love1

I think one of the greatest ways that God uses His people is through love! God, I believe wants His people to be a people of love. The only way you can receive love is to give love and God’s Word is all about giving and receiving love! And God’s love is a perfect love that will meet all your needs if you will spend time with Him. When you spend time with Him His love is poured out unto you. And it is through His poured out love to you that you are able to then share with others through good works, hand shakes, smiles, kind words, and so on. When we begin to show a genuine interest in another person’s life it causes us to put aside our own life.

As we go into this study on love let us remember that love is never forced! Love must come freely or it is not truly love! And if we are truly followers of Christ our love will be seen in our association with others. Jesus said in John 13:35 “by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Love is God’s nature. All things done by God are done in LOVE!

The Greek gives us four basic words for love:

1.      Agapao (agape) God’s love is agape. It is unconditional love. Agape love thinks of others and their welfare. It is the love God showed when He sent Jesus for our salvation. Agape love is also the love Christ showed through His suffering for us. This type of love is a deep constant love towards the worthy as well as the unworthy. It is an unselfish love that expects nothing in return. Agape love looks for the best in everyone not thinking of what can be gained for self. It is a divine love totally unconditional. Agape love expects nothing in return. In other words there is no thought whatsoever for self! It’s all about the other person!
2.      Phileo refers to brotherly love. It is the type of love we express one to another in a friendly manner. Phileo is to be a friend, to be fond of an object or an individual. It is to have a strong affection for or personal attachment or sentiment. Taking interest in another and letting them know you are interested in them by your actions. This type of love almost always involves a shared interest or common commitment to someone or something. It likes a person because they are similar to our self. This type of love takes into consideration self! We find our self being drawn to a particular person because they like the same things we do and we become friends with them. A bond of love is created between you and the other person or persons but it is not an unconditional or agape love because it is based on shared interest.
3.      Storge is the type of love that is expressed naturally such as the love a mother or father would have for their child. This type of love happens inherently.
4.      Eros love refers to the type of love that is expressed in a sexual manner between husbands and wives. It is a momentary love fired by great passion.

We use in our life a combination of all these types of love. Only one of them though is free from corruption and that is agape love! Satan cannot corrupt the love of God no matter how hard he tries. Phileo, Storge, and Eros love can be corrupted, destroyed, abused, and taken out of context but Agape love remains the same always.

There are though conditions of our heart, which can hinder God's love in our lives:

1.      Kindness and compassion towards others: we must be considerate, kind, and caring to one another for God’s love to exist in us. (Ephesians 4:3a Be kind and compassionate to one another,)
2.      Forgiveness towards one another: we must forgive one another for God’s love to exist in us. (Ephesians 4:3b forgiving each other just as in Christ, God forgave you.)
3.      Pureness, good conscience, and sincerity: 1st Timothy 1:5 says “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” For God’s love to exist in us our heart must be pure, our mind must be free from ill doings, and our motives must be sincere.
4.      Obedience is what comes from having purified ourselves in God’s truth and causes us to have that sincere love for one another, the deep love that comes from the heart. (Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. 1st Peter 1:22)
5.      Worldly affections take the love of the Father from us. (Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1st John 2:15)
6.      Evil things are not to be in our heart or thoughts either. (Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Romans 12:9)

So we see here that the conditions of our heart such as kindness, compassion, forgiveness, pureness, sincerity, and obedience can keep God’s love from us and keep us from loving. We also see that worldly affections and evil things can keep God’s love from us and cause us to not be able to love as God. (Continued in Part Two)

Where Jesus is Lord!
Living Vine Ministries
Pastor Thomas Miles

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