Agape: Perfected in Love - Charles Newbold

Posted : 12 Nov, 2011 07:20 PM

Agape

Perfected in Love



Once seen, it becomes clear that all things of the Kingdom of God are summed up into this one thing�love, but not just any kind of love. It is the God-kind of love. The God-kind of love is perfect love. 1 John 4:18 reads, �There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.� We are destined to be a living expression of that perfect love; such love as is being perfected in us. The New Testament word for this love is agape (�-g�-pay).





Agape defined



Agape is different from the other kinds of love we express in the English language. We use the one English word �love� for a wide range of experiences and feelings. We say: �I love you.� �I love my cat.� �Let�s make love.� �Don�t you just love that chocolate cake!� The Greek language has four words for the one English word love. They are agape, philos, storge, and eros. Agape and philos are the only two used in the New Testament and, therefore, the only two that pertain to this writing.



Philos (noun); phileo (verb) in Modern Greek means �friendship.� It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity. It is the Greek for affection and is strongly associated with emotions. Philanthropic comes from two compounded Greek words, phileo and anthropos meaning, �love of man.� Philadelphia also comes from two compounded Greek words phila and delphia meaning, �brotherly love.� Philos has its place in the body of Christ, but it is not the same as agape. (The word for �love� as found in Romans 12:10; 1 Corinthians 16:22; 1 Thessalonians 4:9; Titus 2:4; 3:4; and 3:15 is from the Greek, phileo.)



Agape (noun); agapeo (verb) in Modern Greek means "love." We shall see, however, that the New Testament attributes a much deeper significance to it. Agape is translated �charity� in the King James Version of the Bible. In our day, the English word �charity� primarily has to do with the benevolent giving of money and, as such, is an insufficient translation of agape. Paul clearly shows that agape is something other than giving to the poor. In 1 Corinthians 13: 3, he wrote, �And though I feed the poor with all my goods, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love [agape], it profits me nothing.� Agape may give to the poor, but the mere act of giving to the poor is not agape. Human compassion (philos) is good to have as far as the world goes, but it is not the same as agape. Human compassion comes out of who we are. Agape comes out of who God is in us. God is love (agape). 1 John 4:8. Human compassion may cost us time and money, but agape may cost us our lives. It is what results when one is dead to self; when we realize we now belong to Jesus.



Other versions of the New Testament use �love� to translate agape.





Unconditional agape



Agape has generally been defined as �unconditional love.� Conditional love says, �I will love you if you do�such and such.� �I will love you because we are blood kin, but�� �I love you because you are loveable.� �I love you because you have given so much to me.�



Jesus told His followers in Matthew 5:46, �For if you love (agape) them who love (agape) you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the same?� He never put a condition on His love for people. He just exercised agape toward people.



�Unconditional� is a good definition for agape as far as it goes, but it doesn�t seem to fully define it. The English word love has been so weakened by the world�s use of it that a stronger definition is demanded to explain this God-kind of love.





Agape defined by Jesus� life



The original Greek idea expressed in the word agape is unknown before the New Testament. It was given particular meaning by its use in the New Testament. Jesus especially defined agape with His own life and death in that He selflessly died for us. �But God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.� Rom. 5:8. Jesus Himself said, �Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.� John 15:13. We cannot miss this aspect of Jesus� sacrifice of His own life, that He would love us that much; and that the Father would love us that much. We can get distracted by the question, �How could God allow His only begotten Son to be so cruelly slaughtered?� The real question should be, �How could He have loved us so?� John 3:16 proclaims that �God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son�.�



Agape, then, in it�s truest sense has to do with sacrificial living. It can be understood as the unconditional surrender of self�the giving up of something for self that is in the best interests of another even unto death. One dictionary defined it as �selfless love.� I would broaden even that to say, �selfless living.�



I interpret philos as either affectionate love or human compassion. I interpret agape as �unconditional, sacrificial love;� and henceforth, when I use the word agape in this writing, I mean to apply this definition. Agape is already a recognized English dictionary word, and I have taken the liberty to use it as an English verb (e.g.; agapes, agaped). I use agape instead of love in order to communicate the real meaning of the word.



Agape stands in stark contrast to affectionate love. Philos (affectionate love) has self-gratification as its reward. It brings pleasure to the one expressing the love. So, that one loves expecting to be loved. Or one loves to enjoy the pleasure of loving. If ever philos ceases to satisfy, one feels like one doesn�t love that person or thing any more. Philos can be fickle. Agape is purely selfless. It is by nature giving.



Agape is not based on feeling as we often think of love. I �feel� loving or �feel� loved. We may feel love, but that is not agape. That is soulish, affectionate love. Agape is an action, a decision, a choice to act without regard to self. Agape does not have to have a feeling to act. In fact, agape may require an action that runs contrary to our feelings. One may be challenged to express agape toward an unlovable person over a lifetime. The more difficult it is to love an unlovable and hateful person makes for the greater agape.



