BY THIS

Don’t limit the word, “love.”

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John 13:35 – By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

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Let’s come straight to the point.  The love the world understands, and most often the love about which it talks, writes, sings, and publishes is nothing more than a combination of emotions and lust.  You can name all the so-called “exceptions” to what I just wrote that you can, yet the proof that what I have said lingers in day-to-day living across our globe through the millennia of man’s existence on this earth.  ONLY the love of God can convey one to the level of love needed to display a life that witnesses to the life of God in a man/woman.

The word “love,” in our Text for Today is the Greek word “agape.”  We know this as “the God kind of love.”  And since we know God is love (agape), then we could say we know “agape” as God.  That is the love of which I write today.  There is nothing emotional about it, though emotion can certainly spring from it.  And there is CERTAINLY NO lust connected to agape in any way.  The agape love of Scripture is the highest quality of love that exists, and is based purely on the character of the originator of that love, He being Jehovah God.  It is not “phileo” love, based on a growing relationship, but also a love that can be damaged, and even ultimately destroyed.  Yes, we grow in our relationship with Father, but He does not grow in His relationship to us; He is never changing.  It is not “storge” love, or affection based on the benefits received from the object loved.  For example, we love chocolate ice cream until we gain ten pounds.  We love puppies until the chew up your favorite shoes.  You love a fellow worker until he puts you down to make you look bad so he can look good and get the promotion.  And it is certainly not “eros,” a relationship we try to call love, but it means nothing more nor less that “sex.”

AGAPE is both noun and action.  The “noun” of AGAPE is the person of our God.  So, it is a proper noun, a living being, Jehovah God, manifest in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.  And when one is born again, one becomes one with AGAPE, as Jesus is the head of the body (AGAPE) and we are the body.  Think of it this way.  What is your last name.  If your head is recognized by your last name, so is your body.  You don’t have two different last names.  If our Head (Jesus) is AGAPE, then so are we.  And AGAPE as a verb is action; pure, undefiled, perfect action.  It is keeping His commandments.  And that means being a doer of the Word in public and in private, at home and at work, engaging is serious matters or simply relaxing, towards all people at all times.  No, we’re not perfect, yet, but that doesn’t change the standard.  It is BY THISthat all men will know that we are His disciples.  

Manna for Today – John 13:31-35; John 3:16; John 14;15-17; 1 John 5:3; Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30

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