Letting God and the Bible Define “Love” (that is, “Agape”)

Well, given the date to the calendar that we're meeting here on, you may think that you know what I'm going to talk about today. But you would be wrong. You had a sermon on that last week, and I think everyone here knows what this day is about.

We are here gathered together on this day because it is God's Sabbath day. Today we're going to talk about truth, the truth of the Bible. There is no truth in the day that the world is celebrating. There is no truth. We are here to talk about truth and God's way of life, and we're here to honor Him on His Sabbath day that He has ordained for us. The last time I was here a couple weeks ago, we talked about a concept that might have seemed not new to someone, but a deeper, maybe understanding of Ephesians 4, verse 15.

You remember Ephesians 4, 15? We talked about truth and love, where it talks about that in there. We said that in the Greek, truth in that instance was an actual verb. So the correct translation, if English really had a verb that was truth, would be truthing and love. I want to go back and just refresh our minds of where we were back a couple weeks ago and build on that. So if you'll go with me back to Ephesians 4, we'll begin there and look at some verses, very instructive verses that God inspired Paul to record here.

It really, in the entire book of Ephesians, tells us what the church is about, how it should be structured, what God is doing with us. And here in Ephesians 4, he gives a lot of that information of how the church is and tells us what we are here for. Why are we here? What are we doing? When God calls us, what does he expect of us? What should we be concentrating our lives on and focused on when he calls us out of the world and into his truth?

I'm going to pick up here in verse 13 of Ephesians 4, because verse 13 tells us what every single one of our goals is. This is what we would look at and say, this is what God wants of us. When he calls us and we understand his truth, this is what we are. Verse 13 of Ephesians 4 says, "...till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect," or we may say spiritually mature man, "...till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." That's it.

When we look at our goal, when God calls us, that's what he wants us to become, to become like God. He says the same thing in 1 John 3 verse 2, that our job, our goal, what we're doing, and what he's training us is to become like him. In verse 14, it tells us that as we're on that road to the unity of the faith, the unity of the Spirit, becoming like God to the measure of the stature and fullness of Jesus Christ, here's what we do along the way.

You know, as we all come out of the world, we have to learn things that we have to learn things that we unlearn things, I guess I should say, that we used to know and understand the truth of God, understand the doctrine.

In verse 14 says that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. That's all what the world is, is it plays with religion and plays with God's world, twists things, turns things, and you end up with things like the holiday the world is celebrating today, the holiday they'll be celebrating next Sabbath when we're together.

As you see how the cunning craftiness that men have, that Satan leads them into, that takes them away from the pure truth of the Bible that we've been called to.

Verse 15, here's what we and I are to be doing as we are growing into that spiritually mature person that God wants us to become. But speaking the truth in love, that we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ. And that's where we talked a little bit, or quite a bit, I guess, a couple weeks ago in verse 15. Speaking the truth in love. And when you look at the Greek word that's translated the phrase, speaking the truth, it actually is a verb, as I mentioned, in Greek. So in Greek it would be, if we're going to just modernize or inglicize what they do, it would be but truthing in love. It's not just speaking the truth. When the English translators came along and saw that, they thought, oh, you speak the truth. Well, it's more than speaking the truth. We can speak the truth without living the truth. We can speak the truth without becoming the truth. We can speak the truth in many ways, but we have to become the truth. So the actual verb there is truthing in love. It means doing it, living it, speaking it. Every aspect of our lives is dedicated to the truth. That's what God has called us to come out of the world, start living, doing, and being the truth. So many, some of the modern, more modern translations, well, just instead of speaking, they'll say, but doing the truth. You know, we're not to be hearers only, but doing. It does no good to just hear. It's nice to have the knowledge, but if we're not doing it, if we're not applying it into our lives, we're not doing what God wants us to do. And that's what this verse is saying. Through our lives, from the time God calls us until the time we die, truthing, and notice what he adds there, truthing in love. Know the truth, speak the truth, do the truth, conform to the truth, make yourself be the truth, let that become you. Do it in love. Do it in love.

So we go on, you know, in verse 16, it talks about Jesus Christ. He's the one who works this in us, and of His Holy Spirit in us. It says, from whom, well, truthing in love, may grow up in all things in him who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body. Well, in Orlando, that's you and me, right? The others who are online with us today, some who are out of town this weekend, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share. When we all do that, when we all do what God has called us to, using our gifts, using what God has given us, working together, being what God wants us to become, truthing in love, which is the Greek word agape. We're going to talk more about that today. When we do that, God will bless the church and grow the church. That will cause growth of the body for the edifying or building of itself. And again, we see the little descriptor in love. In love. Know the truth, live the truth, live it in love. Over and over in the Bible, God uses the word agape, the Greek word agape. And most of the times when you read love in the New Testament, it is the Greek word agape. It is not philia, which is the brotherly love of friends that might have for each other. It's not eros, which is the love between a husband and a wife that attracts people together. It's not the family love. Storge was the Greek word for that. It's an agape, it's agape love, which is completely different. And last time I was here, we talked about that because when we're truthing, even that's part of what God has called us to, but He called us to truth in love. In love. In agape.

And that says something to us about what we need, what we need to be. Let's look at another couple verses right here in the book of Ephesians where Paul is inspired to use that phrase in agape. Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 and verse 4.

It says that He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, in agape. Chapter 3, verse 17.

Verse 17.

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, rooted and grounded in agape, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the agape of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with the fullness of God, grounded and rooted in agape.

We are in chapter 4, but let's look at verse 2 of chapter 4. We'll begin in verse 1 here. Paul writes, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called. Do it the way God called it to with your heart, mind and soul, to walk worthy of the calling with which you are called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in agape, in love, over and over. One more in Ephesians 5.

He admonishes us, verse 2, walk in love, walk in agape. How important is agape to the Christian?

