Founded on Agape Love

Grace

"This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." John 15:12-13

The word love has been redefined, abused, confused, and misused. Let’s talk about authentic love which is Agape love. Agape love is godly love. It is unilateral and unconditional love. It is love of spouse that does not depend on the other person’s lovability or the other person’s reciprocating one’s love. Rather, it is based on our love for God and God’s own love for us. It is love that is not based on emotion but on a commitment. It is love that does not come from our own strength but from God, “the love of God (that) has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Rom 5:5)

Agape love is to love as Jesus loves. Jesus himself gives us the commandment: “love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” (Jn 13:34). The benchmark for our love for spouse is the love of Jesus himself. And the love that Jesus manifested was a self-sacrificial love. It gave up everything for the sake of the beloved. It was so important for Jesus to put across his message, what he had lived for and would die for, that he reiterates his new commandment: “love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15:12-13).

However, probably not many of us will be called on to literally sacrifice our lives for our spouse or for others. So how can we live out agape love in our day-to-day lives?

Paul, that great apostle who loved God and who himself became a martyr for his faith in Jesus, gives us a practical description of agape love. He describes it this way: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13:4-7). After describing how love is, Paul then assures us, “Love never fails.” 1 Cor 13:8a). True love will never fail in persevering and strengthening Christian marriage. It will never fail in enriching marriage and making if fruitful and joyful. 

One final point. As said by Bro Frank Padilla, “The best way to love is to evangelize!” This is desiring the greatest good which heaven to the other. May we all be founded on Agape love.