The Greatest of These

Well, for the last several weeks, as you know, we've been talking about agape. And today we'll conclude that series. Some of you may say thank you, others. I hope we've learned and understood how important agape is to God and how important it is for us to be developing that in our lives.

I think we've, I hope we've all learned a lot about what agape is and what God sees it as, and hopefully that you can even recall some of the scriptures that we've talked about over the time on how it is not an option but a requirement for true Christians to develop that in our lives.

It is the first listed fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is a matter of character. It's what God wants us to do to be built into us. So today we're going to talk a little bit more of that, but in a different line than we have the other times. This will kind of wrap it up for now. But you'll recall that we started this whole series back, oh, maybe a month and a half or so ago. And we talked about Ephesians 4, 15, where Paul talks about truth in love.

And you recall in that verse the word truth is a verb, and so we learned to truth in love, just kind of like we walk in love, but we practice the truth, we do the truth, we live the truth in love, in agape. And so we started off with that, and we're going to conclude there a little bit later on today. But as we've gone through it, we've talked about what agape is by looking at it from the Bible and letting the Bible define it. We've talked about what it means to agape God with all our hearts, minds, and souls, and some of the things that we do to that, remembering, you know, that we do what God prefers over our own preferences.

And we talked about agapeing your neighbor as yourself. Today we're going to look at agape in a way, but I want to go back to love in general and talk about that as we begin this this afternoon. In the Bible, of course, you know the New Testament is written in Koine Greek, and the Koine Greek, almost all linguists say, was the most expressive language ever spoken by mankind. Of course, God is the author of languages, so it's no coincidence and no surprise that at the time the New Testament was being written, that the most expressive language in the history of mankind was being spoken and used in recording the scriptures that we have for us today.

And in the Greek language, they had four primary words that were used for love. In the English language, we have one word for love, and so we see that word over and over and over in the Bible. But if we were of the Greek, if we spoke Greek, we would be seeing different words as we read. The most often, the most frequent word used for love in the New Testament is agape. Out of 300 sometimes, as mentioned, it's 250 of those, or some number around that, are agape.

But the other three types of love are the natural love and relationships that we would develop. Whether we're in the church or not, God created human beings that we would have relationships. God is a God of relationships, and so it's no surprise at all that he would have those relationships built into our emotions and to the way that human beings react to each other. One of those that we've talked about is the Greek word philia, or philio, p-h-i-l-e-o. When it's used as a verb, it's translated in the Bible as love. When it's used as a noun, it's translated in the Bible as friend.

We've all had friends, right? We've developed this affinity and this intimate relationship with another person that we learn to trust. We have this close relationship with, and it's a very good relationship, ordained of God. There's nothing wrong with it. Whether you're in the church or not, people have friends. God created us to have friends. You know, I hope everyone in this congregation sees each other as friends, and if we only know each other right now, eventually we would be come friends. Nothing wrong with that at all.

And you see that in the Bible. You know, you can look in the Scriptures and see friends. We even read a little last time about God looking at us as friends, and we'll get back to that in a little bit. But that word, filio, that's all around us. You know, one thing that we see is that love isn't static, is it? Love grows over time. Filia often grows into more closer relationships. We might have friends, but over time we have a best friend, right? Someone that we trust even more than all our other friends. It doesn't mean we love them less, but they're our best friend. We relate to each other. It's become a very close relationship.

Sometimes between a male and a female, filia will grow into another one of those Greek words for love, eros, right? Many marriages begin as friendships first, and then the attraction grows, and all of a sudden you have male and female friends who find that they are attracted to each other, have fallen in love with each other, and want to spend the rest of their lives together.

A very good, a very good basis for a marriage to really enjoy being with each other, and having to dealt, you know, having to, and having, or seeing that you see eye to eye, enjoy each other's company more and more in time, filia grows. And sometimes it just, sometimes it just stays there. But filia, and love, even in the human form, grows. It rarely is static. Filia can grow into eros. Now, eros itself is not a word that's mentioned in the Bible, but we certainly have that sexual attraction between male and female, as talked about in the Bible. The entire Song of Solomon is about that, you know? In Genesis, God talks about man and woman becoming one flesh. We read in the Psalms about, you know, marveling about the way of a man with his, with his, his fiancée, right? All those things, God built it into it. Those are all right things to do. Those are all right things to have. He made all of human beings to do that because relationships have to be developed. There has to be the, we have to have ties to one another to have our lives be meaningful. I mentioned that filia can grow into eros. Sometimes eros is what comes first, right? We immediately see someone that we're tremendously attracted to, and then over time, filia and something better, better develop because eros can disappear very quickly, can't it? Maybe a year or two down the road, all of a sudden the eros isn't there anymore, and we see marriages that look like they're very, you know, very good at the beginning, and after a year or two, the chemistry dies, but the people just haven't developed that relationship that ties them together. So there has to be a couple of things working in lasting relationships, not just eros. Filia is good. Filia can grow into other things as well. One of the things that filia can grow into is storga. Now storga, S-T-O-R-G-E, in the Bible, that is, that is the family relationships. That's the the instinctive love that we have for family members, parent for child, child for parent, siblings, and other blood relatives. It just happens. It's something that's just natural, and storga is a very valuable thing. God created family. He created man and woman. He created family to come from man and woman, and that love needs to be there. It binds them together. It's a very, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing that God has built in.

