Understanding Agape Love
by Ann Doupont“Agape” is a Greek word, pronounced ag-ah’-pay, which means “love, affection, or benevolence.” It is known in many Christian circles as “God’s unconditional love.” It is said that God’s love is unconditional, but His promises are not. The promises have conditions to be met in order for them to be fulfilled. God’s love, however, has no conditions. He will love His people no matter what they do. Nothing can stop God from loving people, because God is love. (See 1 John 4:8.) Love is His character. It is who He is. What He does is borne out of who He is. 1 Corinthians 13 is commonly called, “the love chapter,” because of its list of 16 characteristics of love shown there, starting with verse 4 and concluding with verse 8.1 John 4:7 through to the end of the chapter and into chapter 5, also speaks of God’s love. We love God because he first loved us. He is the One who initiates this love. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). How can we then not make a decision to live for Him? Some have said that they are willing to die for Jesus. Not all are called to do this. It is perhaps more difficult to live for Him than it would be to die for Him. We are all called to do this – to live for Jesus. We are called by God to die daily to our own desires in lieu of His. At Gethsemane, Jesus prayed, “Not my will, but Thine, be done.” He knew what was ahead. He understood how hard it would be for Him to face what would be coming soon. We are to consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest we grow weary and give up. (See Hebrews 12:3.) In order to love others, we have to have first forgiven them. It is impossible to love someone when there is bitterness toward him or her. In examining our hearts before the Lord, we can ask Him to show us if we have anything against anyone. If so, we need to forgive them and ask God to give us love for them. Knowing that our battles in this life are not with flesh and blood (not with people), but with an invisible realm we cannot see; we are then able to understand that people are not our problem. We can then love them from our hearts. The greatest commandments of all in these New Testament times in which we are living are to love the Lord thy God with all our heart, with all our soul, with our entire mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. (See Matthew 22:37-40.) Some people do not love themselves unconditionally. It is therefore extremely difficult, if at all possible, to love others as themselves. We need to forgive ourselves for all we have done, as well as having also forgiven others. It is then that we are free to love others, as God would have us love them. In evaluation of the verses in the “love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13, seven of the characteristics of love found there are things that we are to do. The other nine of the 16 characteristics tell us what not to do. To list them is to help us evaluate our own “love walk” to see areas we might need improvement. I found it interesting to note which one comes first. It is that “love is patient.” Here is a simple list of these 16 characteristics of love, starting with what loves does, and then following with what love does not do: Love is patient. Love is kind. Love rejoices with the truth. Love always protects. Love always trusts. Love always hopes. Love always perseveres. Love does not envy. Love does not boast. Love is not proud. Love is not rude. Love is not self-seeking. Love is not easily angered. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil. Love never fails. It is especially good to see that God’s love never (that means, not ever) fails. When we truly love God and people with this kind of love, we cannot fail. What we sow into other people’s lives will eventually return to us, as what we sow, we will reap. (See Galatians 6:7.) It may take some time for things to turn around in our lives if we have been living in an unloving manner for years, but eventually love from others will flow back into our lives if we continue loving others from our hearts. In Matthew 24, which is one of the accounts of the end times, we find that the love of many will wax cold because of the increase of iniquity. We are seeing this happen already. People who once were very loving, and giving, people are no more. Things in their lives got so rough for them, that they gave up trying. I have determined in my heart not to let this happen to me, and so can others choose this path. This chapter of the Bible also speaks of men’s hearts failing them for the fear of what is coming on the earth. The good news, however, found in 1 John 4:18 is that perfect love casts out fear. The key, then, to walking in love is to check ourselves on a regular basis to be sure we have not fallen into bitterness or fear, which are love destroyers. An old song went like this: “What the world needs now is love sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.” I believe that this is still true today. Let us dare to be different and really love one another from our hearts. They will know that we are His disciples by our love (John 13:35). Ann Doupont
Boise4Jesus@Yahoo.com Author of two Christian Inspirational Books: Surrendered, ISBN #1-4141-0278X Irons in the Fire, ISBN #1-59330-371-8 | 