[[1Co 13:4-8]] KJV*
4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoice in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believes all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
*[[1Co 13:13/KJV]]*
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Why the translators chose to use charity instead of love is not known to me, but in the original Greek the word is agape which they translated love in most other passages.
This word love it is so central to the scriptures, and so pivotal to the New Testament that wisdom should tell us to make no assumptions about its meaning. Many may know already, but for clarity, there are three Greek words translated as love. The third is a desire for something, but it is the other two which I plan to look at; as these lend themselves to relationship.
1) agape- it is commonly said to be unconditional love. That statement is true but not as people tend to use it.
When thought of as "God loves me just like I am" or "This is the way God made me" the true meaning of the word is lost.
This word means to have a benevolence toward, or put more simply to desire completely that another will posses and become what is wholesome for them to be and do.
A related word is agapao which is the actions that come from the motive of agape. we will come back to this word shortly.
Before we move on think of this; because we where in darkness, lost and bound by sin we where dead waiting on deaths physical manifestation in our existence. God by his agape(which has no benefit for self only for the one it is toward) sent his Son.
Jesus through his act or his agapao at the cross provided everything needed for us to have the light of His glory, an eternal home, set us free from the chains of disobedience, and bring us to a new life that never ends.
All Jesus provided is available but we are required to give up our life to obtain his. God had agape for Pontias Pilot but when the saviour was presented to him in the midst of his agapao (though he could see his innocence) had only two things to say..."what is truth?" and "I have authority over you" Gods agape and Jesus agapao where of no effect or profit to this man.
He is not alone.
If Pilot is representative of the world that has no belief in God then the rich young ruler is the religious man. This man did not mind doing things to be right with God, he even seems zealous for such. Yet when Jesus looks at him with agape he tells him to abandon all that was his and take part in our Lords agapao; he turns and leaves.
The things of this world that he considered blessings for his obedience held more place in his heart than the true provision of God.
The agape of God toward us(the motive to make us have life with no benefit to himself) is provided that we can have agape toward him.
The conclusion of these things is yes God loves us, so much he provided a saviour, but if we don't trust in the life he offers we will only know death despite Gods love.
2) the second word translated love is phileo which is to be fond of, have affection for, or an attachment to like a friendship.
Peter trusted that he would never betray Jesus even if it meant prison or death. He had heard Jesus say again and again that they must have agape for him and the Father and by Peters statements and actions I am sure he thought he did.
There is no record of any other disciple of the Lord being crushed quite like Peter.
He was no coward, he attacked an armed group of men in defence of the Lord, but found himself rebuked by Jesus that the sword is not the way of salvation.
We know the story of Peters denial. But let us look instead on the sea shore where Jesus comes to restore Peter.
Peters wound from his failure had started to heal the wrong way, by going back to what he had done before he met Jesus, so it was necessary break him just a little more that he could heal correctly.
Jesus ask him Peter do you have agape for me more than these, but Peter responds I have phileo for you Jesus instructs feed my lambs. Next Jesus ask him do you agape me, leaving off the more than these. Peter again responds with phileo to which the Lord responds feed my sheep. You can almost imagine all thing becoming silent as our Lord asks do you phileo me?
The snap inside Peter is almost audible as the memory of his denials a month earlier flood back with a tidal wave of grief. Peter knows that the greatest love he can produce is phileo and it is all he can confess and yet Jesus response is still feed my sheep.
The conversation doesn't end there. Jesus goes on to tell Peter that as he has yielded himself unto death for Peter so Peter will one day yield himself unto death for the glory of Jesus.
It was not many days later at Pentecost that the Spirit would take up residence in Peter and make him one with the Lord and the Father living agape through him. For neither we or Peter are able to have true agape without God making and living it through us.
Peter realized this have we?
Rick Rosamond
A bond slave of Jesus