Storga itself doesn't appear in the Bible either, but storga we can learn something about it because if we turn back to 2 Timothy 3, we see a form of the word storga that is unique in the way it's it's used because it's not storga, but it's actually the Greek word astorgos. A-S-T-O-R-G-O-S.

And it tells us something about relationships. What can happen to relationships over time if they're not fostered, if they're not nurtured, if things can happen. In 2 Timothy 3, of course, we have Paul talking about the end times. We'll pick it up in verse 1, and I'm going to read down to only verse 3. He says in verse 1, know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.

Men will be lovers of themselves. They'll be lovers of money. They'll be boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, and on and on and on.

In verse 3, the word unloving, the first word there, is the Greek word astorgos.

It literally means without love, without natural affection. Meaning those things that should be automatic in our lives, such as the storg, our relationship, parents love children, children love parents, siblings love each other, that's somewhere along the line that's disappeared. In the last days, we will see those things that should just be naturally and last for our lifetime. All of a sudden, those relationships that should be among the closest that we ever have in our lives disappear.

They end. They become unloving. So, if something is there to break it, break it off. Now, you may think, as we're talking about this, of some of the prophecies, and when it talks about what our lives may be like in the last time, that children will be against parents. That as times go on, they may actually just not like their parents. They may actually turn them in. Parents may despise their children. They may taint them in for whatever it may be. Something we might not have been able to see back in times past, but we can see today with even little things like some of the mandates that are out there that how people just... relationships will just end. If you don't do this, I don't want anything to do with you. Just imagine if we progress it forward what'll happen with if and when. Society comes to the point they don't want to believe anything that God has to say. If you believe in the Word of God, you're marked as old-fashioned, anti-society, haters, you know, racists, bias, people who have bias. Imagine all that thing and then just think of when that natural affection will end that could actually cause families to break apart.

A storgos means that even the natural affection that has always been there that should just be natural and lasts for life, it can end. It can end. Now, maybe some of you have family members who simply have just cut themselves off. They don't want to talk to anyone in the family anymore for whatever reason it might be. I mean, we hear about those things every once in a while. It's kind of a sad thing that something would come between a family that they would just think, I don't want to, I don't ever want to see you again. I don't ever want to hear you of you again, but it's not uncommon anymore. Relationships can end, not usually for a good reason. There's something missing if a relationship ends. And so we learn that, you know, while storga, maybe the relationship that should be there forever, if it can end, so can philia. Philia can end, right? Because we have friends that we may disagree with something, something may happen, and we just don't want to just don't want to deal with it anymore. And so relationship ends. Cut you off of my life, just end that relationship for whatever reason. So we have philia, we have storga, and we know eros, we know eros, that relationship can end. The world is full of divorce. It's rare that you find people that can live, get married in this day and age, and spend the rest of their lives together.

It's not just eros that holds them together. Eros will grow into storga, that that should become a family relationship that adds to it. Storga can become part of, can be built from philia, right? One of the other places that we can find in the Bible, the word storgos appears in Romans 1210.

And again, it's not the word storgos, but it tells us another thing about the love that God built into the human race, whether or not we have God's Holy Spirit, everyone, everyone, you know, has those relationships and experiences that love sometime in their lifetime. In Romans 12 in verse 10, as Paul is talking quite a bit about agape here in Romans 12, and he's talking about the various gifts that God can give us as the church grows together and becomes everything that God wants us to be. In verse 10, he says, Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor giving preference to one another. Be kindly affectionate to one another is actually the Greek word, it's a compound word, phylo, storgos, p-h-i-l-o, s-t-o-r-g-o-s. It's a compound word, just like we have compound words in America. It's a combination of phylo, brotherly love, friend love, right, and family. Shows that philia, people can become so close that they become like family.

The love grows between them so that they actually see each other as family, not just friends, even though they're from different bloodlines and different ancestors. You know, there's a proverb that says there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. We can look at examples in the Bible like David and Jonathan. They were friends. I mean, at first they were acquaintances. They got along well with one another. They became friends. And then we see they became so close they were like brothers looking out for each other. So close that there was that family relationship that developed between them. And so we have, you know, we see that develop in our lives as well.

I know when I was growing up, I had a couple Uncle Mike's, but one of the Uncle Mike's, you know, I learned later on, was not an uncle at all. He was just one of my dad's good friends who really, I just always assumed he was part of the family until I got a little older and understood that because he was just there. He was just as important in the family as any of the other brothers and sisters of my dad or mom, but he was just someone that they grew up with, and they were just family. And you probably have had or seen that in your life as well. So Philo Storgos, you grow from friends into family in some relationships. Where God uses it here in Romans 12 10, he's kind of talking about you and me, right? He's speaking to the church here in Romans 12. The body that he's placed us in, what his will for us is, that we would become Philo Storgos. We would be kindly affectioned with one another. That we would become in that state where he wants us to be family. So we see that even in the church, God has a progression of love. We're going to talk about agape in a minute, but agape is the thing that brings us together. If it wasn't for God's agape for you and me, if it wasn't for our agape to God to be here, do what he says, give up our other life, our former life, and yield to him, likely we would not know each other. Our paths would have never crossed, right? But because of that, we're here, and we become a body. We become, as he says in 1 Peter 2.9, his own special people.

