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From the Greek verb agapao and the Greek noun agape, this kind of love is difficult to define, for it is the very nature of God. We can know its characteristics, however, and how it is distinctly different from the Greek verb phileo and the Greek noun philanthropia.
The following is compiled from An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by W. E. Vine:
Agapao / agape is the essential nature of God, (1 John 4:8). Love can be known only from the ACTIONS it prompts. God's love is seen in the gift of His Son, (1 John 4:9-10). But obviously this is not the love of complacency, or affection (which would be phileo). This love that is God, that flows from God, and that He wants in His children, does not depend on, nor is it drawn out by any excellency in its objects. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His Own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." There was nothing in us to love--no reason for God to exercise tender affection toward us. God's love is given to us by His deliberate choice because that which is His nature IS love. Deuteronomy 7:7-9 says, "The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your forefathers that He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commands."
Love had its perfect expression among men in the Lord Jesus Christ, (2 Corinthians 5:14; Ephesians 2:4; Ephesians 3:19; Ephesians 5:2); Christian love is the fruit of His Spirit in the Christian, (Galatians 5:22). We, as believers, are to be identified with God in character--to love as He loved us.
Christian love has God for its primary object, and expresses itself first of all in unquestioning and absolute obedience to His commandments, (John 14:15, 21, 23; John 15:10; 1 John 2:5; 1 John 5:3; 2 John 6). The following of one's own self-will--the pleasing of self--is the negation of love to God. When we exercise self-will, we deny the Truth of, or nullify, the love of God. One example of this exercising of self-will as opposed to the giving up of self is Matthew 6:24: "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
Christian love, whether exercised toward the brethren--brothers and sisters in the Lord, those in the body of Christ, those in His church, those of the household of the faith--or toward mankind generally, is not an emotion. It is not always given to another because we are inclined to feel tender affections for them--we may NOT feel tender affection for someone, but we MUST give this love from God. It IS always given to all, as commanded by the One Who IS Love, because it seeks the welfare of all, (Romans 15:2), and works no ill to any, (Romans 13:8-10). Love seeks opportunity to do good to "all men, and especially toward them that are of the household of the faith," (Galatians 6:10). As you study further the Scriptures in 1 Corinthians 13 and Colossians 3:12-14, notice that love is ACTION, not emotion. Love WORKS, love DOES, love SEEKS, love BEARS, love FORGIVES, love PROTECTS, TRUSTS, HOPES, PERSEVERES, and love NEVER FAILS.
When agapao is used of God, it expresses the deep and constant love and interest of the Perfect Being towards entirely unworthy objects--us. God's love produces, and continues to produce, in His children a reverential love toward God, the Giver of ALL things to us, including our very breath, and the soul which makes us unique. God's love also produces in us a practical love towards those who are of like mind, being children of God, and a desire to help others to seek the Giver of love, the One Who IS Love.
Phileo is a love that more nearly represents tender affection. The two words, agapao and phileo, are used for the love of the Father for the Son, (John 3:35--agapao and John 5:20--phileo). The two words are used for the love of the Father for the believer, (John 14:21--agapao and John 16:27--phileo). Phileo is never used when there is a command to men to love God. Agapao is always used, as in Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27; Romans 8:28; 1 Corinthians 8:3; 1 Peter 1:8; 1 John 4:21.
The following is quoted from Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology to present you with a deeper study of the source of love--God; His nature--being love; His love for mankind; our love for Him, and our love for our fellow man:
God is love and has demonstrated that love in everything that He does. Paul compares faith, hope, and love, and concludes that "the greatest of these is love," (1 Corinthians 13:13).
"God Is Love." Agape [ajgavph], the love theme of the Bible, can only be defined by the nature of God. John affirms that "God is love," (1 John 4:8). God does not merely love; He IS love. Everything that God does flows from His love.
John emphasizes repeatedly that God the Father loves the Son, (John 5:20; John 17:23, 26) and that the Son loves the Father,(John 14:31). Because the Father loves the Son, He made His Will known to Him. Jesus in turn demonstrated His love to the Father through His submission and obedience.
The theme of the entire Bible is the self-revelation of the God of love. In the garden of Eden, God commanded that "you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die," (Genesis 2:17). We are not prepared, then, when God looks for Adam after his sin, calling out "Where are you?" God seeks Adam, not to put him to death, but to reestablish a relationship with him. God, the Lover, will not allow sin to stand between Him and His creature. He personally bridges the gap.
