beauty in the object of its loving. That alone
makes it totally unique.
Truly the greatest of the loves is agape, the one that best describes the Divine Love. It takes the
only the best of all the other loves and combines them together, while at the
same time transcending them. Agape is
the heart of the matter, the heart of God, the greatest of the loves. The love
of the soul volunteers itself to love, is purely unselfish and totally
unconditional. It loves the unlovely, the unbeautiful, the ugly. This is really
the love of God.
3.
Agape Commanded
Now that we know what agape
is, here’s what Scripture says about it by way of commandment. As high a
standard as it may seem, agape is the
specific kind of love which we are told to possess.
See Mark 12:28-34.
These are the greatest commandments, the commands to love God and to love our
neighbor. And it is clear from the original text that the way in which we are
to love God and others is with agape
love.
Now, on paper, that’s easy to do with God. He’s perfect
after all, so to love Him without condition is a piece of cake. Whatever
condition or standard you could hold God to you can be sure He already meets
it. He’s the Most High. He’s the best there is.
The real problem comes in loving, in agape-loving you neighbor as yourself. But this is precisely the
goal. This is precisely the standard of Christian living. This is the great
commandment.
And lest we come to think that Mark made that up, that this
is really a minor, isolated teaching, turn to Matthew 5:43-48. This is all over the New Testament.
But how is it to be done? How can an imperfect man or woman
have a perfect love? And this is the point at which many Christians have given
up or thrown in the towel. That need not be the case.
Remember that the fruit of the Spirit is love (Galatians 5:22). The natural,
stress-less by-product of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives is agape. It’s not something that we have
to train to manufacture, that we must plan out or struggle to produce. No
amount of seminars, no amount of classes on the subject can make this love. No
matter how many clear and powerful sermons you sit under, even the very loudest,
the most stirring and heart-felt sermons, can produce this love in you. It is a
product of the Holy Spirit in you.
So what then? Pray for it. So what then? Look for God to
produce it in you. You’ve no doubt heard the oft-used analogy: a tree does not
struggle to produce fruit, rather it does so naturally. So too a Christian need
not sweat out the fruit of love. That would be a fake-love. True agape love comes from the work of the
Holy Spirit. We have only to surrender and submit to His working in us, to allow
Him to work, to make the Producer and not the produce the real focus.
Then we shall have agape.
Then the miracle shall occur in which the perfect love shines through an
imperfect human being. Then the Church shall have this great asset.
The Early Church author, Tertullian, said this: “What marks
us in the eyes of our enemies is our loving kindness. ‘Only look’, they say,
‘look how they love one another’.”
As Christ said in John
13:34-35, “A new commandment I give
to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one
another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for
one another.”
The greatest verification that the world could ever have
that the Church is the real deal, is if and only if we love on another with the
ideal and pure love of God. Just imagine what kind of power the Church would
have if its members had the word agape
emblazoned upon our hearts.
Now while this is the ideal and the standard for love set
before us, just what is our response? It is one thing to set a goal, but
success involves measuring up to that goal. Where then do we stand?
4.
Our response
I was shocked to discover that the very first time the New
Testament uses the word agape is in
reference to our loving God, not in God loving us. The first time it’s used is
in Matthew 24:12, which says
concerning the latter days “And because
lawlessness will abound, the agape of
many will grow cold”.
What’s the obvious implication? That our love can grow
cold. And not only is that an implication, but it is a realization in so many
Christians today.
How are we doing in keeping the greatest commandment? I
think there is great truth to this statement by Charles Spurgeon: “Is it not a
sad thing that after all Christ’s love to us, we should repay it with lukewarm
love to Him?"
The sad case of the majority of Christian and church
experience is that we’re thinking of lunch during the worship of the Lord. When
we should be turning our thoughts and our desire toward the glory of God, we’re
running over that joke we heard earlier, or musing about that tv show we
watched last night, or where wer’re going to go once this whole church thing is
said and done with…. finally.
