Love in Action

 God is love. God is "agape." Agape is different than "eros," which is most often the definition of love that the world offers and understands. Every song on the radio is about this kind of love.  "Eros," is physical, sexual, emotional. Agape is also different than, "phileo," which is the word for brotherly love, like the love we have for our family and friend relationships. 

Agape is different and holds a different strength, power and motivation. It's the word used to define God's love in 1 John 4:7-21. I've been caught by this section for a few weeks now. Agape is a love that transforms us to our very core to look and act like God, Himself. It's a love so powerful that it actually changes us and changes our perception of God, ourselves and others. Agape love brings the awareness of how holy God is, my sin nature in comparison and how incredible it is that God sent Jesus for us - it's self-sacrificing for the sake of another (See 1 John 4:10). 

1 John 2:5 says, "but whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love (agape) of God is perfected." There's a moment, a point in our relationship with God when His love for us can be perfected, or completed. Further ahead in 1 John 2, John says that he's not about to state a new truth from God, but he's reminding his hearers of an old commandment..."Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. (vs 9)" BROTHER. This isn't talking about a sibling relationship, though obviously Jesus talked much about family in the gospels and we are to love our family, too. But John here is talking about love expressed in community with fellow believers. Agape love, self-sacrificing love. This love can't be practiced in isolation from the community of God. God's love is perfected in us when we love one another. He is not merely interested in loving individuals; He is interested in creating community, a family of faith through His love. God's perfect love in us comes to fruition when we love one another as we are loved. 

The transformative effect of agape is in 1 John 4:18.  "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."  Agape love destroys fear. Fear cannot exist in Agape. Fear of what? Judgement, wrath, punishment, condemnation, fear of a righteous God against our unrighteousness, etc. Agape purges fear from the believer, also fear of others, which can lead us to isolate and protect ourselves from vulnerability.  Agape love removes this weight of fear and anxiety. This is what God does for us, what He accomplished for us through Jesus on the cross... a fear-less, faith-filled life in the goodness of God and His great love for us. 

John tells us in chapter 4 that the proof of living a life filled with God's perfect love, a fear-less, faith-filled life is found in loving others. Without this proof, John says we do not love God (1 John 4:20). We cannot love God and hate our brothers and sisters in Christ. Love must exist in community with one another. The proof of God's love in us comes our from our hearts poured out onto the object - one another. Our love for one another models God's love for us. This cannot be practiced outside of community. God's agape for us cannot be perfected outside of the family of faith. 

People are leaving the church. I've seen people leaving because they've chosen a false gospel. I've seen people leaving because they've felt condemned or judged. I've seen people leaving because they disagree with this or that and it's easier to stay away than it is to put up with the family of faith. The church needs a greater equipping in our understanding of how to love each other. If it doesn't look like God's self-sacrificing love expressed through Jesus, then it isn't love - and to an outsider looking in, who would want to be a part of that?! I think sometimes the church is waiting for the world to love her first before being the standard and extension of God's agape. But 1 John 4 says that we love BECAUSE He first loved us...Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another with a transformational, self-sacrificing, fear abolishing agape so fierce that we really are that city on a hill that Jesus talked about, a beacon, a refuge for the lost. 

I'm praying for God to increase this in my heart, that I would be one that loves well like He loves me. That I would lay down my life for others, to sacrifice my comfort of convenience so that I can better help build up the family of faith. Worship begins with love-driven obedience.