We may start with agape, and we're here, but as we get to know each other, as the family, as the people get to know each other, we progress to friends, the philia builds, and then from the friends, we become family members. God calls us children, children.

So we are joint heirs with each other. We have that spiritual relationship that mirrors some of those friendships and that love that we see in the world, and we see in the world around us, and that are part of all of our lives. That's something that everyone in the world experiences, those three. Agape is the fourth one. We spent a lot of time talking about agape, and there is a form of agape in the world, because you remember agape, at the basis of it, it isn't an attraction to the other person. It isn't that we're just naturally drawn to them.

Agape is a choice. We choose to do something. We choose to serve someone. We choose to fill a need that we see. Whether we know that person or not has nothing to do with prior relationships the way God would look at agape. We have developed a character over time that when we see the need, we do it. We're willing to give of ourselves for the benefit of each other. He's put us in this training ground we've talked about. This is the training ground for us to learn that so that people see agape between us and that we see it with each other, and we take the opportunities to grow that. But over time, you know that those choices that we make turn into friendships. I mean, if we start helping someone, just like if we start praying for someone, you know, we have prayer requests. And from the home office, I know some of you receive those prayer requests every Friday evening. We might look at those and say, well, I don't know that person. But you can pray for that person, right? You can pray for that person. And as you pray for that person, you may not have ever physically met them. But there is that closeness that develops that when you do meet that person, there's already that kinship there. There's already that investment that you've made into them. When you take the time to pray and ask for God's healing, ask for God's guidance, ask for God to watch over them, comfort them, whatever it is, that that already binds us together.

Agape is something that binds us together. It binds you and me together.

Agape is at the basis. Even in our relationship with God, we see that progression. Let's go to John.

John 15.

John 15, verse 13. We talked about this last time if we set a goal. What is the goal that God would have for us having agape for one another? We find it there in verse 13 of John 15. We also see it in 1 John 3, 16. But in John 15, verse 13, it says, greater agape has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends.

Greater love, greater agape has no one than this. This is it. Are you willing to lay down your life for the benefit of your friends? Would you step in and take that bullet?

Now, there are some people in the world who would take that bullet, and they don't have agape.

There are people in the world who do have, they do make some choices to do things in their lives.

And we see the benefit of that in their lives. When God is talking about agape for you and me, it's at a higher level than that. But look at the progression here. If I divert a little bit, and I'll come back to that a little bit later. Greater agape has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. And of course, friends there in verse 13 is the Greek word filio. And then Christ says to the types of disciples that are there with him who have walked with him for three and a half years, who have learned to follow him for three and a half years, that have been loyal to him for three and a half years, He says, You are my friends.

If you do whatever, I command you. Obey me. Follow me. If you do what I say, you know, I call you my friends. We've developed that relationship physically in the case of the disciples in Jesus Christ, spiritually with us, as we learn to follow God and trust Him and see the benefits of His way and see that everything He asks us to do is for our own benefit, and that He really does have our best interests at heart, no matter what comes our way, because it is all about preparing us for what it is that He has in mind for us. You are my friends, filio. If you do whatever, I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I've called you friends. For all things that I heard from my father, I've made known to you. You didn't choose me, Christ says. I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. We talked about agape as a fruit. Romans 5 verse 5 tells us that the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Spirit, agape is poured out in our hearts. First listed fruit.

Fruit doesn't appear fully ripe at the time that we're baptized, but it grows over time, and so agape must grow through the rest of our lives. I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain. That your fruit should remain that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you. And in verse 17, he goes back to agape. These things I command you that you agape one another. Why does he flip from filio to agape? Just a mistake, just a word that's used indiscriminately. Or is God showing us that there are important things at the base of our relationship that needs to be there? I call you friends, he says, and I command you that you agape one another. Well, let me let me let you think about that for a moment. Let's talk about agape because it's different, as I said, between the filio, storga, and eros.

One way is that it's choice. We choose to do, we choose to show someone that love, if I can use that word, that attention, that sacrifice to do what they want, we choose to do it. That's not so much at filio, eros, and storga. There's more emotions that are evolved in that aspect of it, but agape is a choice. We choose to do it. God tells us in verse 16, the agape, it needs to be developed and it needs to remain. It needs to remain. It needs to be there all the time. It can't end. It needs to become part of us. It needs to be the thing that defines us in character. I have called you that you would bear fruit and that that fruit should remain.

So we never get to the point where we say we've developed enough gape. I've done it. I don't have to think about it anymore. Not as long as we're living. It's always something that we do. A word of caution. Agape can die just like the other types of love. Right? In Matthew 24, Christ says, because lawlessness abounds, the agape of many shall wax cold. So what is our job?

