| Striving For Agape Love By Rev. Mark E. Vatcher |
Agape love is the kind of love our Lord has for us. An unconditional love for us from
before we are born into this life, until we enter into everlasting life. We obtain this
through the love established by our faith in the Lord. The love that God desires for
us to have comes through the wisdom and knowledge granted to us by the word of
God, that was given to us by the Holy Spirit, and by practicing our Lords two
greatest commandments with our thoughts and actions:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love
your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37)
I think most of us think these two commandments are easy to obey and don’t take
these commandments seriously. Of course we love the Lord. Right? Well loving the
Lord entails more than just words professed from our mouth. To love the Lord with
all your heart and soul is quite a task for a man and women. It means to give your
self over to Him and trust Him for all things. It means doing things in your life
according to His will and not yours. It means doing what is right and being like
Christ. Loving like Christ loves the church, unconditionally.
It is not only God we are to love this way, but He wants us to love our neighbor as
ourselves. Well if we love God truly unconditionally, than we must love ourselves,
and if we love ourselves unconditionally, than we must love our neighbors
unconditionally. Right! Well I have never met or heard of a man or women who could
do this except for Jesus Himself. But our Lord has given us this commandment for a
reason. Our Lord expects us to try to obtain this and as we strive to obtain this goal
we learn, and as we learn we will grow. All of it for the glory of God, so as we strive
for this agape love, we are humbled. We can then realize just how powerful the love
of God is.
Love can make or break us, when received by our children and spouses it gives us
satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. When not received by
them we feel empty, hungry, sad, weak, and just plain miserable. The same goes for
Gods love for us, when we have it we are full and secure, if we don’t have it, we are
empty and insecure.
How about the stranger you pass on the street, do you have this same love for him
or her even though you don’t know this person? God loves them because he loves
us all, that’s what agape love is, unconditional love for your neighbor. A neighbor is
anyone and everyone else in the world. So let us look again at Gods two highest
commandments I spoke of earlier. Love God with all your heart and soul and love
your neighbor as yourself. Can we truly say that we can do this? Or should we say
our desire is to obtain this agape love and strive to be like Christ!
I feel that anyone who says they have obtained agape love, which is unconditional
love for everyone, is foolish and extremely prideful. They should restate that only
Christ truly has agape love, and we as Christians should be striving to obtain that
kind of love for others, through our Lords example. This is what God really wants
from us. God wants us to trust Him and allow Him to use us as a vessel to express
His love to everyone. We must begin by trusting in the Lord for everything. It is our
desire and hope that we can obtain this kind of trust in the Lord, something we
optimally strive for in our Christian walk. (Psalm 25:1-2) “To You, O Lord, I lift up my
soul; In You I trust, O my God.” and in (Hebrews 2:13) “I will put my trust in Him.”
We must let go and be led by God to do his will. Trust that through the wisdom and
knowledge gifted to us through the Holy Spirit, and by Gods word we my obtain that
freedom. I pray that we can all strive to obtain it, for through our precious and
mighty God all things are possible. Let’s look at the following statement about love
and use it as a foundation we can build on. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) “Love is patient,
love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is
not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not
delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always
hopes, and perseveres.” And my beloved Love never fails.
Agape love is God and is perfect like God. The only way for us to attempt to obtain
this, as a Christian, is to let God work agape love through us and trusting in Him.
God will express this love as you do His will in your daily life. Be kind, merciful, and
compassionate to one another. This would be a great foundation to begin with as we
strive for agape love. We first should pray that we will trust in the Lord and then
pray for Him to use us as a vessel. May God bless you all on your Christian
journey, now let us pray:
| The Lords Church.org Ministries Website All Rights Reserved 2005-2008 |
| Heavenly Father, we praise You Lord! And give thanks to You for the great blessings You bless us with, through Your love for us. We wish to please you Lord in return by first trusting You and through You we will follow the example of your unconditional love for us. Use us Lord, that we may be a vessel for you to express agape love to others, all for Your glory. We pray this in Jesus name whom be glory forever and ever. Amen |
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