It seems that we suffer from a chronic disease, that of
misguided affections. When it is the Lord who is the most deserving of our
utter devotion and of whom we are even commanded to love, we instead set our
hearts upon the most menial things. We are like tiny babies satisfied to bang
around pots and pans, totally ignorant to the true pleasures of life. A baby
cannot appreciate great art or music or cinema or romance or the beauty of
nature. And so often, a Christian may throw his or her appreciation and love to
those things which ultimately pale in comparison to God.
Now I realize that I said earlier that agape love cannot be engendered or artificially manufactured. I
cannot preach this loud enough or long enough to make you love God in practicality, in heart and in mind. I can only
encourage. The true manifestation of love again comes through the Holy Spirit
producing it.
But this brings up the question, do we want to love God and
others? We may not often love God or others, but do we even aim to? That’s a
nearer and dearer question that I’d encourage you to work out between God and
your soul on your own time.
Steering back to the idea of us failing to love God as much
as we should, I think there are many reasons for that, many reasons for having
our misguided affections. One reason could possibly be because we love the love
and not the Beloved. We love the blessings and not the Blesser. We love the
gifts and not the Giver. That’s misguided affections.
There is an old sermon by the preacher Paris Reidhead
called Ten Shekels and a Shirt, which
I think is incredible. You can listen to it on youtube, and I’d encourage you
to do so. In it, the preacher brings up the question about whether you consider
God to be an end or a means to an end. In other words, do you worship God and
love Him because He deserves to be worshiped and adored? Or do you do so simply
because you get a good feeling out of it, you feel better about yourself for
it, and you’re promised all sorts of nice things for being what God wants you
to be?
In the sermon he says: “I’m going to say to you dear friend
if you’re out here without Christ, you come to Jesus Christ and serve Him as
long as you live whether you go to Hell at the end of the way because He is
worthy! I say to you Christian friend, you come to the cross and join Him in
union, in death, and enter into all the meaning of death to self in order that
He can have glory. I say to you, dear Christian, if you do not know the
fullness of the Holy Ghost, come and present your body a living sacrifice, and
let Him fill you so that He can have the purpose for His coming fulfilled in
you and get glory through your life. It’s not what you’re going to get out of
God, it’s what He’s going to get out of you.”
Do you see the tremendous difference that brings up? What
is the whole goal of your life? To be happy? Satisfied? Financially secure?
Married? Happy? And do you drag God into all of that and say to Him “I know you
can give me all of these things that I want, so I’ll worship and adore you as a
means to an end so I can get what I want”.
And so you read Matthew
6:33, you read about seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness
but you put your focus on the phrase “and all these things shall be added unto
you” rather than “seeking first the kingdom”. And so the creed on the banner of
the modern Church reads: “all these things shall be added”, rather than
“seeking first the kingdom”.
No, the Great God does not merely exist to sate your
appetite for pleasure. He is there to be worshiped and adored not for the sake
of receiving gifts, but because God is worthy of adoration and total surrender.
Don’t prefer the love to the Beloved. Don’t prefer the gifts to the Giver of
gifts.
How do you think God feels about that? Today, one of the
presents I’d purchased for my wife’s birthday came in the mail. Now how do you
think I would feel if after I gave it to her, she turned out to love it more
than me. I would be crushed. I would feel betrayed by a gift.
If we do not want this, if you do not want to love God, I pray that you would see how deserving He is of
your love. And if you find it in yourself that you have misguided affections,
that though you wish to love God more, you are distracted by other things that
grab your attention, I pray that as the old hymn goes: “the things of earth
would grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace”.
During the Protestant Reformation, one of the basic beliefs
was stored up in the phrase Soli Deo
Gloria. That is Latin for glory to
God alone.
I think it’s time we came back to that, Christians. Love
God for His glory and benefit. Love God because
of His glory. For it all begins with love, the heart of the matter. Then the
world shall know that we’re His, if we love one another and love our God. It’s
hard, impossible really for us. But it is a work of the Holy Spirit to be
submitted to, producing a love that is voluntary, charitable, intense,
unselfish and unconditional, really a supernatural love.
I Peter 4:8,
“Above all, love each other fervently, for love covers a multitude of sins.”
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