We know that the Bible talks about different kinds of love. Phileo (Philadelphia) is the kind of love that Christians should have for each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Then there is agape. The love that we most often associate with God because of verses like John 3:16 where God loved with that self-sacrificing love. (In a note of irony here, when you red on and get to John 3:19 where men loved darkness rather than light...that's right. It's the exact same form of the Greek word for loved used in verse 16. Wrap your mind around that sometime.) Another example is John 14:21. Here was have the word love 3 times and every single time it is the agape form of love.
Another example is Ephesians 5:1-2. Here we see that we are to imitate Christ. How? By loving the same way Christ loved us (both are agape) in that he sacrificed himself for us.
Last one: Romans 5:8. But God demonstrated his love (agape) for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
There are SO many passages that have these words that I couldn't begin to put them all here, but this just a taste. (If you want to look this up more and don't know how to use blueletterbible.com, post a comment and I'll be happy to message you how you can do it.)
What then is the significance to this being the word used in Galatians 5:22? Agape love is a choice. It is not an emotion. It is a sacrificial love that will do anything for the person that this love is being poured out on, even if it means death. That's is a different kind of love than comes naturally for most of us. Now, I would argue that most of us have an agape love toward our spouses. Most of us have an agape love toward our children. Parents? Friends? Neighbors? The jerk who cut you off on the way to work this morning? The jerk who got mad at you for cutting him off when you were just confused because you were going to work a different way than normal? If we are to love as Christ loved (See Eph. 5:1-2 above) then that would be everyone listed here. People we "love" and people we "hate." People who hate us. Why??? Because that's what Christ did for you and for me!
Remember what I said yesterday, "fruit" here is a result of the work on the Spirit in our lives. What it produces though, in concert with all the other aspects that we'll look at, is a love that is sacrificial and that is a choice. (You are going to catch a theme of "choice" as we talk about the Fruit of the Spirit.)
Closing thought: 1 Corinthian 13 (often called the "love" chapter) is so much more significant than I think we realize. Understand this, every single time you see the word "love" in 1 Corinthians 13, it is agape. It is never any other form of the word. It is always talking about a sacrificial love. So, all the gifts and abilities in the world (even tongues) and you are a loud, obnoxious noise if you don't have agape love. Now, if you combine the verses that I've talked about today (John 3:16, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 5:1-2, and John 14:21) with 1 Corinthians 13, you get a different taste for what Paul was getting at. Hopefully you can also see why it is a product of the Spirit's work in our life. This is not a shallow, "convenient" love. It is a love that changes lives. Not just the one who is doing the loving, but the one who is being loved!
Then there is agape. The love that we most often associate with God because of verses like John 3:16 where God loved with that self-sacrificing love. (In a note of irony here, when you red on and get to John 3:19 where men loved darkness rather than light...that's right. It's the exact same form of the Greek word for loved used in verse 16. Wrap your mind around that sometime.) Another example is John 14:21. Here was have the word love 3 times and every single time it is the agape form of love.
Another example is Ephesians 5:1-2. Here we see that we are to imitate Christ. How? By loving the same way Christ loved us (both are agape) in that he sacrificed himself for us.
Last one: Romans 5:8. But God demonstrated his love (agape) for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
There are SO many passages that have these words that I couldn't begin to put them all here, but this just a taste. (If you want to look this up more and don't know how to use blueletterbible.com, post a comment and I'll be happy to message you how you can do it.)
What then is the significance to this being the word used in Galatians 5:22? Agape love is a choice. It is not an emotion. It is a sacrificial love that will do anything for the person that this love is being poured out on, even if it means death. That's is a different kind of love than comes naturally for most of us. Now, I would argue that most of us have an agape love toward our spouses. Most of us have an agape love toward our children. Parents? Friends? Neighbors? The jerk who cut you off on the way to work this morning? The jerk who got mad at you for cutting him off when you were just confused because you were going to work a different way than normal? If we are to love as Christ loved (See Eph. 5:1-2 above) then that would be everyone listed here. People we "love" and people we "hate." People who hate us. Why??? Because that's what Christ did for you and for me!
Remember what I said yesterday, "fruit" here is a result of the work on the Spirit in our lives. What it produces though, in concert with all the other aspects that we'll look at, is a love that is sacrificial and that is a choice. (You are going to catch a theme of "choice" as we talk about the Fruit of the Spirit.)
Closing thought: 1 Corinthian 13 (often called the "love" chapter) is so much more significant than I think we realize. Understand this, every single time you see the word "love" in 1 Corinthians 13, it is agape. It is never any other form of the word. It is always talking about a sacrificial love. So, all the gifts and abilities in the world (even tongues) and you are a loud, obnoxious noise if you don't have agape love. Now, if you combine the verses that I've talked about today (John 3:16, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 5:1-2, and John 14:21) with 1 Corinthians 13, you get a different taste for what Paul was getting at. Hopefully you can also see why it is a product of the Spirit's work in our life. This is not a shallow, "convenient" love. It is a love that changes lives. Not just the one who is doing the loving, but the one who is being loved!
No comments:
Post a Comment