Daily Bread

1 John 2:5 - "But whoever keeps His word truly in him is the love of God perfected. This is how we know that we are in Him."

The word 'agape,' 'love,' is defined by its New Testament application as divine love or the love that God loves with, thus, "the love of God." The usage of 'agape' in classic Greek is rare. When it is found it is neither dramatic nor colorful. It was usually translated, "to like, prefer, be content." However, when it appears in the New Testament Greek it defines the kind of Love that the Father has for the Son and the kind of Love that the Christian has since the Paraclete has come to dwell in them, John 13:34; 14:15; 14:21; 14:31; 15:10; 15:12; 15:17; 17:23. This kind of love does not have a human origin but is purely divine flowing into and out of us by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Raymond Brown writes "Agape is not a love originating in the human heart and reaching out to possess noble goods needed for perfection; it is spontaneous, unmerited, creative love flowing from God to the Christian, and from the Christian to a fellow Christian." (The Epistles of John, pages 254-255) The Hebrew word for love is 'ahav' and is translated in the Septuagint exclusively by 'agapan.' Jeremiah writes, that love comes through a circumcised heart, Jeremiah 31:33. Proverbs says that God loves us as a Father loves his son, Proverbs 3:12. Perhaps the closest example to the New Testament usage of 'agape' is found in the Hebrew 'chesed' in Exodus 34:6. The Hebrew word 'chesed' means 'covenant love' or loyal unfailing love.

Blessings,

Pastor Mark Spitsbergen