Our job, our purpose is remain close to God. Continue to follow Him. Continue to agape and choose to follow Him with all your heart, mind, and soul. Maybe something you don't want to hear, maybe something that you don't want to do. We do it anyway. We do it anyway. Otherwise, we are not agape and God with all our heart, mind, and soul. Living in a age of lawlessness.

We look at the world around us. We know that lawlessness is out there. I made the comment a few weeks ago that not a week goes by. If you listen to the news that you don't hear the word lawlessness, I heard it a few times this week. It's all around us. Lawlessness can come to the church as well. You know, so many times what happens in society can rub off on us a little bit.

And while we're not consciously disobeying God, and not consciously acting against Him, it can creep in ever so, ever so slightly, little bit by little bit by little bit, and all of a sudden we find ourselves doing things that we would have never anticipated ourselves doing before.

When we committed to God, when we were baptized, we told Him, whatever you ask, I'll do. Wherever you want me to go, I'll go. I'll be willing to give up anything that you want me to give up.

I've counted the cost. I've made my determination. I will follow you implicitly.

But then the years go by, and we find ourselves doing things a little less, not being as strict in that, allowing things to come between us and God, compromising a little bit, not recognizing what God says and the word that He has for us, and all of a sudden we can become victims of lawlessness. The law can disappear from us.

And we just start looking at things through our own eyes rather than God's eyes and making mistakes that hopefully, you know, we can repent of when someone brings it to our attention or God brings it to our attention. It's all part of a gape, but it can disappear. It can disappear.

It can disappear. Gape should never disappear. There's never a time that we'll be done with developing the agape that God wants us to do. As long as we're living and breathing, that fruit continues to grow and become more a part of us.

The other thing about agape that's different than Eros, Storga, or Philia, is that God says, you know, agape your enemies. Agape your enemies. Boy, that's a tough one, isn't it?

If someone's my enemy, I don't think of them as a brother or a friend, right? I don't Philia, my enemies. That's not something that comes naturally. I don't think of them as Storga, certainly not Eros. I mean, all those things can become enemies as time goes on, but typically, Eros, Storga, and Philia don't have anything to do with enemies, but God says, this is what you need to grow into, that you would actually love your enemies.

That's a big difference between those four. That shows what God has in mind for us as we develop and as He grows us. In John 16, one chapter over here in John 16, it says, for the Father, I'm going to break, I'll start at verse 26 where the sentence starts, John 16, 26. In that day, you will ask in my name, and I don't say to you that I shall pray the Father for you, for the Father Himself fillias you. It's not the word agape there, the Father Himself fillias you, because you have fillied me. Look at the relationship that is developed.

Started with agape, but I see how you, God sees how you have responded to Jesus Christ. God sees how you have responded to Him. And so that relationship has deepened. It's not one that's at the base level. Now it's progressed. For the Father Himself fillias you, because you have fillied me and have believed that I came forth from God. You believe. You follow. You are learning to agape God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Well, the first great commandment, and you're showing that by how you respond to each other. That you are learning to agape your neighbor as yourself.

The second great commandment. And so fillia, or agape, is one of those base things that we, at the very foundation of who we are to be and who we will remain to be. Another chapter over in John 17.

Verse 26. Here at the end of Christ's prayer, on that last Passover night that He was on earth, He computes His prayer with this. He says, I have declared to them your name, Father, and I will declare it, that the agape with which you agape'd me may be in them, and I in them. That the agape with which you, Father, agape'd me, Christ, may be in them, and I in them. Agape is always there. The agape of God the Father is something that He wants us to develop in ourselves. Something that His Holy Spirit will develop as we yield to Him and as we pay attention and take the opportunities to build that in our lives. The agape with which you loved me may be in them. That's what God's will is. That comes from the Holy Spirit. It's deeper than any of the sacrificial love that we may see in the world around us that's beautiful to see, but a deeper love that God has in mind for us.

Now, I mentioned that those other three types of love, they can build one another, right?

Philia can grow into Eros, Philia can grow into Philios Torgos. Eros should have Philia added to it in order for a relationship to extend beyond just a short period of time. Agape, when it's in any relationship, it always makes whatever relationship better. Ephesians 5.

We can talk about friendships. We can talk about family relationships. When agape is there, those relationships will remain. Relationships in the church, friends should remain. If it doesn't remain, someone's missing agape. Someone's missing agape. In Storga, relationships and family relationships, they should remain. And if we're all in the church and we all are half of God's Holy Spirit and agape is supposed to be growing in us, those relationships will get stronger. And if they end, someone has forgotten the agape. Someone's not practicing agape because if agape is there and we're committed to what God calls us to and the Holy Spirit letting him lead us, those relationships will get stronger. Just like it talks about here in Ephesians 5. We'll pick it up in the marriage relationship, which is the closest relationship humanly that we have to our relationship with God when we're baptized. In Ephesians 5, let me just begin with verse 22, and we'll read down a few verses here. It says, wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.

For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. So they're right off the bat when Paul, under inspiration from God, is writing these things. We see the marriage relationship is a picture of the relationship with Christ and the church. We have that relationship with him. We have that same relationship with our husbands and wives. The husband is the head of the wife. As Christ is head of the church, he is the savior of the body.

Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. In verse 25, God gives husbands a command. Husbands, agape your wives. Agape them.

Eros there? Yes. Storga there? Yes. Even philia there? Yes. But in that relationship, make sure agape is there too. Treat her the way God treats us. Husbands, agape your wives. Just as Christ also agape the church and gave himself for us. We said that Jesus Christ. I mean, look look how he agape'd us. He was willing to give everything up. Be born as a flesh and blood.

Suffer. Die. That you and I might have the opportunity to have our sins forgiven and have eternal life if we agape God with all our heart, minds, and soul and follow those two great commandments that are just a summation of the 10 commandments that God gave back in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. Agape your wife. Just as Christ agape the church and gave himself for us. Why? That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word.

You husbands are the spiritual head of the family. You make sure that you are following God. You make sure your family is following God. Wives, you make sure that you are following your husbands as they follow God. He is committed. He is committed when he takes the marriage vows before God to fulfill that role. Just as wives said that they would follow their husbands, just as you and I did when we were baptized. And we said, we will follow you, Father. Whatever you say, whatever you teach, no matter how difficult it is for us to swallow that about ourselves, we will change. We will allow you to mold us. We will not hold our ideas, our personalities, anything about us so important that we would say, no, we won't do that. You can have us and you can change us and mold us into whoever you want us to be. Thy will be done completely. Verse 27, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. That's what the marriage relationship should be. Both parties working together to become that picture that we have painted for us in Proverbs 31. A wife who isn't just staying at home doing nothing, just scrubbing floors and cooking meals, but a wife who is developing because she has a husband who wants to see her grow.

God didn't call us to become just people who are here. I'm sorry, here that will just be the same 10 years from now as we are today. He didn't call us to become just static people. He called us to be ever-growing. And so in the relationship, the marriage relationship, as we love each other, as we follow what God said, there's that development. You grow together as one. Wife becomes better.

If I can use that word. Husband becomes better and stronger. The two work together. They agree.

What they build together is a beautiful thing to behold when it's done God's way. When agape is at the base. Eros there? Yes. Filia there? Yes. Storga there? Yes. Agape needs to be there as well.

You've heard me say many times, and it's something that one of our pastors way back whenever gave a sermon, it's always stuck with me, in the church. If both people have God's Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit is there, there should never be a time when they cannot come together because if they're both following God, they will recognize and the agape will be there to bring them back together.

If it doesn't happen, the agape is not there in one or the other party. And I've seen that over years. It's there. It's there. What he said is exactly true. It's exactly what God has said here.

Verse 28, so husbands ought to agape their own wives as their own bodies. He who agape's his wife, agape's himself. God never says, arrows in there. That just happens. That's just natural. That's just how he made us. Agape has to be there. Agape needs to be at all of our relationships just as it was and is as God, as Jesus Christ said, Father, as you agape'd me, the agape that you have, I want that to be in them. I want them to have that so that they become one, as you and I become one.

And with that agape that comes from God's Holy Spirit and our using it, then we become what God wants us to become. Then the fruits of the Spirit can flourish. Then the house that God is building is built. Then the family is built all together in one, in unity, in spirit, in faith, in agape, so that when people see us, they realize there's something different about that group of people. What's different about them? You know, agape is proactive. It takes our choice, and we have the choice to say, no, I'm not going to do that. Any one of us can tell God at any time, nope, not going to do that. He'll accept it. He'll also let us see what the end of that will be, as he says in a verse. He'll let us have our own way. Excuse me and see how all that plays out.

Our job is to yield. Our job is to do His will and to learn to agape Him. Same thing in our marriages. We can say, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to. I don't really care what your idea is. Well, you know what? We'll see how that plays out in some of those things as well. Agape is the tie that binds us together.

You know, years ago, those of you who've been in the church for a while will remember a song in the hymnal. It was called, Bless Be the Tie that Binds. Remember that? Remember that hymn? The first answer to that hymn is, Bless Be the Tie that Binds, Our Hearts in Christian Love.

The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above. I wish that song was still in our hymnal, because the words as you go through them talk about agape. They talk about what you and I are building and what should bind us together. Agape has the power to rise above its environment.

It has the power to rise above the disagreements between us. It brings us back together. When agape is there, we are one. Families are one. God's family is one. Agape, in all its forms, need to be there and never and never allowed to just be on the back burner.

Well, let's go over to, I think, is probably the most prominent and complete treatise, if you will, on agape that is in the Bible. We've talked about 1 John 4 and been in there in a number of these other sermons, but let's go to 1 Corinthians 13.

You may have wondered why I haven't ever come to 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul talks about agape in detail and in a way that should rivet us and get our attention as to how important it is to God. And I haven't done that because it is really the capstone of what we're talking about and what God has called us to. Let's begin here in verse 1 Corinthians 13. And let's look at the words that he's saying, what he is really saying, right? Verse 13 verse, or chapter 13 verse 1. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not agape, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

Well, you'll remember in the Corinthian church, one of the things, one of the great spiritual gifts that the Corinthians wanted to have was the gift of tongues. Because back in that day, when God would call someone, they would be able to speak languages. Remember Acts 2?