Extraordinarily important. The truth is important. Living the truth is important. Doing the truth is important. Doing it individually and doing it in the body is important. Now, I was looking, sometimes I look at other translations of the Bible, and when you look at the 1599 Geneva Bible, they have a little footnote under verse 16 that I read before in Ephesians 4 about the whole body being knit together by what every joint supplies, and it specifically says, you know, God works with us individually, but any member who separates himself from the body, they are not allowing God to produce in them what he wants to produce and develop and grow. What we do individually is important, but he put us in a body and he intends us to grow in that body in agape. So last week, or a couple weeks ago, we looked at a few verses in 1 John. Let's go back there again because of all the books in the Bible, 1 John, his epistle, the apostle John's epistle, is very instructive in agape. He talks about it over and over and over again, so let's just refer us a few of those verses as we get a little bit more in depth into it because I want us all to see how important agape must be in our lives and how we must have it if we're going to please God or be in his kingdom. In verse, we'll look at 1 John 4. Let's begin in verse 16.

And I'm going to, whenever I see the word love, I'm going to try to remember to put the word agape where it really is the Greek word agape so that we see how pervasive in John's epistle this word is. In verse 16, it says, and we have known and believed the agape that God has for us.

Okay, so God, agape's us. We'll talk more about that in a little bit. God is agape. And if we do the commutative property, if God is agape, then agape is God. He is agape. He is whatever this word that's translated in the English language love is, how important for us to know what God is and what that word means because our goal, remember, is to become like him, as we read, to become to the fullness and stature of Jesus Christ, who is also agape because he's the express image, it tells us, in Hebrews of God the Father. Okay, we have known and believed the agape that God has for us. He is agape, and he who abides, that lives in agape, abides in God and God in him. Do you want God to make his home with you? Agape has to be who we are becoming. Verse 17, agape has been perfected. Well, there's a verb and a progressive verb. This is something that just doesn't happen overnight. It isn't like we are baptized, we receive the Holy Spirit, and automatically we have the fruit of the Spirit. It's something that grows in us over the course of our rest of our life as God is perfecting us, growing us into a spiritually mature person, so agape is growing as well. Love has or agape has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. Jesus Christ was in this world. How he operated, what he did, we operate the same way. Verse 18, we did talk about this, and I'll just talk about it a little again, because as we live in a world that is being marked by fear, and if you watch the news, you can see fear being broadcast on so many different levels in so many different areas. We have to be aware of fear, that it doesn't cripple us, that it doesn't halt us, that it doesn't keep us from doing God's will. Remember, whoever, whatever it is, that we worship or decide to follow, that's who we're following. Okay? Fear can be something that can stop us from doing what God's will is, but if we are developing agape, verse 18 tells us that fear disappears. So agape is a very powerful force in our lives. There is no fear in agape, but perfect agape casts out fear.

Now, we all have fears. We all subject to it, but as agape isn't perfected, the fear of harm, the fear of pain, the fear of death disappears. Why is that? What does agape do? What is it that we develop that we wouldn't have any fear of any of those things? What did the apostles develop who were martyred? That it was like, go ahead, I will die, I will die for what I believe. Jesus Christ had it. He died for you and me. He didn't fear his own life. He didn't fear the pain that he was going to suffer for you and me. He was aware of it, but he didn't let it stop him. He completed the mission that he had been called for. So that's what we would grow into as well as we allow agape to develop in us. Verse 19, we agape him because he first agape'd us.

Without Jesus Christ's sacrifice, without him giving himself to us, you and I are just hopeless. We're just here and we're going to die and nothing's going to happen before then or after that. But Jesus Christ died. Our sins could be forgiven. The hope of the resurrection, that we know there's eternal life if we follow him, if we develop what God wants us to become.

Verse 20, if someone says, I agape God, which I'm going to guess everyone in this room would say, yes, I love God. If we didn't love God, why would we be here today? Why would we be keeping his Sabbath? Why wouldn't we be out doing what the rest of the world is doing today? We're here because we love him, but do we get exactly what that means? We agape him because he first agape'd us. If someone says, I agape God, and hates, and that word hates there is loveless, right? Love hates his brother. He's a liar. For he who does not agape his brother, whom he has seen, how can he agape God, whom he has not seen? Do you see how God looks at us? If there's someone that we just think, you know what, I don't care enough about them to do what pleases them or whatever it doesn't need to do. If we can't agape one another, God's going to look at us and say, well, if you can't agape each other, how can you agape me? How can you agape God if you can't agape each other? A reasonable question. A reasonable question, remembering that he's working with us, he's training us, he's developing us into who he wants us to become. Which goal we've read in Ephesians 4 and verse 13. Verse 21, and this commandment we have from him, this commandment we have from him, not suggestion, not I hope you can become this, but this commandment we have from him, he who agape's God must agape his brother also. Must. Not a would be nice to do it.

You get a star by your name if you do it. If you're going to agape God, you have to agape each other.

Go back one chapter to chapter 3 in verse 10. God, again, makes it clear how important agape is, that we understand it, that we're living it, that we're conscious of it, that we're allowing it to be manifested and practiced in our lives, so that we become who he wants us to become. Verse 10 in chapter 3, and this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. But we would all agree with that, right? If we're out sinning, then we know we're not of God. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God.

Simple concept. Nor is he who does not agape his brother. So if we're not truthing in agape with each other, with mankind, we are not fulfilling what God wants us to become.

Simple as that. The Bible doesn't make it an option. It says if you are becoming what God wants us to become, we must practice agape. So what exactly is agape? As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, you can go online. You can get any number of definitions about agape. Some will say it's being patient with one another. If we're just patient with one another, that's enough.

No, that's part of it. It's not enough. Some say it's like mother's love for her children. And the mother's love for her children is pretty good, but it's not all what agape is. That might be part of it. We read a Strong's Concordance definition. Let me read that for you here again.

Remember Strong's Concordance, they don't really know when you come across the word agape, they don't explain it there. They actually explained it in contrast to Philia, the brotherly love that we have. And here's what they say about agape. They say agape is a wider type of love than philia, embracing especially the judgment and the deliberate ascent of the will as a matter of principle, duty, and propriety. It's action and deliberate choice. It's pretty good. That's a pretty good synopsis of what agape is. Not complete in any sense of the word. Let me read you from the cognate word studies. Here's what they say. Agape means embracing God's will, that is choosing his choices and obeying them through his power. Agape means actively doing what God prefers by his power and direction. It is defined as a discriminating affection which involves choice and selection.

