Agape

Isn't it interesting how the Greeks had 4 different words meaning love, and how each of them had a slightly different definition?

Today in my quiet time I was reading 1st John.  In chapter 4, there is a whole section devoted to loving one another.   The first section that caught my attention was verses 7-12 where it states:

 "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not have love does not know God, because God is love.  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us,we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."

If you're like me, then you cringe when you hear the phrase "God is love," having heard it used and abused so many time over.  But there it was, right there in the Bible, so I knew it to be true.  I just had to pick up my word study Bible and figure out which word for "love" was being used here.  Here's what I found.

Agape; love .... translated "charity" meaning benevolent love.  Its benevolence, however, is not shown by doing what the person loved desires but what the one who loves deems as needed by the one loved.  


I have therefore found a way to debate people when they say "God is love, He would never do something like that!"  My response would be that God is love, yes, but it's a different kind of love from the mushy-gushy sort.  God loves us with an Agape love, that is that He deems what is best for His children and loves them accordingly.  Sometimes, that means pain, suffering, and good 'ol sanctification.  Take that, Rob Bell!

                               Perhaps that love could come by way of a much needed car
                         Maybe that love could come in the form of a drought
                    Sometimes it'll come by way of a bonus at work
                Or maybe by way of a destructive flood
           
This world we live in is full of backwards thinking people.  The way we see things is, should I dare to say, completely opposite of the way God sees them!  Because of this, we don't have a clue what love really is.

I really can't tell you how thrilled I am and how excited I get whenever God chooses to reveal new and wonderful gems to me.  I can't wait to see what else happens to be in the lesson plans!