LOVE SPEAKS…. Please hang with me for a few minutes. I am not writing a theological paper on love, but there are a couple of points I would like to make after the introduction. As most of you know, in the Greek there are basically four words translated as love, all having a different connotation. Over the years many have defined ‘agape’ as the highest form of love, or the best form of love, but I believe it is actually the foundation of all love. Even though the Greeks had these various words for love it would be impossible to confine any situation to just one category. Love is all mixed up and it is likely several of these definitions spill over in various relationships, but in ALL cases the purest expression is founded in Agape. Here is a brief definition of the different types of love in the Greek language. Agápe = sense of true love rather than the attraction suggested by eros. Agape is used in the biblical passage known as the love chapter, It is a sacrificial love. Éros = Passionate love, with sensual desire and longing. Philia = Friendship or affectionate love Storge = Natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring. Almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family. When Paul writes about the fruit of the Spirit, I believe there is only one fruit, and that is ‘agape love’ and the rest of the list constitutes elements of that love. We see that expressed in 1 Corinthians 13 which many label the ‘love chapter’. Agape always considers the benefit to another person and their well being as the motivation for all expression. In every action we take we should be asking ourselves if this action benefits or harms another. In that manner, love speaks. After your child has made a terrible and destructive choice and suffered dire results and devastating loss, LOVE asks if this is the right time for correction and reprimand? Your close friend has lost a child, spouse or parent and LOVE asks if this is the time for embracing or preaching. Someone writes something that is doctrinally incorrect and possibly harmful and LOVE asks if this is the time to be gentle or hard. A close friend or relative are about to take the wrong path and make a wrong decision and LOVE asks if you should risk your relationship to warn and protect. You have been ridiculed, defamed, blamed or embarrassed and LOVE asks what is my appropriate response. Agape love always asks us what is the benefit to the other person and to ourselves? Love always speaks to us and asks us to take a moment and listen. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” The expression of God’s love is defined by timing, motive, relationship, and intended outcome. It requires the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit for the wisdom, knowledge and discernment to properly express agape. Love embraces, comforts, instructs, corrects, admonishes, accompanies, and many other things, but always in season and with benefit.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 22:01:54 +0000
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