Now you notice in those definitions, that's a pretty good one too. Not complete by any stretch of the imagination, but as the cognate word studies and as Strongs, whoever put that together, as they looked in the Bible, they saw there's not really emotion involved in agape. It's choice. It's what we do. It's conscious decisions that we make along the way. And that's an important part. That's an important part of agape. And we'll talk about that a little bit here. But the fact is, is that if you are going to be living in agape, if we're supposed to be practicing agape, if we're supposed to be developing that to attain the goal of the fullness of the stature, the measure and stature of Jesus Christ, you can't go to any book in the world, you can't go to any website, and find a complete definition of agape. It simply isn't there. The only way to understand what agape is is to let the Bible define it the only way. Because man does not understand the fullness and completeness of agape. The only way to understand it, the only way to know what you and I need to be working on and conscious of and having as a goal in our life is to go back to the Bible and let God tell us what agape means. So today we're going to do that. We're going to turn to a number of scriptures and we're going to let God and the Bible define for us what agape is because it's crucial for you and me to know. It's crucial for us to be working on in our individual lives. It's crucial for us to be working on it together. Remember that agape is an identifying sign of Christians. Remember that Jesus Christ said in John 13, verse 34 and 35, He said, By this will all men know that you are my disciples. Was it simply because they keep the Sabbath day?

Simply because they don't keep the holidays of the world? No. He said, Here's how they will know that you are my disciples if you have agape for one another.

Shows just how important just how important agape is. So let's get to work on a definition and we're going to do some points. We've already talked about three things that we can put in our definition of agape. If you're taking notes, you know, you might want to write these down and later on even go back and put some scriptures to it. Number one is the definition of agape. God is agape.

It's Him. It defines Him. God is agape. It says it twice in 1 John 4. We are to become like Him. So if we're going to become like Him, we better know what that is about. Number two, we can say agape is strength. It's power because it gives us the power to even do things even when we're afraid to do them. That we would do something that God prefers, as cognate says in his word study, what God prefers even at the cost of whatever it is that we're afraid of. So there's power in agape to choose to do the right thing. Without agape, we will not do the right thing. We will fall to fear. We will fall to threats. We will fall to whatever it is that the world throws out at us. And as we look at the time ahead of us and we look where we're going and where we know where the world is headed, it's quite important that we have that agape because if we don't have that agape, we may well fall. We may well fall to the pressures that'll be in the world. And number three, it's a requirement for Christians. It's something we have to do. It's not an option. It's not something that's nice to have. It's not something that God gives to some of us, but not others. It's something that we are all supposed to be working on individually, but we also work on it with each other. Okay, let's add to those points. Before I go to another scripture, let me remind you, in Galatians 5.22, remember there, God's in the next three verses, tells what the fruits of the Spirit are. The fruits of the Holy Spirit. When we receive the Holy Spirit, once we repent, we're baptized, hands are laid on us, when we receive the Holy Spirit, fruit grows throughout the Christian life. The first one listed among those fruits is what? Agape. It doesn't happen the day we're baptized. Perfect agape doesn't happen the minute that we're baptized and we receive God's Holy Spirit, but it's something just like fruit grows on a tree. It's really nice to see the little buds on the tree turn into flowers. They're very pretty. We see the fruit grow and grow and grow until it's ripe for picking. It's the same thing with the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. The seed is there. It begins, but it grows over time until it becomes the perfect fruit that God is looking for. The very first fruits, the very first of those fruits listed in Galatians 5.22 is agape. Not surprisingly, since God puts such high value on it. 2 Timothy 1 verse 7, you don't need to turn there. You know what that first says? It says, God hasn't given us the spirit of fear. He didn't give us that. He gave us or gives us the spirit of power, agape, and a sound mind. That's what He gives us. So with that in mind, let's go back to John's gospel this time, back in John 21.

And look at a fairly familiar conversation, if you will, or give and take between Jesus Christ and the Apostle Peter, where Christ uses the word agape, but Peter can't really respond in kind to what Jesus Christ is saying. Pick it up in where we're here in John 21 and in verse 15.

This, of course, is after Jesus Christ has died, after He's been resurrected as before, He's ascending into heaven. And as He's about for that day to happen, that He would the time for Him to ascend into heaven, He has this conversation with Peter. It says, when they had eaten, verse 15, breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you agape me more than these?

And Peter responded, yes, Lord, you know that I fill you. Not the Greek word agape in there. Yes, Lord, you know that I fill you. I love you. I love you like a brother. I followed you. Peter would have said what he did say, I'd give my life for you. But then he denied Christ three times. At that point, Peter hadn't developed perfect love, had he? Because he feared what would happen to him when he saw what was happening to Christ. At that point, perfect love had not, agape had not been developed in Peter because as soon as fear came, he was willing to forget that he even knew Christ. So when Peter is asked, you know, do you agape me? He says, well, you know that I love you. I have this emotional feeling for you. You're my brother. I love you. I believe what you teach. We've walked together for three and a half years. Of course he loves him. Filia is that emotional relationship type love that all of us develop sometime in our lives.

Nothing wrong with that. It's a good thing God built that in us. But Peter is responding in that way for maybe a few reasons. Well, Christ responds to him when he says that. He says, Peter, feed my lambs. In verse 16, he said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you agape me? And Peter responded, yes, Lord, you know that I filia you.

He just can't bring himself to say, yes, I agape you. Yes, I do. I filia you, which he did, and that was a good thing. Christ said to him, Peter, tend to my sheep. And Christ says that Peter the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you, this time he doesn't agape me. He's made his point. This time Christ says, Simon, son of Jonah, do you filia me? Do you love me like a brother? Do we have that emotional attachment? Do we have that deep relationship? Peter was greed because he said to him the third time, do you filia me? And he said to him, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. I filia you. And Christ said to him, feed my sheep.