On the other hand, feelings may very legitimately accompany agape. Look at how 1 Peter 1:22 incorporates both phileo and agapeo. It reads, �Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto sincere love of the brethren (philos), see that you love (agape) one another with a pure heart fervently.� Interpreted, this could read, Now that you have affection toward one another see to it that you are willing to lay down your lives for one another. The Bible says that God is agape. I firmly believe that God has profound affection and compassion (philos) toward us as well.



Agape is at the heart of being a servant. In Matthew 20:25-27 (NIV), �Jesus called them together and said, �You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.�� True servanthood is embedded in agape�doing for others without expecting recognition or anything in return.



Agape often means that we have to set boundaries. Just because we lay down our lives for what is in the best interests of another does not make us doormats. That is why I add to my expanded definition of agape, �that is in the best interests of another.� We are not to do whatever another person demands of us. We are to obey the Holy Spirit who determines what is in the other person�s best interests and we do that. Some agape actions fall into the category of tough love, doing what is right regardless of how it feels.



Strangely enough, we can even sacrificially love the world. John exhorted us not to love the world or the things in the world. 1 John 2:15. The word for love used in this verse is agape. We can surrender our lives to the world or to God. We cannot do both. We will sacrifice our lives to one or the other. The world�s way will never be God�s way, and God�s way will never be the world�s way. These are at war with each other. An interpretation of this verse could just as well read, �Do not sacrifice yourself to the world, nor to the things in the world.� Romans 6:13 and 16 concur, �Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God�Know not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?�





Agape is commanded in scripture



Jesus gave us two commandments. He said, �You shall agape the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, You shall agape your neighbor as yourself.� He continued to assert that all the laws and the prophets hang on these two commandments. Matt. 22:37-40.



Because, if we agape Him, we will keep His commandments. John 14:15 reads, �As the Father has agaped Me, so have I agaped you: continue in My agape. If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My agape; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His agape. These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is My commandment, That you agape one another, as I have agaped you. Greater agape has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.� (Also, John 14:21-24).



Jesus reinforced this in John 13:34 saying, �A new commandment I give unto you, that you agape one another; as I have agaped you, that you also agape one another.�



James 2:8 says, �If you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, �You shall love your neighbor as yourself,� you do well.�



Husbands are commanded to agape (unconditionally, sacrificially love) their wives according to Ephesians 5:25, 28; and Colossians 3:19. Young women are instructed to show phileo (affectionate love) to their husbands and their children according to Titus 2:4.



We are to consider one another to provoke unto agape and good works. Heb. 10:24.





Moreover, we are to even have agape for our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who despitefully use and persecute us. Matt. 5:44. This entire verse further defines agape. There are those who religiously believe in sacrificing themselves as suicide bombers in order to kill others in the name of their religion. This is not agape. Believers in Jesus are to be willing to lay down their lives for the well-being of others. We are never to take our own lives or that of another.





Agape is the fruit of the Spirit



This agape is the first fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22,23. �The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith (faithfulness), meekness, and temperance (self-control): against such there is no law.�



Love (agape) is mentioned first. Perhaps, it is the fruit from which comes all the other fruit of the Spirit. Without agape there can be no joy. Without agape there can be no peace. Without agape there can be no longsuffering (patience). Without agape there can be no gentleness, no goodness, no faith, no meekness, and no temperance.



If, however, we are seeking our own lives, we will always be struggling for more�more of everything. We become addicted to more. Without agape we will lose our joy. We will lose our peace. We will lose patience. We will lose gentleness, goodness, faith, (faithfulness), meekness, and temperance. We will be looking for these things in all the wrong places, but they will not be there.



This fruit of the Spirit cannot be legislated. It is simply in us to produce this fruit just as it is in a fig tree to produce figs. The fruit of the Spirit is who we have become, who we are in Christ. When we come into the fullness of His agape, we will also come into the fullness of joy, peace, longsuffering�all of the fruit of the Spirit.





The witness of agape



Jesus said that agape for one another is the way other men will know that we are His disciples. John 13:35. John explained, �Beloved, let us agape one another: for agape is of God; and everyone who agapes is born of God, and knows God. He who does not agape does not know God, for God is agape. In this was manifested the agape of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is agape, not that we agape God, but that He agapes us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so agaped us, we ought also to agape one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we agape one another, God dwells in us and His agape is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.� John 4:17.



Agape not only is the evidence that we are His disciples, but is the thing that draws others to want to come to Jesus. Agape is the most powerful witness of the gospel. People need agape. They are drawn to love and the things that make for life. They are drawn to spirit and truth. Jesus said, �And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.� He was speaking of His death on the cross. John 12:32, 33. His death on the cross was God�s ultimate display of agape. The world must see it displayed in the believers.





Perfect agape



�Perfect love casts out fear.� 1 John 4:18.



What is perfect agape? The Greek word for �perfect� that is used here signifies that which has reached its end: finished, complete, perfect, fully-grown, and mature. Biblical perfection speaks of the fullness we are promised in scripture. Perfect agape, therefore, is full-grown agape.



Paul refines our definition of this perfect agape in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. As you ponder these, bear in mind the definition of agape given in this writing: unconditional, sacrificial love. He writes:



�Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not agape, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.



�And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not agape, I am nothing.



