God I pray that you will give us a true, agape love for those that oppose us; not an irritated, unforgiving, distant love but a brotherly, non envious love.
Agape [Ah-gah-pay] love is true love; like God, unconditional, and unselfish.
” This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” -John 15:12 [KJV]
I’m sure you’ve experienced it; anger, fear, hurt, embarrassment, bitterness, jealousy, pride, etc. All of these things and many more are dug in and stubbornly rooted in our flesh. They are the natural first responders to our most painful hurts and the smallest inconveniences that we encounter. No matter your denial of this truth, everyone is at least a little bit selfish. As one of the spiritual “greats” I’ve come to know, says, “don’t be pulling that good ole’ holy righteous robe up on ya’ now”. No matter who you are, our instinct nature is selfish.
To expound on that, this flesh sure is needy; give me, give me, give me. Without Christ we are inevitably, walking-talking-ticking time bombs awaiting the person, place, or thing that will set us off. When someone hurts us we want revenge. When someone is doing better than us we get envious. When our pride is hurt and we get embarrassed we want to lash out in rage. However as you most likely know, to live like Christ means to live unlike our own carnality. If you are new to this truth, start off by reading in Matthew 5:38-48 and 1 Corinthians 13.
Speaking of 1 Corinthians 13, that scripture has been used by the saved to the unsaved for years; in weddings, church services, prayers, decor, and more. We hear this scripture quite frequently but have our ears become callous to it? This little passage of truth is so vital to the lifeline of our spiritual life. Let us refer back to John 15:12 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” This is my commandment.. Now to reference John 14:15 ” If ye love me, keep my commandments.” The definition of keep is to maintain (some action). I love the added parentheses saying “some action” because it definitely takes some action on our part to keep His commandments!
Getting back to 1 Corinthians 13, in verses 4-8 we learn the many characteristics of love. let’s break it down:
suffers long – This is the gas in your car when it comes to love, especially in long term relationships. It’s what keeps it going. it’s not only one of the elements that make up love but also one of the fruits of the spirit you find in Galatians 5:22. To love others effectively you have to be willing to forgive, and make sacrifices for that other person; it’s not always the easiest thing to do but it’s crucial. who knew love and suffering went hand in hand? the world would tell you do whatever makes you happy but to have relationships oozing with genuine love and purpose, sometimes you have to have patience and suffer for a season on anthers behalf.
kind – Love is kind; it has a heart for helping and adding to others. Kindness takes the natural fleshly response and flips it completely, instead of searching for what one can get out of their relationships it looks for what one can pour into their relationships. Kindness is benevolent and active in the pursuit of blessing others.
doesn’t envy – Jealousy is like fast acting poison in the body of Christ. If you want to see love quickly deteriorate, then add a dash of jealousy. It waters down good motive and stirs up all those fleshly emotions like anger, and bitterness. Jealousy is like the ground of preparation for a building of sin. It is very best when envy starts to set up to nip it in the bud, recognize it and smother it with the word of God because it is deadly. Love does not envy but rather rests in God’s truth knowing “For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.” -Psalm 107:9
doesn’t parade itself – Love doesn’t show off. Love doesn’t flaunt itself and act all high and mighty. If its to boast of anything it would rather be that the Lord is high and mighty.
not puffed up – Love isn’t puffed up, instead it is humble. Love doesn’t know arrogance. If we desire to genuinely show love to those around us we have to allow the Lord to permeate through or pompous persona. It is hard for others to receive your love if they feel like you think of yourself better than them.
doesn’t behave rudely – This one may fall under a more common logic from man to man, Christian or not. However it is not able to be displayed in it’s fullness except through the power of Christ and His Spirit resting on us. Agape love that doesn’t behave rudely responds with things the flesh simply does not possess.[ Proverbs 15:1, James 1:19, Romans 12:20 ]
doesn’t seek it’s own – Genuine love follows the acronym J.O.Y. “Jesus, others, then you.” Love isn’t consumed with fulfilling it’s own heart but is after blessing Jesus and others before itself. True love says, this is hard and it hurts but I will love you anyway, looking for ways to uplift and bless you.
not easily provoked – Ooooh, how this goes against our human instincts. Real love, even when irritated, chooses not to take its anger out on those around them. It knows that it’s better to just let it go. But did you hear what they said about me? Did you see how they just shoulder- checked me? They did that on purpose! They’re spreading lies about me– Hold the phone; no literally, hold the phone Jesus because I’m sure one or another of us are all guilty of saying things of that same sort, ranting to a close friend over our cell. Our petty differences really do not amount to a hill of beans when it comes to Christ’s commandments. we are called to love without being easily provoked; strive to be hard to offend.
thinks no evil – You can’t meditate on all things lovely and concentrate on sinful things at the same time. Love daily…nightly, afternoon-ly, evening-ly (excuse my poor english for the sake of this point) does a deep cleaning of the thoughts and meditations of the mind; see Romans 12:2 It’s nearly impossible to forget the ways those around us have hurt or wronged us or…hurt or wronged those close to us. But we can choose not to dwell on those things and choosing to focus on what is good and acceptable- Philippians 4:8
doesn’t rejoice in iniquity – To possess agape love is to not find happiness in another’s faults and incapabilities. Love simply doesn’t find joy in all those aspects of fleshly habits: wrath, jealousy, and on. It doesn’t find joy in anything that is contrary or contradicts the word of God.
rejoices in the truth – Love doesn’t just reject iniquity and sit idle but it pursues truth. Love embraces God’s word and things that go hand in hand with it and it rejoices. Love finds great gladness in all things true by God’s word.
bears all things – Love can be hard work. Love bears all things; it carries the load. It bears one another’s burdens [Galatians 6:2] and goes the extra mile. Where circumstantial love says let go and focus on yourself, agape love sounds like a broken record saying stay and bear, stay and bear, and stay and bear.
believes all things – Love goes hand in hand with faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” – Hebrews 11:6 it’s no wonder then that faith ties into one of the greatest commandments that God has given us. The bible tells us to walk by faith and not sight [2 Corinthians 5:7] Love sees as Jesus sees, through a lens of mercy and grace. Choose to love others not by what you see but by what you know by faith believing in His never changing word.
hopes all things – Hope; because of Christ, we who have entrusted our life in Him have hope. Love is hopeful, looking for the best and expecting God to fulfill all His promises and declarations.
endures all things – Agape love is unconditional. Agape love pushes; it suffers and is patient. can look gossip, hatred, and jealousies in the face and pronounce them to be nothing in the grand scheme of things. It presses through knowing that God is working all together for our good [Romans 8:28].
never fails – You can’t steer wrong with genuine agape love. circumstantial love will only go so far but God’s unconditional love, will never fall short.
God give us a not so distant, not so irritated, not so selfish, not so jealous love. Help us to love others despite if the feeling is mutual; because thats just it, God’s love goes way beyond emotion. Emotions change rapidly, if we were dependent on that to establish our love for one another we would be rooted in instability. Agape love chooses to love. Choose to love those who you stand at odds with. Love them and not with a far off “I’m loving you enough to get to Heaven love” but a genuine, hug your neck, joy filled love. Choose to love like Jesus does. Love others like He has loved you.