Why couldn't Peter respond, yes, I agape you?

Was he thinking back to, I denied you three times. I had an opportunity to show you how much I loved you, agape you, but I denied you the very first time something came along and I was afraid I did something that I shouldn't have done. Did Peter even understand what agape was?

Could he understand what agape is, the way Jesus Christ was using the word agape? When you look at some of the history of the Greek word agape, even they, they knew this agape was out there, but it's something that they just couldn't put their hands are on. They just didn't know what it meant, because the only way you can understand it is through the Bible.

And the only way you can understand it is if you have the Holy Spirit. Did Peter have the Holy Spirit in him at this point in time when he and Christ were speaking?

Nope. That didn't come until the day of Pentecost. Somewhat later, let's go forward to Romans. Romans 5. Let me see Paul address this. The understanding of agape, what it means that God wants us to have. Romans 5 verse 5. He writes, Hope doesn't disappoint because the agape of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which was given to us.

That's how agape was poured out by the Holy Spirit. So the world might use agape and have all these definitions of what agape is, but there's only one way we understand what God's definition of agape is, and that's with his Holy Spirit. Hope doesn't disappoint because the agape of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which was given to us.

Well, the Holy Spirit is a fruit. We talked about how fruit grows until it's ripened and ready to be picked. We understand the analogy of that in our lives and what God is working with us. Let's go over to 2 Peter and look at his words because he addresses agape as well.

And in, beginning in verse 5 here of 2 Peter 1, it begins showing us the process of our lives, the growth that takes place in our lives. As we come to under when God calls us, when we respond to his call, what happens? We're all at different stages in this ladder, but we're all working toward the same goal. As God brings us along and as we yield to him and cast away our own preferences and start doing what God prefers, not what we prefer. 2 Peter 1 verse 5. Peter writes, For this very reason, now Peter, who didn't understand agape back in John 21, he understands agape pretty well here in 2 Peter 1. Here, this was written sometime in the early 60s A.D., so 30 years down the road, he knows what agape is now. He could answer Jesus Christ very well.

When Christ asked him that, when he's writing this epistle, do you agape me? He would say, yes, I do. And he did give his life for Christ not long after this. Verse 5 though, it says, But also for this very reason, giving all diligence. Whenever you see that word, diligence, when you see the action words, it's something that we have to do. God just doesn't give it to us. He'll give it to us. He'll open the possibility to us. We have to work at it. So Peter says, giving all diligence. You have to work at it. We know agape is a part of there's choice. That means we have to make the decision. God's not going to make it for us. He'll tell us what to do, but it's our choice to do it or not. For this very reason, giving all diligence, add.

Add to your faith. You believe in God. Add to your faith virtue. Start letting your morality or changing your morality match the morality that God said. When God says, here's the virtue I want you to have, then you know what? Your life needs to conform to him. That means you let go of your ideas and what the world might have taught you is moral or not moral. You begin doing what God says. And as it says in Romans 12, 1, and 2, you start allowing God to renew your mind and transform it to his will, not ours. Add to your faith virtue to virtue knowledge. Know the Bible. Study the Bible. Understand this is God's Word. This is his truth. You want truth? There's only one place in the world to find it. It's the Bible. We've talked about that many times. John 17, 17. Christ said it plainly, thy word is truth. No other place on earth are you going to find truth. Every word in this Bible is true. Every word in this Bible is what we've been called to live by. Add to your faith virtue. Add to your virtue knowledge. Add to your knowledge self-control. We've got to make ourselves do the things that we know to be right. If this doesn't come naturally, Romans 8, 7 tells us the carnal mind is enmity against God. We're not going to do naturally what God wants us to do. We have to stop. We have to think and think, no, that's the way I used to do things. That's the way the world would have me do things. I need to do what God said. Self-control is the ninth listed fruit to the Holy Spirit. So important in the development of all those other fruits, we have to stop and make ourselves do it using the power of God's Holy Spirit to say, no, I'm not doing that anymore.

Add to your knowledge self-control to self-control perseverance. Stick with it. Don't give up. In door to the end, Jesus Christ said. You might fall back. Don't let that discourage you. Don't let that disappoint you. Keep going. Keep marching. Add to your perseverance godliness. Live a godly life. We'll turn to Titus 2 here in a minute where we can see what a godly life is about.

Add to godliness brotherly kindness. Be kind with one another. Bear with one another in love. And then finally, add to brotherly kindness agape. That's the step. That's what we do as we go through it. Agape is the end result of what we do as we work with one another, as we love God, as we learn to love with one another, as we make ourselves do the things that God said to do, adhering to his principles and doing the things that we know to be right.

Agape is going to be there. It'll develop.

You know, Paul or Peter finishes this section here. It says, For if these things are yours, if you're doing these things and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But, in verse 9, he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even the blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. So he encourages us, Make your calling and election sure. Do the things you've been called to do.

Practice agape. Develop agape. Understand what agape is.

Let's go back a couple books here to the book of Titus. In chapter 2, it gives us, if you will, a picture of people in the church who have been in the church for a while, some for a long time, some younger, some older in years, some younger in years. And the way we look out for one another as we work with one another, just as a family would be, you know, if we have children, when our children are young, we teach them God's way. As they get in to be teenage years, and they're out in the world, and they're having to confront some of the things that the world teaches, it is time, and it's very appropriate, even more so in today's age, to work with them to see, to counter what the world is teaching so they know what the truth of God is, even though we live in a world that teaches something different. It's a golden opportunity to face what the world is teaching, and then to teach them God's truth and show them that the truth of God is the validity and the way that we live, even as we have to live and go about our business in this world. But here in Titus 2, verse 1, it says, as Paul is instructing Titus, he says, For you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. Teach them the truth.

Teach them the truth of God, that the older men be sober, that they be reverent, that they be temperate, that they be sound in faith, that they be sound in agape.

