Pointing to Jesus

There is a love that is talked about in the Bible – it’s a Greek word for love called Agape love. Agape love is a love that comes from God and is the highest and purest form of love. It is the type of love talked about most in the Bible with over 100 mentions. It is the type of love mentioned in I Corinthians 13– the Love Chapter. It’s the description of love talked about in Romans 5:8 and John 3:16 when talking about Jesus’s death on the cross for us. It’s the type of love in Galations 5:22–23, where the fruit of the Spirit is listed. It is selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love. It’s other centered. It’s the way that God loves us.

This is the way we are to love God (the greatest commandment) and love others (the second greatest commandment) in Matthew 22:36–40. It’s wanting the best for others at all times no matter what – in spite of how they treat us. It’s the type of love mentioned in Matthew 5:43–44 and Luke 6:27, where it says to love our enemies. It is not a feeling. It’s action, and it’s a choice-an act of our will. It’s loving without expecting anything in return.

John, the beloved disciple, talks a lot about agape love in the books that he wrote-John, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. In John 13:35–34–35, Jesus, when talking to His disciples, commanded them to love (agape) one another and goes on to say that people would know they were His disciples by their agape love for one another. This goes for us as well. We are to love others this way because it’s the way God loves us. God, through the Holy Spirit, is the only One who can help us to show this love to others, and it comes from loving Him. I read a quote that said, “We love others best when we love God most.”

God’s love and the way He loves is perfect, and we are not, but we should strive and pray to love Him and others this way.

We can measure how well we (agape) love by the attributes listed in I Corinthians 13:1-8a-

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or clanging symbol. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all that I have and give my body up to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong doing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”

May we all aspire to love this way, not only the people who are easy to love, but also those who are difficult to love.

Many blessings,

Desiree