Daily Bread - Jan 13 2007
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 us with. 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 should have since the Holy Spirit 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 then 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).
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). Although the Hebrew word for love is 'ahav' and is translated in the Septuagint exclusively by 'agapan,' perhaps the closest example to the New Testament meaning of 'agape' is found in the Hebrew word 'chesed' in Exodus 34:6. The Hebrew word 'chesed' means 'covenant love' or loyal, unfailing love. When God Almighty revealed to Moses who He is, He made known that He is the One that is "full of covenant love and truth." The reading would be similar to that found in John 1:14 but instead of "full of grace and truth" it would be "full of covenant love and truth" (Exodus 34:6).
I believe that the biggest problem that many of God's people face today is that they do not know how to experience the presence of God which is fundamental to the love of God flowing into them. The burden is upon the pastors and leaders of the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ to teach people how to yield to the Holy Spirit so that they may enjoy the wonderful and all-consuming Divine presence of God.
Blessings,
Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
abidingplace.org
About Me
- Carol L
- San Diego area, California, United States
- I started this blog back in 2005, but in 2006 began dedicating it solely for the purpose of posting email messages called, Daily Bread, sent out Monday through Saturday by my pastor, Mark Spitsbergen. These daily emails contain fresh revelation that Mark gets from the Word of God by the Holy Spirit for that day for the church that God has called him to pastor, Abiding Place. 1 Peter 4:11 says, "If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God gives that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (John 14:6), and He says, "The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life." (John 6:63). For the Word of God is quick (alive), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
No comments:
Post a Comment