They've been around a while. They should be an example of agape. When people look at them, it's like, agape, there's something different about them. Look how they are. They've grown up, that they are sound in faith, in agape, in patience, that the older women in the church, who, again, all family, who might work with some of the younger women and talk to them about things, not to make them mad, not to offend them, but to help them as we're all here to help each other on our walk to the kingdom, on our walk as God works with us and as He prepares us.

The older women, likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not giving them much wine, teachers, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love, and that's not the word of agape there, it's the marital love, the respect for their husbands, and the affection that we go along with that, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. What is he saying? Live the truth in love.

Truth in love. Look at the word of God, follow the word of God, apply it into your life, be living it, doing it in agape. Godliness, the part of what we do when we do God's will.

So to our definition of agape, it's a fruit or it's a condition that grows over time.

As long as we're breathing, agape isn't perfect in us. It's not complete. There is always something more we need to learn. As God has us alive and lets us breathe, agape needs to be there, and agape, we will learn more about it as we go through. Okay, let's add to it. John 3. John 3 16.

Everyone knows what John 3 16 says. If you've ever watched an NFL game, I say, everyone knows what John 3 16 says. But we'll read it anyway, because the word agape shows up in that, and it gives us another point that we add to our definition of agape. For God, verse 16, John 3, so agape'd the world, he so agape'd the world, not just you and me, not just the people he calls, so he agape'd the world. That's everyone in it that has ever lived. He so agape'd the world that he gave. There's an action verb, an action word. He gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him, remember that the Greek word believes, pistoio, isn't just, you know, like some, oh, I believe in God. If you believe in Jesus Christ, that requires a change of heart, a change of action, a change of behavior. If that's what the word pistoio in the Greek means, it triggers a change in us. God so agape'd the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him shouldn't perish but have everlasting life. So God did something.

We read back in 1 John 4 that we love God because, or we agape God because he first agape'd us. Well, that's what he did. The world was enemies, if we will, to God. It says that in Romans 5.10.

Romans 5.10, Paul writes, when we were still enemies to God, he gave his life. Christ gave his life for us. He loved us that much even when we were apart from him, that he came down and that he was willing to give up his life. He didn't count it to anything to not be God anymore, but to be born his flesh, to live his life, to suffer, to die. Of course, then he was resurrected, and now he sits at God's right hand. But he did that because he agape'd us. He was willing to give it all for us. So we know agape involves sacrifice. It involves that. Every one who develops agape, there is some sacrifice for Christ. It was the ultimate sacrifice. Pain and give up his life.

Let's go back to Luke 10. You can see a very strong example of agape in a very familiar parable.

Luke 10. I think we are all familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan. Let me save myself a few minutes here and remind you of what that story is, rather than going through all the verses. You remember that a man was robbed, left by the side of the road to die. Along came a priest.

He saw this man lying by the side of the road. He just walked on by. There was a Levite that came by. He actually saw the man as he was coming toward him and decided, okay, I'm going to cross to the other side of the road and pretend I didn't see him at all. But then a Samaritan came by. You remember the Jews looked down on the Samaritans.

They weren't holy people and whatever, but the Samaritan took the time to bandage the man up, to take him to an inn, to pay for his stay that he was there, to make sure he had food and everything that he needed, and he even told the innkeeper at the end, if he needs anything else, call me. Call me and I will do whatever it takes to keep him going. Notable in that story is the Samaritan didn't say, you know, when he comes to, give him my name and number and tell him he can reimburse me for that later, whenever he gets around to it.

He left no expectation of anything in return. He simply saw a need of someone who was in a very bad situation, and he took care of it at his own cost. Wherever he was going, probably just as important for him to get where he was going as the Levi was going in the priest, but he took the time because he saw the need and something there, and he took the time to do it, to take care of it, and even sacrifices, well, not only his time, but his money. I'll pay for it.

I'll give, I'll take care of everything, and if you need anything else, call me. I'll take care of it. Just take care of him. Look at the example that that man left. He had absolutely no idea who that man laying beside of the road was. There was no relationship between him. It doesn't say, oh, I know him from dealing with him in business, or I know him as a friend.

He had no idea who he was. He was just a stranger laying by the side of the road. There was no emotional attachment between him and that person at all. Simply someone he didn't know, but he saw a need, and he fulfilled it completely. Completely. You know, that's a big thing that the Samaritan did. Christ teaches us a powerful lesson in that of what he wants us to become, because Christ did the same thing for you and me. There was a need. You and I sinned. All the world had sinned, beginning with Adam and Eve.

Every single person sinned, not worthy of eternal life. Only one way that that sin could be forgiven. We all earned death, and it was only by Jesus Christ's sacrifice, willing sacrifice, that though the penalty for our sins could be paid. And he did it. He didn't have to. Now he could have said, mankind isn't worth it. They don't appreciate anything we've done. They don't appreciate the earth. They don't appreciate the time we took to give them this worth, earl worth that is just perfect for them.

They don't appreciate the fact that we still provide the rain. We still provide the food. They have everything they need. They don't care anything about us. Just let them suffer and let them die. He could have said that, right? That might be what you and I said if we were Jesus Christ before we have agape developed in us.

But no, he came down because there was a plan and a purpose and he said this mankind has to have the sacrifice. I will agape them. I will offer it all to them. And he doesn't make us. He doesn't make us follow him.

I mean, if we don't follow him, there's consequences. But we have a choice. When he calls us, we can say, no, we don't want to follow you. But the Bible tells us what happens, that that's what it's going to be. It'll be the people that have eternal life that yield their lives to him. So when we add to our definition, biblical definition of agape, we see sacrifices involved.

We see that there doesn't have to be an emotional relationship or attachment involved. That takes us down the road to agape of what it really means when we have that developed in us. And that we're willing to give whatever it takes without any regard of how we're going to be reimbursed. No strings attached. I do it because I agape you. Those are some things as we add up.

As we add up what's going on, we begin to see this concept of agape is pretty wide-ranging. It's more than just, I love you because I know you. It's more than just, I see you every Sabbath. And we have a nice conversation. We go on our way.

