Complete in Thee: The Love of John 3:16

Sunday, April 19, 2009

The Love of John 3:16

In my IBE lessons, Dr. Minnick taught me the four different Greek words for love, in a lesson which was very convicting to me! They are as follows:

Eros (said like AIR-oss) -- physical attraction, passionate compulsion (lust). Aristotle said, "Eros always begins with the pleasure of the eye, and no one falls into it without first being charmed by beauty." Dr. Minnick called this unconverted love and pictured it like this: Two circles next to eachother, with an arrow coming out from one of the circles, but the arrow is inverted towards itself. It is a kind of "love" that is out for what it can get more than what it can give.

Philos (said like FIH-loss)-- friendship love, a mutual affection. Dr. Minnick illustrated this by two circles next two eachother with a line between the two with arrows pointing towards each other.

Storge (said like STORE-gay)-- family love, also a mutual affection. This word is used twice in the negative in the New Testament, in Romans 1:1 and 2 Timothy 3:3. This is illustrated in the same way as the former philos.

Agape (said like uh-GAH-pay)-- divine love, God's love, John 3:16 love. This is God giving to the world. It is illustrated in two circles, with an arrow (not inverted) going out from one circle to the other. It desires the other's highest good. This is the character of love that a true disciple of Christ should show to EVERYONE.

It was that last one, agape, that really convicted me. We are not told to have warm, fuzzy philos/storge love towards everyone, necessarily, but we are told to have agape love towards all people! What? All people? What if this one person rejects my love? Or doesn't care what I think about them? Worse, what if that person hates my guts and would do anything to be rid of me? Am I to love that person?

I love the picture in Fireproof, when Caleb is complaining to his dad about Catherine, and asks how is he supposed to love someone who continually rejects him. His dad uses that question and turns it around on him-- how is it that God would continue to love him, even though he continued to reject Him? Think about it. We have hurt God over and over again by sinning against Him, lifting ourselves up against Him in our hearts, rejecting Him. Yet, when we were yet sinners, He loved us, so much that He died for us and took the penalty of our sins upon Himself! What great love! And even when men reject Him, He still loves them and continues to offer them a chance to repent and put their faith and trust in Him.

When I think of God's love in that way, I am ashamed of my own level of "love". I don't even have people who hate me so much that they wish I were dead (I don't think I do, at least!) but there are people I know well who are hard to love because they tend to be unkind, annoying, sometimes hurtful (intentionally or unintentionally, with words or actions)... and it is so easy to feel bitter or resentful towards those people. I don't "feel" like loving them, because they are just so unlovable! Shame on me! Aren't I so unlovable, and yet God loved me? Haven't I sinned and hurt God and others, and yet God loves and forgives me? Haven't I blasphemed His name, and yet He offers me salvation and forgiveness through His death on the cross? Who am I to resent or withhold forgiveness from anyone for something done against me, or anyone, for that matter? Jesus loves them with the same magnitude of love with which He has loved me. And if Christ is in me, so should His fruit be abiding and abounding in me. My Heavenly Father has been so good lately to challenge me to this new depth of love in the face of difficult relationships. Revealing Himself and the nature of His love to me, He shows me where I am so fleshly in this area, and yet offers me victory through His Name and by His blood. This is not a losing effort, if God is on my side-- and He is! :-)

Please pray for me as I seek to grow in this area of Christlike agape love towards all. I also encourage you to allow the Spirit to shed light on your own hearts and show you if there is any bitterness or resentment in your heart that needs to be rooted out. It may be painful for a moment, but the end will be sweet joy!

1 comment:

Amanda said...: That was a really good, eye-opening lesson. And you wrote everything else I could say. :); April 22, 2009 at 8:16 PM

PRAYER REQUESTS

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints" (Ephesians 6:18)

PLEASE PRAY...

* That I would draw nearer to God every day and never allow my relationship to become stagnant ritual; particularly that I would grow in the area of submission, patience, 1 Corinthians 13 love, and wholehearted devotion

* That I might have wisdom as I edit "The Marquis' Daughter"; that the Lord would bless and work through it; and that I might find just the right publisher for it.

* That I would submit to the Lord's work in my life, whatever it may be; that I would take each opportunity He brings me (even the seemingly hard ones) to draw closer to Him and point others to Him

*That our Etsy shop might be successful and that it would be a means by which we can glorify God and share the Gospel

Ephesians 2:1-10

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

"The heart set to do the Father's will need never fear defeat. His promises of guidance may be fully counted upon. Does it make sense to believe that the Shepherd would care less about getting His sheep where He wants them to go than they care about getting there?"

"God is God. Because He is God, He is worthy of my trust and obedience. I will find rest nowhere but in His holy will, a will that is unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to."

"If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing."

"Obedience to God's will is the secret of spiritual knowledge and insight. It is not willingness to know, but willingness to DO (obey) God's will that brings certainty."

"Victory over all the circumstances of life comes not by might, nor by power, but by a practical confidence in God and by allowing His Spirit to dwell in our hearts and control our actions and emotions. Learn in the days of ease and comfort, to think in terms of the prayer that follows, so that when the days of hardship come you will be fully prepared and equipped to meet them."

"And shall I pray, Oh, change Thy will, my Father,
Until it be according unto mine?
Ah no, Lord, no, that never could be, rather
I pray Thee, Blend my human will with Thine."

"A crucified life cannot be self-assertive. It cannot protect itself. It cannot be startled into resentful words. The cup that is full of sweet water cannot spill bitter-tasting drops, however sharply it is knocked."

"And as we rest our hearts upon what we know (the certainty of the ultimate triumph of good), leaving what we do not know to the Love that has led us all our life long, the peace of God enters into us and abides. And then we see our light."

[A Practicing Christian]...it means that every single act and feeling, every experience, whether pleasant or unpleasant, must be referred to God. It means looking at everything as something that comes from Him, and always looking to Him and asking His will first, and saying, "How would he wish me to deal with this?"

Christ says: "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want you."

"I was not born to be free. I was born to adore and to obey."

"What is saving but taking us out of the dark into the light? There is no salvation but to know God and grow like Him."

"I will not try to convince you of anything about God. I cannot. You must know Him. I only tell you I believe in Him with all my heart. You must ask Him to explain Himself to you, and not take it for granted that He has done you a wrong because He has done what you do not like. Whether you seek Him or not, He will do you justice. But He cannot explain Himself unless you seek Him."

"Sometimes a thunderbolt will shoot from a clear sky; and sometimes into the life of a peaceful individual, without warning of gathered storm, something terrible will fall. And from that moment everything is changed. That life is no more what it was. Better it ought to be, worse it may be. The result depends on the life itself and it's response to the invading storm of trouble. Forever after, it's spiritual weather is altered. But for the one who believes in God, such rending and frightful catastrophies never come but where they are turned around for good in his own life and in other lives he touches."