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Written by Michelle J. Goff, Founder and Director of Iron Rose Sister Ministries
The Greeks used at least six different words for what English summarizes in one word: love.
Eros described physical love or sexual desire.
Philia defined brotherly love.
Storge characterized familial love.
Mania was obsessive love.
Pragma, a love based on duty or obligation, referred to a practical love.
Finally, agape, described unconditional, sacrificial love.
Agape is the word used most often throughout the New Testament. Unconditional, sacrificial love characterizes the love that God has for us and the love that He calls us to have for others.
Often known as the apostle that Jesus loved, John speaks the most about love than any of the other writers. He quotes Jesus speaking about it and he illustrates it through his own writings, inspired of course, by the Holy Spirit.
While teaching Nicodemus, Jesus explained, “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.” (John 3:16, NIV)
- God does not love based on duty or obligation (pragma). Unconditional (agape) love is a choice.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:9, 12-13)
- Jesus speaks about love as sacrificial (agape), not merely a brotherly love (philia).
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.9 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. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:7-12)
- The familial love (storge), that the Father and the Son have, is the foundation on which their agape love for others is laid. They do not just speak of agape love theoretically, but rather show that love that we might live through them (1 John 4:9, above).
One of the beautiful things about God’s agape love for us is that if we truly dwell in His love, God’s perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18).
I cannot love perfectly on my own. We live out love for God and for others when we are first filled to overflowing by His love.
Max Lucado wrote a book entitled, A Love Worth Living. The premise of this book is based on the idea that the 1 Corinthians 13 definition of love is our goal. If those characteristics of love are what we are all expected to maintain, we will fail. Lucado affirms that if we were to fill in our own names in the place of the word love, we would feel extremely inadequate and insufficient.
Using only verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 13, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” Michelle is patient… with children. Michelle is kind, usually. Michelle does not envy… most things. She tries not to boast. Uh, and that pride issue… well…
Conversely, as Lucado proposes, we can change our obvious imperfection to an expectation that God in us can be all of what love is because we are an outpouring of His love!
God in Michelle is patient. God, through Michelle, is kind. Because of God, Michelle does not envy. She boasts in the Lord (as Paul does). And through Christ’s example of humility, Michelle is not proud.
God sees us through the eyes of agape love. He is always kind and keeps no record of wrongs. Agape love never fails.
May we remain in His love to such a degree that we serve as broken vessels for the outpouring of His agape love.
What do you most love about God’s love?
How can you love like Christ loves today?
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Written by Johanna Zabala, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Ecuador
Developing meaningful relationships that are guided by the Heavenly Father has resulted in the growth of my knowledge of Him and in my desire to continue to serve the Lord Jesus Christ at every moment of my life in this earthly space.
As I grew from childhood to adolescence, I gained knowledge and developed increasingly significant beliefs, even as a result of making mistakes. I remember that making mistakes in the innocence of childhood was involuntary. Later as I matured, my mistakes were often voluntary when I deliberately made sinful choices. But I didn’t know how to accept them as steps in learning.
As a child, I had few interpersonal relationships. Establishing connections made me very insecure. Because of this shyness, some events triggered uncertainty, loneliness, and frustrations that at that moment I did not understand, and that became obstacles to my relationships.
When I was of school age, I remember that I always went unnoticed and when I made a mistake, I became very frustrated which prevented me from learning from these experiences. As time went by and as I got to know Jesus, I came to understand that each mistake was part of my growth and helped me to understand Romans 8:28 (NIV), “In all things God works for the good.”
Beloved sisters, if we realize that we can learn from our mistakes, we can encourage each other. We’ll know that when we make a mistake in a relationship, it provides an opportunity to grow and mature in faith and achieve the stature of Christ to which the apostle Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 4:13, “until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
I still need to keep learning, and I'm sure you do, too. As human beings, we know that mistakes are normal and frequent in both our secular and Christian walks each time we think or do things we should not. But these struggles can become part of our spiritual growth when we accept that we are imperfect beings in the hands of a perfect God who perfects us every day in Christ Jesus.
Let’s not forget that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). This promise teaches us that as human beings when we make a mistake, we will be forgiven and purified if we immediately repent—that is, change our attitude towards God—confess, and ask for forgiveness. It is necessary to humble ourselves, recognize the sinful nature that fights in our weakness from within, and beg to be transformed by the Lord's discipline.
Finally, whenever trials, weaknesses, and mistakes come, let us live Romans 8:28, knowing that the Almighty God intervenes with His infinite wisdom in everything, giving us the strength and experiences to help us when we do not dwell on the bad. Beloved, I hope you share this same spirit and that we will all continue towards this goal.
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