It gets more to what John is talking about. John, who was the longest living, I guess, if you will, of the apostles. He talks about it back in 1 John 3. This would have been written somewhere in the 90s AD, some 60 years after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven. In 1 John 3, in verse 14, he who developed agape in his life and understood it, he says, we know, we, that's you and me, we know that we have passed from death. That means eternal death. We've passed from the ways of the world that leaves to death. We know that we pass from death to life when we're following God, led by him, led by his Holy Spirit. We know that we've passed from death to life.

Why? Because we agape the brethren. We know them, we agape them, we've developed that over time. And everything that agape means, not just a philia, not just a, I know their name, but agape, by agape the brethren. He does not agape his brother, abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Verse 16, by this, how do we know agape? Because he laid down his life for us. He set the example. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Doesn't mean day one, I don't know that any of us are there. I think probably all of us would say we would do it. Would we? I think we probably have a ways to go, myself included, before we do that. I think there's agape that has to be developed in all of us. I think the sentiment is good. We need to keep that in our minds. We need to let God perfect that in us by the choices that we make over time. Verse 17, whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, like the Levite did when he passed by the Samaritan, or by the man along the side of the road, like the priest did when he passed by, whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need shuts up his heart from him, how does the agape of God abide in him? Good question! Good question!

In verse 18, my little children, let us not agape in word or tongue. It's very easy to say a agape, Psalm, and it's very easy to say it. Very easy to say we have the truth or repeat the truth. Quite another thing to do it, to live it, to have it be what defines us. So when people look at us as a people, they say, look at that people. There's something different about them. They agape each other. My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed in truth.

Well, that's a whole other subject that we'll get into at another time. How do we develop agape?

What do we do? What are the practical things in the 21st century that we do?

What can we do? Because there's God gives us all the opportunities to build agape.

They're around us all the time. We have to be cognizant of them. We have to take the opportunity to do them and not just kind of think, well, someone else will do it, or that's not really necessary. Just like God gives us the opportunities to build faith in Him, to follow Him, to trust Him, He gives us the opportunities to build agape, too. We just need to maybe be a little bit more aware of when those opportunities arrive for every single one of us. Now, there's a number of ways. Talk about those at another time. But here we have God saying, this is how you know if you have agape. This is how you do it. This is what you must do.

In Luke 6, Luke 6, verse 35, Christ says this. Now, He says it even more strikingly in Matthew 5, verses 43 to 48. But you'll remember that verse as we read here, those verses as we read Luke 6, 35, He's, as He's speaking to His disciples, He says, but agape your enemies. Agape them. Wow, somewhere along the progress of developing agape, it's not just the people next door. It's not just the people in the churches. That's not the people in my family. It's even our enemies.

But agape your enemies. Do good and lend. Hoping for nothing in return. And your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the unthankful and evil.

Well, that's exactly what Christ did, right? We quoted, or I don't know if we turned there, but Romans 5, 10 tells us that when we were still enemies, Christ died for us.

He did it for us. He doesn't expect us to do anything that He hasn't already done.

He set the example. He's the forerunner, as we read in the book of Hebrews. He shows the way to eternal life. We follow Him. How many times the Bible say, imitate or follow the example of Jesus Christ? And we all have the responsibility of following that example so that we're examples to each other as well. But agape your enemies. That's a tough thing to do. I don't know that any of us are there. I honestly can't think of any enemies that I have. Maybe there's some out there that I don't know about, but I have a feeling in days ahead we might all have some enemies, right? I might have some enemies. People who really hate me. Jesus Christ did everything right and perfect in His life, but at the end of His life, He had some pretty big enemies, right? And those enemies were able to convince the mob and convince the crowd, kill Him, kill Him, kill Him, kill Him, and put Him through an unbelievably painful and torturous death. And yet Jesus Christ, as He was there and He was looking down as He was being crucified, there was enough agape in His church, in His heart, that He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. They don't know what they do. Would anyone have blamed if He had cursed them, if He had called down lightning from heaven to just burn them all up or zap them all from earth? Any of us would have wanted to do that. He said, forgive them. Forgive them. Give them the developing them the purpose for which you created them. I'm dying that they might have that opportunity. Do they deserve it? No. Did we deserve it? No. Did He give it? Yes. Because He is agape. And what He wants in us is to develop agape.

Many of you here will remember the name Herbert Armstrong. And years ago, Mr. Armstrong was a man who God worked amazing things through when you look back at his life. And I remember when I was, I don't know if I was growing up or if I was young when he made, he said in a sermon that, he turned to Matthew 5 verses 43 to 48, where it says, you know, you say we're all, it's all very easy to love our friends. It's all very easy to love each other.

But it says, I say to you, Christ said, love your enemies, agape your enemies. And I remember Mr. Armstrong saying, I never could figure that verse out. I know that I didn't love my enemies.

But at his time, he must have probably been in his 80s at that point and been in the church and following God for a long time. He made the comment, now I understand. Now I understand what it means to agape your enemies. And I remember that in him and I thought, what a process that must be to point to the point that when people hate us and want to put us to death or do whatever they do to us, that we would still agape them and do and sacrifice whatever it is that they need because we agape them. What level is that? And yet that is what God is looking to develop in us. Do we all have a long way to go? Do I have a long way to go? Absolutely.

Absolutely. But you know what? Now is the time. Now is the time as we look at the world around us and we look at what's going on. And we know that the return of Jesus Christ, however far off it is, is God's business. But now is the time for us to be looking at these things and be asking God and to be actively working with each other in developing the agape that God wants us to have.

I want to read there. William Barkley, you know, on this verse about loving your enemies. This is what he says, not in his commentary, but in a book called New Testament Words. This is what he says about loving your enemies. He says, agape has to do with the mind. It is not simply an emotion which rises unbidden in our hearts, as may be the case with Philia, the brotherly love. It is a principle by which we deliberately, you might say purposefully, live. Agape has supremely to do with the will. It is a conquest, a victory, an achievement. No one ever naturally loved his enemies. To love one's enemies is a conquest of all our natural inclinations and emotions. This agape is, in fact, the power to love the unlovable, to love people that we just don't like.

