By Editor Bob Terry
The Christian world has turned its eyes toward Easter. Those believers who follow the Christian calendar are in the midst of Lent, a season of repentance and self-denial pointing toward the death of our Lord Jesus on what is called Good Friday and His resurrection three days later.
Nonliturgical Christians point toward Easter in other ways — Sunday School lessons, church music, Bible studies, sermons. With only a month before the celebration, Christian churches of every stripe are focusing on that victorious event, the day God raised Jesus from the dead.
Theologians agree on the importance of Easter. One noted the “distinctive attribute” of apostolic Christianity was the witness to “the supernatural power of the living God, manifested historically by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.”
The apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” In verse 10, he added, “we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” and promised in verse 9 that “we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”
The apostle John, the beloved disciple, wrote in 1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (price or satisfaction) for our sin.”
In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God gave humanity a new understanding of love and a new insight into who God Himself is.
Greeks had three common words for love. The most commonly used word was “eros” from which the English word “erotic” is formed. As the English word implies, eros described deep desire, passion or sensuous longing. The word was filled with physical and sexual overtones. Interestingly neither the noun nor the verb form of the word “eros” appears in the New Testament.
A second Greek word for love was “storge.” The exact meaning of the word is unclear, some scholars concede, but there is common agreement that the word was used to describe the affection found in families. The word might be used to describe the relationship between a parent and child. Again this word does not appear in the New Testament.
The most common word for love used in the Greek language was “philia.” The word is the foundation for the name Philadelphia — the City of Brotherly Love. Philia described a number of relationships but always contained the element of brotherly kindness whether used to describe the relationship between family members or the relationship between neighbors.
The word “agape” was little known and rarely used in Greek writing. Yet it is the most used verb in the New Testament, appearing 130 times. In noun form, the word appears almost 120 times, grammarians report. Each time, it conveys the idea of one’s will and desire to help another.
Because the word “agape” was not widely used, Christians could fill the word with their own meaning and they did. Agape love became radically defined in terms of Jesus Himself. The word must always be understood in light of His death on the cross and His resurrection to new life.
Thus John’s words emphasize that it was God’s will and desire to help us (lost humanity) that caused Him to send Jesus to restore the relationship between man and God, which God desired from the beginning. The motivation or action was not man’s but God’s alone.
Romans makes the same point. It was God’s will and desire to help lost humanity that caused Christ to die for us. In Romans 5:6, Paul wrote, “for while we were still helpless.” In verse 8, he said, “while we were yet sinners.”
Agape is used to express the spontaneous, creative and caring love God extends to undeserving humanity. It is love in action — love that bridges the gap between God and man created by mankind’s sin. One does not earn this love. It cannot be gained by achievement. Agape love must be received through faith. It comes through self-surrender to the God who acted in Jesus Christ to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Agape love is a transforming love. Self-surrender to God means one no longer lives by self-will or self-assertion. One lives surrendered to the spontaneous, creative, caring love made known in God’s activity through Jesus Christ. Living in that love allows such love to flow through the life of the believer.
Life itself becomes centered in concern for others. Agape love guides all areas of life. Agape love creates community. Agape-like concern for others cannot create division.
That is why 1 John 4:11 declares, “Beloved, if God so loved (agape) us, we also ought to love (agape) one another.”
In Romans 5, the apostle Paul wrote about faith and about hope. But he made the point that these are possible only because of God’s caring love for us. That is why agape love is called the “more excellent way.” Agape love is based in God Himself because God is agape love.
He proved that when He redefined what love is through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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