The primary word used in the New Testament translated love is the word agape. It is a love that is selfless and unconditional. It is an action.
Agape is:
A Learned Love
A Choice to Love
A Non-Discriminatory Love
An Unconditional Love
A Respecting Love
A Building-Up Love
An In-Spite of Love
A Never-Failing Love
In Scripture we are commanded to love this way.
1 Thessalonians 4:9
But we don’t need to write to you about the importance of loving each other, for God Himself has taught you to love one another.
So, who are we to love?
According to Matthew 22:37 we are to love God.
According to Matthew 22:39 we are to love our neighbor.
According to John 13:34 we are to love one another.
According to Matthew 5:46 we are to love those who don’t love us.
According to Matthew 5:43-44 we are to love our enemies.
So how are we to love?
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 gives us a description of what agape love is and in so doing reveals to us how we are to love. This passages give us 16 ways that agape love will show itself in our lives. I am going to use The Message’s version of these ways because I believe they give us a clearer picture of what agape really looks like.
Love:
Never gives up
Cares more about others than for self
Doesn’t want what it doesn’t have
Doesn’t strut
Doesn’t have a swelled head
Isn’t always “me first”
Doesn’t fly off the handle
Doesn’t keep a score of the sins of others
Doesn’t revel when others grovel
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth
Puts up with anything
Trusts God always
Always looks for the best
Never looks back
Keeps going to the end
As I read these ways of loving, two things occurred to me.
The first was a question: Is this how I love?
And I had to admit it wasn’t.
This is not the way I have loved God.
This is not the way I have loved my wife.
This is not the way I have loved my children.
This is not the way I have loved my faith family.
This is not the way I have loved those who don’t love me.
This is certainly not the way I have loved my enemies.
But then a second truth occurred to me.
This is the way that Jesus loves.
This is the way that Jesus loves me.
So agape love is the way that Jesus loves. If I belong to Jesus, if I have surrendered my life to Jesus, then according to Galatians 2:20 Jesus lives in me and it is not my life, but His life. That means that by letting Jesus fully indwell and control me I can love like this.
That truth gives me hope.
I don’t have to try and love this way. I can submit my life to Jesus. I can allow the Holy Spirit to fill me with Jesus and I can then have the ability to love like Jesus loves.
When that happens, some really cool results occur.
Agape love builds up.
1 Corinthians 8:1
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up.
Agape love fulfills the law.
Romans 13:10
Love doesn’t do anything wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is what fulfills the Law.
Agape love shows the world we belong to Jesus.
John 13:35
If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples.
In 1 Corinthians 16:14 Paul says, “And do everything in love.”
I don’t know about you, but I am totally incapable of following that command. I can’t do everything in love.
But Jesus did. Everything Jesus did and said was motivated by love.
So I, in my own natural abilities, am incapable of doing everything in love. I can fulfill this command if I apply the truth of Romans 5:5. It says, “We’re not ashamed to have this confidence, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is loving like Jesus loved.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about being empowered by the Holy Spirit with agape love.
The way Jesus loves is the way we are commanded to love.
The way we do that is by surrendering our lives to Jesus and letting the Holy Spirit fill us with agape love.
What the world needs now is not love like the world defines and practices it. What the world needs now is God’s love, agape love.
As followers of Jesus we are the Body of Christ. We are to love like Jesus loves.
With Agape Love Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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