Now, he's getting to something there. Does he understand it all? No, but look what he says. It's a matter of choice. It's a matter of mind. God has given us the Holy Spirit of power to do it of agape, of a sound mind. We know where we're going. We know what we need to do, and he gives us the self-control in his Holy Spirit to do it purposefully to do it.

And there is no choice. We must do it if we'll be in his kingdom. And we can do it because God made it possible. If Jesus Christ made it possible, his Holy Spirit makes it possible. We work with each other. God directs us, but we need each other. We need each other as well. Another example of agape.

Remember Joseph, right? He's probably a number of people in this congregation and one of my favorite characters in the Bible because of what he did and how he loved God. Joseph, son of Jacob. He's the favorite son. You know, when Jacob made him the favorite son and treated him the way he encouraged the ire of his brothers. You remember Joseph was sold into slavery. Joseph, as a teenager, finds himself in Egypt, the only one in Egypt that worships God. He'd been raised by Jacob. And as we watch Joseph's life, we see that Jacob did a really good job of teaching Joseph the truth of God. He really did a good job of teaching Joseph God is God and that God is agape and that whatever you do in your life, no matter where you are, you follow God first. You don't give into the world around you. You don't give into the things of it. You give, you choose God first because here's this young man, Joseph, and he sold to Potiphar. And what did Potiphar, you know, he could have been bitter. He could have been mad. He could have done everything on earth, but he was a perfect servant. When he was there with Potiphar, he did everything to the best of his abilities exactly the way that Potiphar would want it done. He raises to the top of the household. And then Potiphar's wife takes a shine on him, if you will, and she encourages him. You're the young man. He might have thought, well, you know what? This is wife. Why not? Right? I have these inclinations. I have these desires. Why not? She's looking to do it. What does Joseph do? A young man in that situation who could have said, this is, you know what? I'm giving into it. I'm giving into everything because it all looks so good and so appealing, and I would have it literally all at that point. But he doesn't. If you remember in Genesis 39 verse 9, he tells her, I won't do this. I won't sin against God.

I agape God so much that even though everything in me wants to do it, I'm not going to do it because I love him more than what I naturally want to do. Now, that's agape, isn't it? If we all practice that in our lives, if we were all willing to do that with each other, you know, in the right sense of the thing, if we were all willing to do that with God. You know, Matthew 22 verses 37 to 39, Jesus Christ says, love, agape, the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul.

How do we agape God? We do what he says even when we don't want to, even when we can make rationales and justifications and say, God doesn't expect that of me because we still obey God.

We still do what he says. His word is clear. And when we do the things that we don't even naturally want to do, or we have every what we think is good excuse not to do it, we still do it because we love God more than self. We love God more than the convenience it is. We love God more than our friends, family, whatever it is, it tells us to do the opposite. We do it because we love God.

That's sacrifice. Sometimes that's painful. Sometimes people don't want to talk to us anymore when we make that decision. We still do it. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, you know, who is a perfect example of agape, he obeyed God. John 14. John 14. John 14. You know, in verse 15, this is his conversation or, you know, I guess, admonitions to the disciples before he was arrested on that last Passover that he was alive. He says, if you love me, if you agape me, keep my commandments. Do what I say. You know what my commandments are. We know what the Ten Commandments are, and we know what Jesus Christ said, agape the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and agape your neighbor as yourself. And we know that the first four commandments, that's how we love God, or agape God. Last six, we apply all those things into our lives, even when we don't know the person even when they're not lovable. If you do this, you know, he says, do it. He says it again in verse 23 and down in verse 31. He says, I did it. When I was here on earth, I obeyed the Father. I did what he said, but that the world may know that I agape the Father, verse 31, and as the Father gave me commandments, so I do. Jesus Christ was perfectly obedient to the Father. Why would he expect anything less from us? Why would he say, it's okay if you don't agape the Father the way I did? It's okay if you don't agape the Father with all your heart, mind, and soul, and that you're not willing to do what he said, and you have this excuse, that excuse, you know, even some of the simple things I say, like being in his presence every single Sabbath, you know, where else are we? You know, where else should we be? And what I say is, to me, one of the simpler commandments to keep, because none of us work on the Sabbath, right? I mean, all our employers know we don't work on the Sabbath, so what are we doing if we're not sick or whatever? And that's just one. That's just one example. There's 10 commandments that we keep, and all the others as well, but we love God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and our neighbor as ourself. A lot of what we've talked about today is how we love our neighbor as ourself, how we agape our neighbor as ourselves. It all works. It all works that way. 1 John 5. 1 John 5.

Verse 1, Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who agape's Him who begot also agape's Him who is begotten of Him. That means we agape each other as family, as children of God, as joint heirs with Christ, as it says in Romans 8. By this, we know that we agape the children of God, when we agape God and keep His commandments. For this is the agape of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.

Developing agape isn't always comfortable. Choices have to be made, decisions have to be made. Sometimes, as God brings us on the process to agape, it can hurt.

It can hurt. We have trials along the way. We might have things come up along the way. We have to make decisions. It's like, this is my way. I really don't want to do it. I don't want to give in on this, or I don't want to make this person. Whatever it is, every example we can come up with. But we look in Hebrews 12, and we see the word agape. It's my last point before we wrap this up here this afternoon. In Hebrews 12, we've talked about this chapter sometime. Whenever we see the word chastening in Hebrews 12, it's really that Greek word pihadea. Remember what pihadea is? It's something that we should remember. It's the training program that God has for us. He uses the word pihadea because in the ancient Greek culture, that's the training program of mind, body, and soul that the young men of Greece were put into because they were determined that they would develop them into the elite or the very fine examples of Greek society. So they were well-tooled in every aspect of their lives. It took discipline. It took everything they needed to do, and they went through a tough time in order to do that. That didn't just mean paths on the back. There were paths on the back along the way, but as they did that, there was some real chastening. That's why they use the word chastening. Some punishments went along. Some things that went along on the way that kind of hurt. It wasn't just kind of the way it was. In verse 7—no, not verse 7. Let's pick it up in verse 5.

