What is love? In our daily life, there are so many meanings to it. To some it could be attributes of a relationship. Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus describes it has a “very strong affection”. For ancient Greek tragedian, Sophocles it could be the solution, "One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love." It is indeed so difficult to describe the emotion in man over centuries.
Why did Jesus left His heavenly Kingdom to be with us? (Php 2:7) Why did Jesus continue to preach God’s Will? (Mat 5-7), Why did He continue to help the spiritually “sick and weak” ? (Luke 5:31) Why did He ask for man’s forgiveness even in midst while He was brutally crucified? (Luke 23:34) Why did our Lord think, say and do those things for you and me? Or why did God send His only son Jesus Christ to die for our sins? (John 3:16).
The answer is Love - “agape” in greek, which is unconditional love in the Bible. Jesus demonstrated this affection by sacrificing Himself for us (Eph 5:2). From Eph 4:2, this agape-love is best described as:
1. Lowliness and meekness - humility
2. Longsuffering - patience
3. Forbearing one another – bear with, endure
4. Endeavouring – make effort
And we do so out of this agape-love:
1. To seek those who have not understood the blessings and hope we have in Christ. (Luk 19:10)
2. To keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph 4:3)
3. To “spiritually mature” to defend the faith (Eph 4:15)
4. To edifying of church/brotherhood (Eph 4:16)
The love taxonomy could be a difficult phenomenon to be explained by conventional wisdom. However, God’s Word shines a brighter light on the idea of agape-love in the spiritual sense. But this is only the start. We have to continue to pray, study and serve God to fully appreciate the breadth, length, depth and height of Christ Love (Eph 3:18-19)(1 Jn 4:16). Don’t give up. For our finite mind then to understand, so what is agape-Love? 1 Jn 4:8 (God)!
Why did Jesus left His heavenly Kingdom to be with us? (Php 2:7) Why did Jesus continue to preach God’s Will? (Mat 5-7), Why did He continue to help the spiritually “sick and weak” ? (Luke 5:31) Why did He ask for man’s forgiveness even in midst while He was brutally crucified? (Luke 23:34) Why did our Lord think, say and do those things for you and me? Or why did God send His only son Jesus Christ to die for our sins? (John 3:16).
The answer is Love - “agape” in greek, which is unconditional love in the Bible. Jesus demonstrated this affection by sacrificing Himself for us (Eph 5:2). From Eph 4:2, this agape-love is best described as:
1. Lowliness and meekness - humility
2. Longsuffering - patience
3. Forbearing one another – bear with, endure
4. Endeavouring – make effort
And we do so out of this agape-love:
1. To seek those who have not understood the blessings and hope we have in Christ. (Luk 19:10)
2. To keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. (Eph 4:3)
3. To “spiritually mature” to defend the faith (Eph 4:15)
4. To edifying of church/brotherhood (Eph 4:16)
The love taxonomy could be a difficult phenomenon to be explained by conventional wisdom. However, God’s Word shines a brighter light on the idea of agape-love in the spiritual sense. But this is only the start. We have to continue to pray, study and serve God to fully appreciate the breadth, length, depth and height of Christ Love (Eph 3:18-19)(1 Jn 4:16). Don’t give up. For our finite mind then to understand, so what is agape-Love? 1 Jn 4:8 (God)!
