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Yesterday we introduced the four loves found in the New Testament of the Bible. We discussed how important it is for us to be able to know what to expect from love that might be offered from all the people in our lives. We also saw how victim thinking is the result of expecting one kind of love when something else is what is being offered.
Today I want to focus on what Biblical scholars think is the highest form of love in the Bible. Agape love is that love we saw comes in self sacrificing and unconditional ways. This is, without a doubt, the hardest love for humans to express. I have heard it said that humans really don't have the capacity to generate Agape love on their own. It is when we are open to the source of Agape love that we can be a conduit and pass that love through us to the world. The source of Agape love is none other than God Himself.
At the very least, humans aren't that good at offering unconditional love. Think about it in your own life. How much of the love you express comes with no strings attached? I would be willing to bet that if the person that you are thinking of right now, when it comes to your ability to offer Agape love, was to do something to offend you, that Agape would go out the window. No strings means that even if a person is offensive, love is still offered as fully as if they were the sweetest person in the world.
I'm not bad mouthing humans with this observation. The reality is that we just can't love without conditions very well. What we do do well is to be a source of Agape love. It is when we are open to receiving that kind of love from the source that we become part of the plan for God to show this world what love is really all about.
When it comes right down to it, Agape is what really makes the difference when it comes to victim thinking and victor living. It is so easy to live in victim thinking tendencies when we think that love is to look a certain way. Whether it is our parents, our friends, our spouse or even our God, when we have an idea of what love is to look like and that idea isn't met, victim thinking is so easily turned loose in our lives.
Looking to receive an unconditional love from anyone in this world is a victim thinking laced strategy. The truth is that dogs are just about the only creatures in our physical world that can come close to Agape love. I always found it interesting that the word dog and the word god are made up of the same letters. Maybe God wanted us to catch a glimpse of what Agape love was to look like when He created dogs. Names always have meaning in the spiritual realm. Maybe Agape love is why dogs are called dogs?
In any event, victors have found that love of the unconditional type can only be expected in a relationship with God. They have also found that in order for that love to have the impact in their lives they want it to, they have to drop their conditions as to what that love is to look like. Here's what I mean by that. Let's say that you have lost your job. Money is getting tight and time is getting short on finding another job. It is so easy to believe that unconditional love from God would look like Him making a job happen in your time frame and under your constraints. That's not unconditional love at all. That's love filled with conditions that you place on the person choosing to love you the way they choose. When it comes to unconditional love, the conditions need to be missing in both directions.
I said it a couple times earlier. Humans don't have the capacity to generate Agape love on their own. I happen to believe that God is the source of Agape love. It is when we allow our lives to be connected to that source that the power of that love works to make our victor status all it is suppose to be. It is when we open the flood gates of that love in our lives that the excess spills out in ways that work to change the lives of all those we come into contact with. We may not be good at generating Agape love, but we are really good at letting that love flow through us when we open our lives up to the source of that love.
Thank God that is the case in our lives. If it were not, we would be in a world of trouble when it comes to what God demands of us. Check out today's Bible reading with me now to see what I mean by that.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. John 15:12 (NIV)
Can you guess what love is being expressed in this verse? That's right. It's Agape love. Basically, God is saying to love each other like He loves us. He wants us to love everyone we come into contact with in a way that has no strings attached. That means we are to love the lovable that way as well as the unlovable. Do you see the potential for problems based on this command from God in scripture?
I think that God is fully aware of the fact that humans, as a result of the fallen world, aren't capable of generating Agape love for one another. God isn't setting us up for failure with this command. He is banking on us coming to our senses and tapping into the unlimited supply of Agape love. He wants us to tap in so that we will be able to be in total obedience as we relate to this God that made us. God doesn't need us to generate Agape love. He wants us to walk with Him so that we can be reflections of that love as it comes to us from Him. God really is a god focused on relationship and making that relationship change the world.
I guarantee that you would be able to love others passionately if that was God's command. I would bet that you would be able to brotherly love others in this world if that is what God demanded. I know that you would be able to offer up healthy doses of family kinds of love if God made that request of you. Those three kinds of love are not what God wants us to show the world. It is the kind of love that can only come from the source of that love that makes substantive change in our world happen. It is when we connect with this God that made us in ways that let Agape love flow into our lives that we can offer that kind of love to those who desperately need it in their lives as well.
How much Agape love is in your life today? Whatever is there didn't come from your own making. Agape comes from God alone. It is when we let Agape be in our lives that our ability to live this life like a victor happens no matter what our circumstances look like. Make change happen in your life today. Get connected to God's unconditional love and let that love impact all you will do in your life.
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