The Agape of God defined

Message for Sunday 2^nd September, 2018

Theme: Understanding and walking in the Love of God.

Topic: The Agape of God defined

Introduction: Once again I welcome you to our month of perfection when the Lord is set to perfect all that concerns you [Ps.138:8]. As we saw in the word of the month, the perfection of all things is the love of God. No matter what gift the Lord has given to any man, they will all pass with time. One gift that would remain with us forever which is the pass key of our access to the presence of God in eternity is the love of God. The reason for this is that all the gifts we will use to display the glory and mercy of God are only relevant to time. The love of God on the other hand describes Him and His word. In 1Jn.2:17, we learn that doing the will of God keeps us forever. The only will we have been called of God to do is to walk in love. See Jn.13:34-35; Jn.15:8-14; 1Cor.13:1-3; 1Jn.2:1-11 and 1Jn.4:7-18.

What is Agape? The word translated agape is the Greek word that defines the God kind of love. Greek Philosophers have put love under three headings namely: Eros, Phileo and Agape. The bible refers to two kinds namely Phileo and Agape. See Jn.21:15-17 and 1Sam.18:1-3.

Eros is where we get the erotic love from which is basically sensual and humanistic. It originates in the Greek belief that Eros; one of their many gods was the god of love. This type of love falls short of the standard of God and would therefore not meet the demand of walking in love. It is the love that exists between a man and a woman which spills into the expression of sensual intimacy. This is a natural human love that cannot stand in the face of many experiences in life. Many have made the mistake of entering into marriage based on this kind of love and such marriages either hit the rocks or just exists without fulfilling the purpose for marriage in the mind of God when He first created it. This explains the confusion and competition in many families that make it difficult for individuals to fulfill their destinies.

Phileo: This is the kind of love described as Philadelphia. This is the brotherly love that exists in families. Also, this kind of love exists among groups of people of similar cultures and profession. It is the love shared by best friends like David and Jonathan in the bible. See 1Sam.18:1-3. We cannot express this kind of love towards our enemies. This kind too cannot stand in the face of selfishness because when personal interest come in, this kind of love is jettisoned to satisfy a person’s selfish interests. This kind of love may exists between best friends until their individual interests are touched. In this end times, even family members are betraying each other just to fulfill their selfish ambitions. Parents have betrayed their children on the altar of personal ambition to get ahead in life and pretend it is for the best interest of their families. This is the back of many families that have been disintegrated in the name of the head of the family or the wife traveling abroad to work. They claim it is for the best in the interest of the family. They never return home but start the business of another family in the name of getting papers; to be able to stay in the foreign country to work for money to take care of their lustful desires. This kind of love therefore can fail.

Agape: This can best be described as the God kind of love. In fact the bible defines this love as God. In 1Jn.4:8; we read: “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” In other words, the definition of love is God Himself. Whatever describes God describes His love. The nature of the love of God is therefore seen in the nature of His word.

We learn in 1Cor.13:8 that this kind of love never fails. This is where we have our protection in the Christian faith. No one who walks in this kind of love is blindsided. [1Jn.2:9-11] This love keeps you seeing clearly and moving in the right direction until you end up your eternity in God Himself because this kind of love pulls you towards God on a daily basis. The more a person walks in this kind of love, the more you are drawn to the Lord and the more of Him you can manifest to the world meaning the more fruitful you will become as a believer. Jn.15:1-5 and 8.

The nature of the word and love of God: The nature of God’s word and Also His love can be listed in these three words among many others; INEXHAUSTIBLE, INDESTRUCTIBLE AND INCORRUPTIBLE.

Inexhaustible: This means what cannot be finished; what cannot come to an end. It is incapable of being used up, emptied, wasted etc. It also means incapable of being consumed or used up. When you walk in this kind of love, your life is renewed daily and knows no end. Anyone living this way is experiencing eternal life. This is the reason the Lord Jesus Christ came. This explains the willingness of the early Church fathers to die for the faith and all of them ended up as martyrs. This call for martyrdom is ringing loud and clear from heaven again today as the world draws near to the end of time. See Lam.3:22-23; Ex.34:5-9; 2Cor.12:14-15 and Jn.17:3.

Indestructible: To destroy means to damage without remedy. To be indestructible therefore means incapable of decomposition or being destroyed. When something decomposes, it is said to be damaged without remedy. It also means long lasting and if you ask how much long lasting I would say eternally long lasting. The life that the love of God therefore offers us to live by is eternal. This is why it is impossible for anyone in the flesh to be able to live this life. The love of God has the capacity to strip us of everything flesh to be able to cause us to walk in the spirit. Every believer in Christ is in the spirit and have the seed of the love of God in them through their born again spirit. However, this seed would only remain a potential if they do not walk in the spirit. Thus to activate the reality of our new life, we must walk in the spirit so that we can manifest the love of God. This is the entire purpose of our existence on earth. See Rm.8:9; Gal.2:20-21 & 5:16 and Rm.8:12-16.

Incorruptible: We are born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God which lives and abides forever. In the same vein, we are actually saved by the incorruptible seed of the love of God which remains in us as long as we allow it. See 1Jn.3:9; 1Pet.1:23. What does it mean for the love of God to be incorruptible? It means incapable of being corrupted, incapable of corruption; the quality of being honest; truthful etc. as a matter of fact, the word of God is Truth. Therefore we are born of the truth and must manifest the truth. Every believer has a potential to walk in truth but whether we do so or not has to do with our willingness to renew our minds so that we can walk in the truth. Thus the love of God makes us incorruptible. It is the love of God that makes everything work because it is what makes faith work and if your faith fails, your life will fail. Everything we get in life is actually faith determined. See 1Cor.1:1-3; 6:9-10; 15:50 Gal.5:6, 21.

In summation here, we have seen what the love of God offers us. By God’s grace, next week we shall be looking at the qualities of the love of God. Our main text would be 1Cor.13:1-8 from the Amplified version of the bible. It would help if we would meditate on these text against next week. Meanwhile, someone is reading this blog who would like to enjoy divine nature but has never known how or decided until now. If you are that person, you can take advantage of this opportunity by saying the following prayers out loud in faith and you will be born again:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name! Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.