- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
WHAT IS LOVE?
By J. C. Metcalfe
Do Christians understand the real meaning of love? The only place we can turn to for reliable information is of course the New Testament and some simple facts at once emerge. In classical Greek there were three verbs, which can be translated “to love”. The first, from which we get our English word “erotic” was the common word for sexual desire and does not appear anywhere in the New Testament. Then there was a verb which mainly means “affection” and from which are derived some of our English words such as “philanthropy” and “philosophy”. This verb is used 18 times in the New Testament, the noun associated with it, never. Lastly, there was the verb “agapao” which most Bible translators take to be a word based on esteem and judgement. My Greek lexicon to the New Testament gives the meaning as, “to love, value, esteem, feel or show generous concern for, be faithful towards, to delight in”, and these meanings provide much food for thought. In this case according to Young’s concordance the verb is used 115 times in the New Testament and the noun “agape” in 82 places. It was interesting to find that the only thing said about this noun in a classical Greek lexicon was this, “brotherly love, ecclesiastical”. This shows plainly that it had no accepted place in Greek thought before the coming of the Lord and His Church, built firmly on His death on the Cross for sinners and His glorious resurrection as the first fruits of God’s new creation. I propose to examine some of the places where either the verb or noun is used so that the true meaning may soak into our hearts and be demonstrated in our lives.
It seems that perhaps the best place to start an examination is the simple declaration made in 1 John 4 v8, “God is Love”, which is immediately followed by a clear statement as to how this glorious aspect of God’s nature can be known. “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (v9-10). Love for God cannot be the product of our own nature and so the apostle adds, “We love Him because He first loved us” (v19). It is His love that starts a love within us.
The Great Commandment
This takes us naturally to the great demand that God makes on humankind, so plainly made known though the Law given to Moses. The Lord Jesus said to a Jewish lawyer, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke 10 v27). This is a height we can never scale until divine love intervenes on our behalf.
The Lord Jesus continues His reply in these terms, “Love your neighbour as yourself”. Our one certain hope rests in the love of God for humanity. When I was in the British army, a guideline was given to a group of us, “Never send men where you would be unwilling to go yourselves”. If that is true on that level it is much more certain that God having laid down a law for us, would be the very first to be obedient to it. When we turn to our Bibles we find that this is so.
God obeys His own Law
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3 v16-17). The echo of this amazing evidence of God’s love, comes back to us in the verse, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5 v8). Again the apostle Paul writes, “If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also give us all things?” (Romans 8 v31-32). In Galatians Paul speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ in this way, and we should never forget that Jesus is God, saying, “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2 v20). Here then is love in action. We can expect no help from religion. It is the love of God alone that can meet our desperate need.
The miracle worked by God in our lives is, however, greater than just healing and restoration. It is a “birth from above” (John 3 v3) into a completely new life, which has its source in God. The Spirit of God now dwells in us in order that we may learn and be able to keep God’s law. In the first place “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5 v5). Here again the debt we owe to Him, who paid the penalty of our sin at Calvary, is plainly seen in the next verse, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly”. Nothing less than His sacrifice at the correct time could meet our need. It is the humble acceptance of this marvellous love lavished on us, which kindles within us the glow of a love that makes obedience to God’s first commandment a possibility. The same story is told in Romans 8 v2-4. “Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit”. In this way John’s saying becomes reality, “We know and rely on the love that God has for us. God is Love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4 v16).
Our obedience
So it is made possible for us to obey the first and great commandment. We must never forget that until real love for God becomes the dominating power in our hearts, the second commandment that we must love our neighbour as ourselves is impossible. Love for our neighbour is born out of our love relationship to God. Love for God is not just a feeling or sentiment, but is very practical and achievable. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is the love of God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5 v1-3).
If you and I are to take the Lord of love, Jesus, as our pattern, then the more we seek to walk in this path the more conscious we shall become that here is something we cannot copy. It takes His mighty working in us to enable us to show love in some small reflection of His love. All we do for others, we must do first out of love for Him, and not because we seek gratitude from them. “The fruit of the Spirit is love” (Galatians 5 v22), love towards God, and towards others. The Cross was the measure of the world’s ingratitude and God turned it into the triumph of love. In spite of the hardness of human hearts, Christ was born and He has revolutionised humanity down through the ages. And the highest example of our love for others is to bring to our neighbour the glorious message of the good news.
One final comfort for men and women can only be found in the love of God given to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. We, who are channels of His love, must recognise that our first priority is to proclaim the truth of Jesus’ love far and wide. It is humanity’s only source of help in life and in death. Paul expressed the urge he had to preach in these words, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5 v14-15). Like the apostle we must be caught up in this onward march of love.
From an old ‘Overcomer’ issue.