What do you Love?
Agapao is a Greek word that means to love and it appears in the New testament. You might know its other form Agape. Agape is the noun whereas Agapao is the verb. Or Agape in action. Perhaps you may have even heard that it is the “God” kind of love. Well, we will explore exactly what it is and where this kind of love should be directed.
Agapao is a love that means to love person/place/thing directing your will finding your joy in loving that person/place/thing. Rick Renner describes it this way, “Agape occurs when a individual sees, recognizes, understands or appreciates the value of an object or a person, causing the viewer to behold the object or person in great esteem or awe, admiration, wonder and sincere appreciation.”
It also can mean a love that gives the object what it needs even at its own cost.
The most famous use of this comes in the well known and used scripture
John 3:16: “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not die but have everlasting life.” the word for love used in the Greek is the word Agape.
But as we will see this word is used for love of things or loving things that aren’t too cool…
John 3:19
"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”
Let’s use the definition that we have above to dig a little deeper into the text and see what we find.
“this is the Verdict, that the Light has come into the world, and the darkness is so loved with appreciation and admiration by men rather than The Light because their deeds were evil.”
Or put another way,
“This is the Verdict, that Light has come into the world, and was rejected by men because they loved the darkness with great appreciation and admiration simply because their deeds were evil.”
Jesus states that men reject Him simply because they love The Darkness (sin) rather than accept him because their very actions are evil at the core. They in no way desire to give up their sins because they admire it and have an appreciation of it.
1 John 2:15 (my literal rendering from the Greek)
“Do not direct your love finding your joy in the world, neither the things in the world. If someone loves the world finding joy in appreciating admiring it then the love of the Father that greatly esteems with His joy is not in us.”
The Apostle John teaches us that The Agape of the World is antithetical to the Agape of God. Why? Because it is a love of choice and involves a giving of oneself over to the object of its devotion. Why can’t there be both? Well there are two excellent reasons:
Luke 16:13
“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
And
1John 2:16-17 (literal rendering from Greek)
“Because all that is in the World’s present order: the lust of the human nature, and the lust of the eyes that arouses, and the boastful pride of everyday living with material things, is not of The Father, but of the World’s present order. And the World’s present order is in a state of transitioning away along with its objects burning with lust. But on the other hand the one that is doing the will of God abides forever.”
A believer is not to at ALL love the world with Agape because the things in the world are an odds with God. We are to be wholly given over to Him as “living sacrifices” Romans 12:1. There were three things mentioned in the above verses from 1 John. As we read they are: lust of eyes, lust of human nature and the boastful pride. Using Genesis 3:6 we can see in the Garden of Eden that these three temptations were present when Eve was deceived.
Genesis 3:6
“When she saw that the tree was good for food.” (lust of the human nature), and “that it was a delight to the eyes.” (lust of the eyes), and a tree desired to make one wise (the boastful pride of life), “she took of the fruit and ate it.”
With all of this said, what do you Agape?
Agapao is a love that means to love person/place/thing directing your will finding your joy in loving that person/place/thing. Rick Renner describes it this way, “Agape occurs when a individual sees, recognizes, understands or appreciates the value of an object or a person, causing the viewer to behold the object or person in great esteem or awe, admiration, wonder and sincere appreciation.”
It also can mean a love that gives the object what it needs even at its own cost.
The most famous use of this comes in the well known and used scripture
John 3:16: “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not die but have everlasting life.” the word for love used in the Greek is the word Agape.
But as we will see this word is used for love of things or loving things that aren’t too cool…
John 3:19
"This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”
Let’s use the definition that we have above to dig a little deeper into the text and see what we find.
“this is the Verdict, that the Light has come into the world, and the darkness is so loved with appreciation and admiration by men rather than The Light because their deeds were evil.”
Or put another way,
“This is the Verdict, that Light has come into the world, and was rejected by men because they loved the darkness with great appreciation and admiration simply because their deeds were evil.”
Jesus states that men reject Him simply because they love The Darkness (sin) rather than accept him because their very actions are evil at the core. They in no way desire to give up their sins because they admire it and have an appreciation of it.
1 John 2:15 (my literal rendering from the Greek)
“Do not direct your love finding your joy in the world, neither the things in the world. If someone loves the world finding joy in appreciating admiring it then the love of the Father that greatly esteems with His joy is not in us.”
The Apostle John teaches us that The Agape of the World is antithetical to the Agape of God. Why? Because it is a love of choice and involves a giving of oneself over to the object of its devotion. Why can’t there be both? Well there are two excellent reasons:
Luke 16:13
“No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
And
1John 2:16-17 (literal rendering from Greek)
“Because all that is in the World’s present order: the lust of the human nature, and the lust of the eyes that arouses, and the boastful pride of everyday living with material things, is not of The Father, but of the World’s present order. And the World’s present order is in a state of transitioning away along with its objects burning with lust. But on the other hand the one that is doing the will of God abides forever.”
A believer is not to at ALL love the world with Agape because the things in the world are an odds with God. We are to be wholly given over to Him as “living sacrifices” Romans 12:1. There were three things mentioned in the above verses from 1 John. As we read they are: lust of eyes, lust of human nature and the boastful pride. Using Genesis 3:6 we can see in the Garden of Eden that these three temptations were present when Eve was deceived.
Genesis 3:6
“When she saw that the tree was good for food.” (lust of the human nature), and “that it was a delight to the eyes.” (lust of the eyes), and a tree desired to make one wise (the boastful pride of life), “she took of the fruit and ate it.”
With all of this said, what do you Agape?
posted by lazarus da new creation at 3:03 PM
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