It certainly and clearly was a miracle that when the disciples went out after they received the Holy Spirit, the people could hear in all the languages. Nothing short of a miracle. That's just kind of what has happened. And as we have been reading through the book of Acts, we see that God used that in other times, too. Peter recognized that Cornelius and his family had received the Holy Spirit because they began speaking in languages. He doesn't do that today. You know, if you ever hear me come up and start speaking to you in a foreign language, you will know, you will know that it's a miracle. Not likely to happen. But, you know, in that day and age, I was like, whoa, we want that because you know what? It'll be evident to everyone that that I have God's Holy Spirit. And so they wanted that. So what is Paul saying here? He's saying, though I speak with the tongues of men, God gives me His Holy Spirit, I can speak in any language that you can imagine. And you understand me in that. In fact, if I speak with the tongues of angels, who knows the language of angels, right? So he's saying he's going to an exaggerated point here. If I speak with these things, if God gives me that I can speak the tongues of men, I can even speak as the angels do. Tremendous gifts from God, just like God has given you and me and everyone in this room gifts that He expects us to use. If He gives us those great gifts, Paul said, but I don't have agape? They're meaningless. They're nothing. That's how important the agape is. He can give us all the spiritual gifts, but if we neglect agape, if we don't have that as our base, if we're not building that, if it's not at the root of our church, our family relationships, our homes, our marriages, boy, we're missing something. We're missing something big, because God, through Paul, said, it's nothing. If you don't have agape, then you wasted your time.

It goes on in verse 2, though I have the gift of prophecy, though I understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains. Look at that faith.

Who among us can do that? Who among us has ever even seen that happen?

Who among us has all knowledge, has all the mysteries that we can explain? All those are gifts from God. He gives them. But He says, if you have the preeminent, if you're the one who's the expert on everything, you know, great, wonderful, use it. But if you haven't developed agape, I'm nothing. I'm nothing. All the gifts were wasted on you. If you don't practice agape, every single one of us, not every single one of us, have the same gifts of God. That's why He put us in a congregation, so that we all work together. And everything we need, I always say, in a congregation is here. We just have to work together and see what all the talents are, so that the bigote becomes complete and can work and grow. But I can have all those gifts, but if I'm not practicing agape, I'm nothing, is what God says. Verse 3, speaking to agape, your neighbor is yourself, though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, I'll offer up my body. Go ahead, light that fire as I'm tied to the stake.

How can you do all that and not have agape? Right? And yet, God says, if I give it all away, if I give my body to be burned, but if I don't have agape, it profits me nothing.

How important is it to God that agape, godly agape, like the Father has for the Son, like He has for us, like the deep spiritual agape that He talks about in the Bible, how important is that to Him? I think we see just how important it is. Just how important it is.

Beginning in verse 4, He talks about what type of things are agape. Agape suffers long.

It's patient. It waits. It waits for God. You know, we live in a society where everything needs to be instant, right? We have a pain, we want to take an aspirin, we want the headache on.

We have an illness, we want to run to a doctor, and we want him to get rid of that pain and that illness quickly. God, we would like Him. Every time we ask for healing, every time we pray to Him, we would love for Him to just answer us instantaneously.

He doesn't do that. He doesn't do it every time. He will, and I believe answer our prayers, but we learn a lot. We learn a lot about God. We learn a lot about faith, and we develop a lot of faith and a lot of commitment to God by simply waiting on Him. Just waiting on Him to do it and developing that faith that I trust you, I believe you, and I know you will do it, and not waver or doubt in that faith. Love suffers long. Talks a little bit about being patient with each other as well. None of us, none of us in this congregation, I hold myself up, that none of us are perfect. We make mistakes. We do things. We can get ourselves caught up in things, and if we are all working together, we draw our attention to that, and hopefully we repent and come back to God. But we don't judge each other. We don't look down on each other. We all, we all sin. We all make mistakes. Love is, we pray that people will repent, as Paul said, and we see from the example in Corinthians when a brother comes back in 2 Corinthians 7, the joy that's there. The joy that's there because God rejoices over us when we come back, when we come back to Him. Love of earth suffers long and is kind. I think everyone, you know, most everyone in this congregation, I would say, I can't think of anyone or any, any time that anyone's been unkind, but I know we all have our moments where we may seem unkind and in stress or whatever else, but agape is, is kind. You know, and if we're ever not kind, I hope we take the time to apologize to each other, or if someone has treated us short, then shortly if I ever do that, that you would come and say, you know, you were kind of, kind of short with me on that one. Don't intend to be, but we all, you know, we all may tend not to be some kind, but at our base, I think we are all kind people. That comes from God, and I've worked with some people over the years who I just, I realize they're just not kind, not anyone in the church, but out in the world, and it's like, you know, always different things. Love is, agape suffers long and is kind. Agape doesn't envy.

