Agape Love

In the Bible, there are several kinds of love.  I once heard a description of agape love that really stuck with me.  Agape love is deciding to give of ourselves for the good of the other person and expecting nothing in return.

This is definitely something that is missing in lots of marriages today.  This is one of the things the Love Dare is all about.  Putting this kind of love into practice has put many Christian counselors into business!  But this is also missing in friendships and how we treat other Christians.  It's not one of those character traits we can choose to ignore.

It's a decision, not an emotion.  You don't have warm fuzzy feelings about your enemy, but we're told to love them.  Matthew 5:43-44, 46 - Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you... For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?  Just like we're told to love our neighbors.  Sometimes our neighbors aren't the nicest people. Matthew 19:19b - Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  Romans 13:10 - Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

This is the love we should have for all Christians. John 13:34-35 - A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.  I Peter 2:17 - Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

We should be willing to go the distance.  John 15:12-13, 17 - This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends... These things I command you, that ye love one another.  We will get out of our comfort zone and help one another out and serve one another. Galatians 5:13 - For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.  1 John 3:16-18 - Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

This is how a husband is supposed to love his wife.  You can read the whole chapter, but the verses specifically on this are Ephesians 5:25, 28, 33 - Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it... So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself... Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.  Colossians 3:19 - Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

Agape  love is how God loves us and how we are to love Him.  These verses sum it up better than I can.  1 John 4:7-12, 16-21 - Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us... And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, perhaps we should focus more on developing agape love in our lives rather than on the chocolate and roses aspect of it all.