Hebrews 12. You have forgotten the exhortation. We exhort each other to stay on the road. We exhort each other. We help each other. When we see each other, when we may say something, it's not designed to offend anyone. It should be there with each other in love because we are interested in the person moving forward. You have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as two sons. My son, don't despise the pihadea of the eternal. Don't be discouraged when you are rebuked by him for whom he loves, whom he abapes, he chases and scourges every son whom he receives. And then he goes and says, if you endure it, that's part of the process. It can hurt.

It can be uncomfortable. It's part of the sacrifice that we do and that we live by. Okay, let's look at what we've learned today because we've been through a lot. I'm going to put a slide up behind me here that kind of summarizes what we've talked about today because we've talked about a lot and agape is a big definition. Number one on your list there, and I'm going to pull my list out to make sure I've got them in the same order that's on that slide there. Remember that God is agape. Everything that we see God do as we learn him and as we study him and as we come to understand him, he is agape. What Jesus Christ did, what God the Father does for us, that's agape. God is agape. Agape is God. That's our responsibility. We read that in Ephesians 4 to become, or 1 John 3, 2 says, we become like him. But that's the goal that we read in Ephesians 4 verse 13, to grow up to the measure and stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ.

So agape is it. We've talked about truthing in love and how many times in the Bible it says, you do these things, do it in agape. Okay, number two. Agape is strength and power.

It gives us the strength and power to do what God asks us to do. It even casts out fear.

And as we look forward to the time, I know we look forward as in, hey, we're really wanting that time to come, when we look forward and know the time is coming where tribulation may be there, what are we going to choose? If we haven't developed the agape of God, we may well fall and fall prey to the fear that the earth or the world brings upon us. God gives us the opportunity to practice agape. He gives us the opportunity to do that so that when the time comes, we love him more than whatever the personal cost or discomfort to us is. Agape is strength. It's power.

Number three, agape is the result of God's spirit in action. The only way we can truly understand agape is if we have God's Holy Spirit. And it is a requirement. It's not an option. It's not something that's nice to have. God expects it of me and expects it of every one of his children. It will be something that we develop in the course of our lifetime. None of us are there yet. As long as we're breathing, we have things to learn and agape to develop. Number four, agape is developed and grown. It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Just like fruits start with a little blossom on a tree and they progress to the time when the tree, the fruit is beautiful, ready for picking. Same thing with the fruit that God develops in us. Agape is the very first of that fruit. It has to grow. It takes our attention to fertilize and make sure that we're yielding to God and following his Holy Spirit, that that fruit can mold into what God wants it to become. Pleasing to him has to be practiced. Isn't something that comes naturally. Has to be practiced. Choices have to be made. And that's number five. It's a choice. It's the will. It's what we have to do. We have to stop and think, no, I need to do this. It's important in my development as a Christian to do this. I choose to do this even though it isn't what I want to do, even though what I have the time to do, or that I naturally want to do, but it's a choice I make. Number six. It's selfless.

It's not looking to say, well, if I do this, what are they going to give me in return?

I do it because it's the right thing to do. I do it because it's what God prefers. I do it because they need it. And I'm not going to wait for someone else to fulfill that need. I'll take care of it myself because I have, or I will make the time, and I will make the resources to get it done. It's selfless. It involves sacrifice. You know, never forget that Paul says in Romans 12 verses 1 and 2 that we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. It's our reasonable service, he says, and when you think of what God has done for us, it is our reasonable service.

We were nothing. We're going nowhere without his sacrifice for us. It's our reasonable service that we would do whatever he asks us to do or whatever he leads us to. Number seven, agape is to anyone. You know, over time we understand that it's not just for our friends, it's not just for our family members. If we're not even practicing that with each other and in our families, God would ask that question that we asked back at the end of 1 John 4.

It's not there among us. Why would God expect that we could do it with anyone else?

Pretty easy, right? Not pretty easy. Actually, it takes a lot of time and effort to do that.

Even with no emotional attachment or relationship, we see the need just like the Good Samaritan and we do it. Number eight, expects nothing in return. Doesn't do it looking for a reward, does it because it's in their heart to do it? Becomes us. You know, the Good Samaritan didn't expect anything in return. Jesus Christ says when he loves your enemies and don't expect anything in return, just do it because it's the right thing to do. Number nine, when we agape God with all our heart, mind, and soul, it means we obey Him. That's how He knows that we love Him or agape Him. When we obey Him, living by every word of the God, not by not making excuses, not justifying what we do, not thinking we're exempt from this or we're exempt from that, when we do what God says. That takes practice, too. It doesn't happen. It doesn't happen on the first day we're baptized or the first day we come to church. It's something we practice as we go through life. Number 10, it's part of God's training for us. We read in Hebrews 10 or Hebrews 12, there will be pain along the way. There'll be trials along the way. There are only things that hurt along the way. There's going to be things that we may have to give up. He knows exactly what we need in order for the agape to be developed in us. There are situations that God puts us in. Sometimes we wonder, how did I get myself in this situation? I remind myself, and everyone should be reminded when we find God knows exactly what we're doing. Sometimes the situation we find ourselves in is exactly where God wants us to be because it reveals something in us that we need to learn, something that we need to do, something that we need to improve, something that we need to work on so that he can perfect his agape in us. Let me just close where I started, back in Ephesians 4.

And I'll read verses 13 and 15. Okay? Our goal in verse 13 again. Till we all come to the unity of the faith. What does God want? What from us, Jesus Christ said, my will is, Father, that they're all one as Jesus Christ and God the Father are. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect or spiritually mature man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Verse 15. And true thing, speaking the truth in love, doing the truth in love, understanding the truth in agape, let us all grow up in all things to who is the head, Jesus Christ.