You know, it's not looking at around and saying, you know, man, I wish, I wish I had that. You know, the Corinthians were kind of doing that. I wish that I had that gift of tongues. How come that person got that gift of tongues and I didn't? How come that person got this and I didn't? You know, agape doesn't envy. God knows exactly where he wants us to be. God knows exactly what he wants us to do. He has a purpose in mind for all of us, and he's got the path. When we pray to God, direct my steps, or order my steps, and direct my path, we need to realize and be understanding what we're saying to God. We trust you. I know that you're leading us down the right path. I know that you're leading us to eternal life. We will follow you. We will accept what you have to do. Whatever you have for me, I will be content and do that to the best of my ability, yielding to you. Agape doesn't envy. If that's part of us, if we're looking at, I want this and I want that, I should be here, that person shouldn't have that office, or this person should. That's not it. It's God's choice.

Jesus Christ is the head of the church. Jesus Christ will do what he wants done, and we just need to accept it. And as Peter or as Paul says, be content. Be content with what he has led us to.

Love. Agape doesn't envy. Agape doesn't parade itself. It's not running around saying, look what I did, look at all the gifts that God has given me, how wonderful I am, and wanting to make sure everyone knows exactly what they've done. That's not agape. That's pride. Agape doesn't parade itself. Agape is not puffed up. Agape is based in humility. Agape is based in looking and esteeming everyone else more highly than you esteem yourself, as it says in the Bible.

Agape is looking at people and being willing to serve them no matter what state you might think they are in. Whether you think of them, well, no matter how you think of them, there is no partiality, there is no bias, that everyone is equal in your sight just as they are in Christ's sight. Love doesn't—you know, agape, verse 5, doesn't behave rudely.

You know, they're not looking at someone and show their disdain to them. Some people can be rude.

You've run into rude people in the world. Again, I don't know anyone here, and I have nothing in mind. I don't—in the churches we've been in, I don't know anyone who's been rude.

I'm thankful for that. You know, again, we might—sometimes we might mistake something that's rude and whatever, but agape doesn't behave rudely. It doesn't seek its own. You know, it's not looking— it's not looking to just, you know, all I want is what I want. I want to do what I want.

Or just to be with people that are like me. Agape loves everyone. Agape grows that the whole body.

You know, when we look at what Jesus Christ has in mind for us, you know, it isn't going to be just you individually and Jesus Christ for eternity. We're not going to be in however many—I'll use the word 144,000 just because it's in the Bible—it's not going to be 144,000 individuals, each with their own little special thing with Jesus Christ. That whole 144,000 is the bride of Christ.

What are they doing? They are working together. They are family. They are one. They are united.

They are one bride with Christ, not 144,000 individuals. They have learned during their time in the church and in life to develop those relationships to become one with one another.

Kind of what we're here for. Kind of what God is preparing us for. For eternity, he is, as we read in Ephesians 5, he is preparing his wife, just like husbands who love their wives, love their own bodies. Jesus Christ loves us, and he's preparing us for what we will do in the future.

Love does not seek its own. Love is not provoked. It is not provoked.

Origape is not provoked. Now, we can all get provoked at time, right?

Not like something that we hear. You know, I've said before, sometimes when we're rebuked, we can take it the wrong way. And it's always heartening to me when, you know, when I worked out and when I worked out, apart from being a pastor and when I would have to deal with employees, you know, some of them would fight. They would have every excuse on earth, and I thought, how agonizing is this? I know what you did, da da da da da. And others would come in, and they would admit it, and just want to do it. And I was always thankful for that.

That's what God would like to see in you and me as well. Well, if something comes to our attention that isn't right, we just say, you know, you're right. Guilty. I'm going to repent and go forward in the way that you said, and not have an excuse, not get mad, not pout, not do all these things, not get provoked, but simply yield to God. Agape thinks no evil.

Thinks no evil. Gives his brother the benefit of the doubt, right? Gives his brother the benefit of the doubt. Not thinking that everyone is doing this or something is this and that and whatever, but being fair with everyone, getting both sides of a story, doing those type things, you can fill in the blank on some of these, your own. Verse 6, Agape doesn't rejoice in iniquity. You know, it doesn't rejoice in iniquity. If it's wrong, it's wrong. God doesn't rejoice in iniquity.

Now he tells us, walk away from sin, resist Satan, resist those things.

We never agape. God's agape is never rejoicing in iniquity. God's agape is always rejoicing in the truth, in righteousness. And there it is in verse 6, but agape rejoices in the truth, in what's righteous. That brings us back to Ephesians 4, 15, where we started, doesn't it?

Truth and love. Living the truth. Speaking the truth. Doing the truth. Or, coining the word, you know, truthing in love. Living our lives, that our lives are devoted to truth in agape.

No accident that God put together those words, truth, in agape. Because we got to live the truth, and agape is such a huge part of it, because we can't live the truth unless we're agape, in agape, agape-ing with God and agape-ing with each other. They go hand in hand.

That's what God's developing in us. Verse 7. Agape bears all things.

Now, if you go back to Negallation 6, verse 2, it tells us that bear with your brother.

We don't give up on people. We don't look down on people. We work with people, just like we do with our family. If our kids mess up, we don't say, I'm disowning you. I don't want to talk to you anymore. No. You work with them. You forgive them. You work. You know, they are still part of the family. And turn things around. Agape bears all things. Agape believes all things. We're called to believe in Jesus Christ. Agape hopes all things. Agape endures all things.