�And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not agape, it profits me nothing.





�Agape suffers long, and is kind.



�Agape envies not.



�Agape vaunts not itself and is not puffed up,



does not behave itself unseemly,



seeks not her own,



is not easily provoked,



thinks no evil,



rejoices not in iniquity,



but rejoices in the truth,



bears all things,



believes all things,



hopes all things,



endures all things.



�Agape never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.



�When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face-to-face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.



�And now abides faith, hope, and agape, these three; but the greatest of these is agape (unconditional, sacrificial love).�



Paul adds in Romans 13:10, �Agape does not work ill to one�s neighbor.� If we are working any wrongdoing toward our neighbor, we are not practicing agape.



He also tells us to forbear one another in agape. Ephesians 4:2.



We are to �owe no man anything, but to agape one another: for he who agapes another has fulfilled the law.� Rom. 13:8.



Agape does not call attention to itself. Agape does not bargain saying, �I will�if you will,� or, �I won�t because you don�t.� How many marriages would be radically healed if husbands really unconditionally, sacrificially loved (agape) their wives as Christ agaped His Bride? How many families would hold together if each member were willing to unconditionally, sacrificially love (agape) one another? How many neighbor relations would be restored? How many armies could lay down their arms? The world would be a totally different place. The good news is that the world will be a totally different place when agape is ultimately perfected in His people.



Agape must stand in the place where self-importance once stood. John, the Baptist declared, �I must decrease that He might increase.� John 3:30. As the Lord Jesus is increased in us, so will His love because He is love. I know a man who prays, �Lord, reduce me to love.� He adds, �If we are walking in the cross, washed in the blood, and filled with the Holy Spirit, we will be reduced to His love.�





The nature of God in us



God is agape. It is His nature and not just something He demonstrates when He feels like it. Agape flows out of who God is. Agape cannot help but give. It must be expressed, and the expression of agape is to give without any thought of getting anything in return. It must be received before it can find satisfaction; and the expression of it must be returned before it can find fulfillment. God�s agape has mankind as it intended target.



Once we receive God�s life through His Son, Jesus Christ, we take on God�s nature. As He is agape, so are we. It is not just what we do. It flows out of who we have become (or who we are becoming). Once we become agape we are bound by its very nature to express it.



Our first natural response is to agape God as He has agaped us. We agape God because He first agaped us.



Our second natural response is to agape others. Why? Because we have become agape! It is the nature and character of who we now are. 1 John 4:20 reasons, �If a man says, �I love God� and hates his brother, he is a liar.� Agape is not selective. If that which you think you have that you call love is manifested toward one and not to all, it is not agape. The preferential love we feel for family and others is different



Perhaps agape has not been perfected in us as it will be, but this principle stands. If you agape God because you have become agape by receiving Him, you become this unconditional, sacrificial loving person. But you say, I love God and I know I don�t love certain other people, as I know I should. I ask, �Do you want to love them?� "Is it in your heart to love them?� God looks upon the heart. God is the one who forms Christ in us. Therefore, we approach this in faith, looking to the finished work of God in Christ in us





Agape being perfected



This agape is being perfected in us. It has to be. God has promised it to Himself. Jesus told His followers, �Be therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect.� Matt. 5:48. This verse is in the context of agape. Perfection in Jesus has everything to do with agape and it seems to be achievable in this lifetime. Why else would He command it?



Perfect agape is clearly made known throughout the New Testament. When the perfect comes, we will all be like Jesus. When we see Jesus we will be the embodiment of agape. We will see, experience, and become the very agape of God Himself. His agape will have been made perfect, mature, complete, full within us. All that is righteous and good and kind and mysterious and powerful and gracious and awesome will culminate in perfect agape. When we get to the place where we can agape as Jesus agaped�and we will�agape will have been perfected in us.





We are encouraged to know that this agape is already in us. It is in our DNA (Divine Nature Attribute). 1 John 2:5 reads, �But whoever keeps His word, in him the agape of God has truly been perfected.� Agape, as we see here, is a �has been.� It has been perfected in us. We are becoming what we already are�what has been divinely attributed in us. We don�t have to wait. We can act now on who we already are.



Jesus, of course, is at the very center of this all. He is the fullness of agape perfected in us. It is in Him that we will come into this fullness of who He is.





The sum of the matter



�Now the end of the commandment is agape out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of sincere faith.� 1 Tim. 1:5.



In Ephesians 4:11-16, Paul says that the ascended Lord Jesus Christ gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. He gave them to perfect the saints to do the work of service for the building up of the body in Christ. These ministries are given until we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. When we come into the fullness of Christ, we will no longer be children�but speaking the truth in agape, we may grow up into Christ in all things, who is the head. Yet, with all of this, it still is not the sum of the matter. Paul continued to write that it is from this place of maturity that the whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, making increase of the body unto the building up of itself in agape.



This entire passage funnels into that final word, agape; thus making agape the summation of all into which God is bringing us. We are being conformed into His image. God is agape.



The Holy Spirit is in the process of perfecting this agape in us. The world cannot love this way, but the world cries out to see this love through us.



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