WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE? No.3 #243

Good Morning Meetpastordan Readers… I am thrilled to be able to write about this wonderful subject today. I was headed in a different direction theme-wise, but when I got up last night for one of my nocturnal trips across the room, this came flooding into my mind. “Ahh, I thought…I get it”. And it shouldn’t be surprising since I spent Saturday and Sunday at Grace Church in leadership huddles with “love” as the underlying theme both days. But not the example of love we’re used to reading about in novels, or viewing on the Hallmark channel, or the love we hear about around the water cooler at work. No indeed! This is a very special kind of love called “Agape Love.”
Whenever the term “love” is used in the Bible, it is referring to Agape Love. This is self-sacrificial love; this is the love that puts the other person first. This is the love that Jesus demonstrated when he walked on this earth. In fact, He loved everyone who crossed his path, from the lepers, to the prostitute, to the tax collectors, the demon-possessed, and even the men who drove the nails into his hands and feet. He flabbergasted the Pharises, the religious elite of his day, with his choice of associates. They would exclaim, “How can He associate with those people.”
In our culture today, the term “love” has gotten so watered down that it has become virtually meaningless. For instance, we love chocolate; we love our job; we love our dog or cat; we love this movie, or that music, or we love Fridays. Let’s face it folks…sometimes we even loved the Rams! But the love expressed here was a very emotional kind of love that has to do with feelings. So having said that, it should come as no surprise that the first answer out of most people’s mouths when I have the opportunity to ask the question, “How do you know you love him or her?” is, “Well, I just feel it.” (Hmm…What about days when you don’t feel it. Are you then out of love with the other person?)
In the original Greek language of the New Testament, there were four different words used to describe four different levels of love. The first was “Eros”, meaning physical attraction. For instance, you’re in a room and you see someone who really grabs your attention, and you think, “Wow! He or She really looks great! I’ve got to meet that person; I’ve got to get a phone number; I wonder if…etc.etc. The next level of love is “Philia”, which means you’ve invested enough time with this person that you have come to realize that not only is He or She beautiful on the outside, but they have a great personality and also a brain. In fact, there is something about them that challenges or inspires you to be your very best. So now it’s not only about physical attraction, but a respect is developing for who that person is. The next level of love is “Storge” or familiar love. This is the love that parents have for their children, or siblings have for one another. It comes from close association and bonding.
When God created His proudest possession, Man,He created us for a relationship with Himself. Now since God is God, no doubt He knows a thing or two about relationships. He knew that He could not just expect or demand that we love Him. No indeed. In order for a relationship to exist, two people have to make a choice to enter into that relationship. Therefore, we are His proudest creation because He gave us something that no other member of the animal species has. He gave us a brain for rational thinking so we could choose to love Him back. We are told in 1John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us.”
God’s love toward us is pure. It is unconditional, unending and unfailing love. It is Agape Love, meaning it is “other person” focused. But unfortunately, all of that changed in The Garden when Man chose to take the focus off of God and put it on “self.” With the focus on self, love very quickly became about how we feel. If we feel good, if we’re in charge, if we’re exalted in some way, we want as much of that as we can get. Many times that feeling becomes our god. But if something doesn’t feel good, or our dominion is challenged, or our desires are thwarted, those feelings very quickly can become anger, frustration, hatred, jealousy, rejection, depression, spite, coniving, etc. That is why the very essence of love cannot be defined by our changing emotions.
I just described God’s love as unconditional, unending and unfailing. That is best exemplified by His Gift of Grace. When God created us for a relationship, it was not just a here and now relationship, but an eternal relationship with Him in Paradise. But when the focus was shifted from God-centered to self-centered, our sin-nature developed because the door to our heart and soul was open to the Prince of this world, Satan. With him appealing to our self-centered nature, we very quickly became his puppets. We were living life to the fullest as he encouraged us to satisfy our wants and needs. “Go for it! Go for the gusto! You deserve it! Everyone’s doin’ it! You don’t want to be left out, do Ya?” When we were listening to those lies, he had us right in the palm of his hand. He had us separated from God.
The chasm separating God and Man continued to widen as we sunk deeper and deeper into the quagmire of Sin. Remember, God gave Man from the Garden until 2018 years ago to wrestle with this eternal dilemma, and instead of getting better, we kept spiraling downward until we became utterly helpless in our effort. Romans 5:6 succinctly describes our situation: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time to die for us sinners.”
It tells us in Ephesians 1 that long before He created the world, God had a plan for our salvation. His plan was always to provide a Redeemer to do for us what we would prove we were totally incapable of doing through our own effort. In our utterly helpless, pathetic state, our loving Father provided a sacrificial lamb to pay the ransom for our sins. He did this so we could qualify to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This is unconditional, unending, unfailing love at it’s best. Notice He didn’t wait for us to make ourselves worthy and acceptable in His eyes. No indeed! He wanted us and he knew we could never meet His standard of Holiness (perfection) through our own effort. Therefore, He was willing to sacrifice His only Son for OUR salvation. That is Agape Love. That is other-person centered love.
“Wow!” you say. “How can that be? I could never do anything like that.” And you would be right. But God’s plan for our Salvation is perfect. Next week I will write about how that state of unconditional love can be manifested in our lives.
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May God Bless Ya…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)