You know, when agape is at the base, and it needs to be at the base, relationships work. We make them work. When we commit to God, He commits to us. He'll give us everything we need to make this work. We commit to Him to make it work. It's part of our promise to Him when we're baptized. Just like in a marriage, when we commit to one another, we stick with it.

There aren't circumstances that change it and say, well but this and well but that.

No. When you commit, you commit. You stick with it. Both parties, they're there.

You know, both parties are there, and they make it work because they promised God, and they work together to make it happen. You know, sometimes I, you know, just in some recent things, I guess, no one in particular, but you see things in the world sometimes just in relationships. And it's heartening when you see something happen in a relationship, and I don't know, a husband becomes crippled by an accident, or he's over in war, and the wife stays with him.

You know, stays with him through all that, and she didn't count on that when it got, when she got married. Sometimes later in life, people get very sick, and it isn't convenient.

You sacrifice yourself to stay with that relationship, and it's a beautiful thing to see when people do that. Other times you hear about it, and it's like, well, I'm too young, I'm too young, I need to get married, and they leave the person alone, and you think, how, I mean, literally ugly is that, right? Where's the love in that? Where's the commitment in that?

That should never happen. Whatever happens in life, you commit to that person, and you committed to that, committed to God. Agape makes it work. Agape makes it work, and it's the base that's there that sees us through whatever comes up. I guess that came to mind, and once I'm looking at verse 8, Agape never fails. It's the one thing in life that never fails unless we forget God, unless we yield to lawlessness, unless we yield to the world around us and start doing things apart from God and depart from Him. Agape never fails. It's the one thing that doesn't, just like God never fails. Whether there are prophecies they will fail, whether there are tongues they will cease, whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. And then Paul says some interesting things here in verse 9 when we tear the verses apart. He says, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

Well, what is the part that he's talking about? Well, today, you know, in Acts 2 times, in the first century, tongues were there. That was part of the things, and that was part of their calling at that time. Tongues are not part of our calling today. God, I don't know, I don't have never known or heard of anyone who, when they received the Holy Spirit, started speaking in languages that they didn't know. That was for that time. It's not for now. There are things that we learn today that when Jesus Christ returns and eternity happens, all that knowledge will disappear.

What we know today, we know for today, right? For now, we know in part. We don't know everything that God has planned, but we know everything while we know he continues to teach us the things that we do need to know to continue following him. But what we know today, that's going to be part of the past when Jesus Christ returns, when you and I are spirit beings and God has trained us completely.

We won't be going back to the elementary things. We'll be teaching it in the millennium, but beyond the millennium, that will no longer be there today. We know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, when Jesus Christ has come, when Satan is put away, when the world is how God wants it, when the people who have followed him and committed to him and have become his children, when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. It's no longer needed. It's no longer needed. Jesus Christ said that as long as there's a heaven and earth, my law will exist. When there is no more heaven and earth, when the physical earth is gone, there will be no more need for that law. The law will become us. We won't need that.

Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it. We need it today.

But when heaven and earth cease and the physical world is done, that won't be there anymore. When that which is perfect has come away, then that which is in part will be done away. Speaking of us, Paul says, when I was a child, we would be people that God or for his children. He's teaching us now.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things. There's that progression, ever learning, ever growing, ever becoming what God wants us to become. Agape has to be there. Agape will be there if we follow him. For now we see an emirder dimly, but then face to face. Now we look at it and we see a glimpse of what God has in mind for us. We get it, but then face to face. Now I know in part.

We study the Bible. We read the Bible. We go to the Bible studies. We look at the... we read articles. We do the Bible reading program when that comes back as part of our website.

Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. Then I will know it.

We never stop learning. And as long as we are there in eternal life, God will always have something new. There's something... 1 Corinthians 2.9 should be an inspiration to us always.

Eye hasn't seen. Ear hasn't heard. Nor has it entered into the hearts of man the wonders that God has prepared for him. Life will never be dull. We'll never be at the point where they I know as much as God. Never happen. We will never know as much as God. We will never be God the Father. We will never be Jesus Christ. We will learn more and more. Life will be exciting.

Things that we can't even imagine because we're physical beings. We see in part today, but then we will see more. If we use the gifts that God gives us, not neglecting agape, not rendering them useless because we neglect what God says is one of the major things that he has called us to. In verse 13, he says, and now abide faith, hope, agape. These three.

But the greatest of these is agape. The greatest of these is agape. It lasts forever. What you and I are developing today will last forever. It's so important. It will always be part of us. It will always be who we are at the base. If we don't develop it, we don't have to worry about being there.

Agape will last forever. What we're building today will last forever. And all the things that agape includes that we've talked about. And as you read through the Bible, and as you think about truth and love, as you think about the words that God says and walk in love, speak in love, do love, resist Satan, reject self, deny self. When you think about all the things that love is, it encompasses everything that God wants us to do. Let's do what God said. Let's learn and put agape right up there with us, learning what God wants us to learn, becoming who he wants us to become, agape-ing him with all our hearts, minds, and soul, and each other as ourselves.