That seeking and bridging reaches its pinnacle when God sends His Son into the world to rescue sinners and to provide them with eternal life, (John 3:16; Romans 5:7-8; Ephesians 2:1-5). John declares, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us," (1 John 3:16). God's love is not based on the merit of the recipient, (Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Romans 5:7-8). Because He IS love, God is not willing that any person should perish, but wills that everyone repent and live, (Ezekiel 18:32; 2 Peter 3:9).
"Love the Lord Your God." We are totally incapable of loving either God or others--a condition that must be corrected by God before we can love. The Bible's ways of describing this process of correction are numerous: "circumcision of the heart," (Deuteronomy 30:6); God's "writing His laws" on our hearts, (Jeremiah 31:33); God's substituting a "heart of flesh" for a "heart of stone," (Ezekiel 11:19); being "born again" by the Spirit, (John 3:3; 1 John 5:1-2); removing old clothing and replacing it with new, (Colossians 3:12-14); dying to a sinful life and resurrecting to a new one, (Colossians 3:1-4); moving out of darkness into light, (1 John 2:9). Until that happens, we cannot love.
God alone is the source of love, (1 John 4:7-8); He "poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us," (Romans 5:5). God's love then awakens a response in those who accept it. God loves through believers, who act as channels for His love; they are branches who must abide in the vine if they are to have that love, (John 15:1-11). We have the assurance that we have passed from death to life because we love others, (1 John 3:14).
Once we have received God's love as His children, He expects us to love. In fact, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love," (1 John 4:8). Jude urges his readers to keep themselves in God's love, (Jude, v.21).
"Love the Lord Your God with All Your Heart." Love of God is a response of the whole of the believer--heart, soul, mind, and strength, (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34)--to the whole of God. Jesus serves as the believer's model, (John 14:21; Philippians 2:5-8). Obedience to God, (Deuteronomy 6:7; 7:9) and renunciation of the world-system, (1 John 2:16), are critical elements of our love of God.
Our love, however, is easily misdirected. Its object tends to become the creation rather than the Creator; it loses sight of the eternal for the temporal; it focuses on the self, often to the exclusion of God and others. We become idolaters, focusing a part or all of our love elsewhere. We are "love breakers" more than "law breakers."
Genesis 22 presents a classic struggle: the conflicting pulls of love. Abraham loves Isaac, the son of his old age, the child of God's promise. But God tests his love. For the sake of the love of God, Abraham is willing to sacrifice the son he loves. His response is to a greater love. Jesus describes this conflict as hating father and mother in order to love and follow God, (Luke 14:26).
"Love Your Neighbor as Yourself." Love for neighbor is a decision that we make to treat others with respect and concern, to put the interests and safety of our neighbors on a level with our own. It demands a practical outworking in everyday life--placing a retaining wall around the roof to keep people from falling, (Deuteronomy 22:8); not taking millstones in pledge, thus denying someone the ability to grind grain into flour, (Deuteronomy 24:6); allowing the poor to glean leftovers from the orchards and fields, (Leviticus 19:9-12). Our actions illustrate our love. Love for neighbor is "love in action, " doing something specific and tangible for others.
The New Testament concept closely parallels that of the Old Testament. John writes: "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in Truth," (1 John 3:18). Believers need to share with those in need, whether that need is for food, water, lodging, clothing, healing, or friendship, (Matthew 25:34-40; Romans 12:13). The love demonstrated in the parable of the good Samaritan [Luke 10:29-37] shows that agape [ajgavph] love is not emotional love, but a response to someone who is in need--[ACTION!].
The command to love others is based on how God has loved us. Since believers have been the recipients of love, they must love. Since Christ has laid down His life for us, we must be willing to lay down our lives for our brothers, (1 John 3:16).
Many people in Jesus' day believed that a neighbor was a fellow Israelite. When asked to define "neighbor," however, Jesus cited the parable of the good Samaritan--a person who knowingly crossed traditional boundaries to help a wounded Jew, (Luke 10:29-37). A neighbor is anyone who is in need. Jesus also told His disciples that a "neighbor" might even be someone who hates them, curses them, or mistreats them. Yet they must love even enemies, (Luke 6:27-36), as a witness and a testimony.
The Old Testament charge was to "love your neighbor as yourself," (Leviticus19:18). But Jesus gave His disciples a new command with a radically different motive: "Love each other as I have loved you," (John 15:12). Paul affirms that "the entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,'" (Galatians 5:14). James sees the command to love one another as a "royal law," (James 2:8).
Love is the motivation for evangelism. Christ's love compels us to become ambassadors for Christ, with a ministry of reconciliation, (2 Corinthians 5:14). --Glenn E. Schaefer
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