God's Agape Love

[Hosanna]

The Bible talks about various kinds of love. There's the Greek word "phileo," which means friendship or tender affection. Then there's "eros," which is the passionate love we feel for a lover. But there's a third kind, a higher kind of love.

"Agape" is the kind of love God has toward His Son and the human race. It's a love that sacrifices, the love that we see in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...".

There are so many scriptures on this topic. It's really something I'm going to sit down and study in this thread. Another scripture that teaches the concept of agape love is Matthew 5:44. It tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

It's not difficult to pray for people who are good to you. But it does stretch you to pray for people who have wounded you. It's easy to hang out with your friends at church. But it's harder to seek out that person who looks like they're miserable and alone and just listen to them for awhile. That's agape love. It's sacrificing your comfort to do what's righteous.

You can "agape love' people by being patient with them, by being understanding with them, by saying something encouraging or by not saying anything when you could. As humans, we are inherently selfish, constantly asking, "What about me?' It's time for me to declare war on selfishness with the power of agape love.

It's time for me to be good and loving to people on purpose. Hopefully that will happen as I study and understand what scripture says about love. I desire to let the agape love of God in me overflow to others.

 

[Anja]

Great topic, I believe we can all use growth in this area. I believe what truly matters is loving God and loving others, but how do we do that effectively? The truth is, we can’t love people fully in our own power. But when we look to God and lay ourselves down in humility, we can live from God’s authentic and powerful love.

So, how are we able to truly love like this? We actually can’t—on our own.

We need to look to God—the source of love! The Bible teaches us that God is not only the source of love, but God is love.

We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. 1 John 4:16

As Christians, we are now able to sincerely love because we have firsthand experience of His gracious love for us.

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Philippians 2:1-2

Although we will never arrive at perfect love on this side of heaven, we can always grow in our capacity to love. And living in God’s love is possible when we learn to acknowledge and depend on Him.

 

[Affinity]

We should not make the mistake of thinking any of God’s attributes are less important then His love. There is more to God than love. For example, He is all-knowing, He is everywhere present, He is infinite, He is eternal, and He is just. And John can even write “God is light” 1 John 1:5. Any time we discuss His love, we must remember that God “may display one attribute or another at a given time, but no quality is independent of or preeminent over any of the others. When He shows His love, He does not abandon His holiness.”

 

[Gloria]

The Bible talks about various kinds of love. There's the Greek word "phileo," which means friendship or tender affection. Then there's "eros," which is the passionate love we feel for a lover. But there's a third kind, a higher kind of love.

"Agape" is the kind of love God has toward His Son and the human race. It's a love that sacrifices, the love that we see in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...".

There are so many scriptures on this topic. It's really something I'm going to sit down and study in this thread. Another scripture that teaches the concept of agape love is Matthew 5:44. It tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

It's not difficult to pray for people who are good to you. But it does stretch you to pray for people who have wounded you. It's easy to hang out with your friends at church. But it's harder to seek out that person who looks like they're miserable and alone and just listen to them for awhile. That's agape love. It's sacrificing your comfort to do what's righteous.

You can "agape love' people by being patient with them, by being understanding with them, by saying something encouraging or by not saying anything when you could. As humans, we are inherently selfish, constantly asking, "What about me?' It's time for me to declare war on selfishness with the power of agape love.

It's time for me to be good and loving to people on purpose. Hopefully that will happen as I study and understand what scripture says about love. I desire to let the agape love of God in me overflow to others.

We should get this thread rolling.

Agape love is spiritual, divine love. It is love that comes from God alone. There are very few things in the Bible totally equated with God, but I John 4:16 tells us that “God is agape” love.

Whatever you understand about God is wrapped up in the term agape, the highest kind of love. At the heart of agape love is the concept of sacrifice. John 3:16 Shows us God loved and he gave.

As a verb, love is something you create, build, and nurture. Not only is love a verb, but love is an action verb.