Empowered By Love

There are so many false ideas of love that miss the mark of true love, I thought I’d add my two cents to the discussion.

To start with, the word is so overused it’s been depreciated almost to the point of meaninglessness. For example, I might say, “I love dark chocolate” (which I do), or “I love it when the sun appears after a storm” (which I also do). But can the chocolate or the sun respond or even care? The word “love” is also used when we mean “lust.” And it usually carries a hidden agenda.

It’s too bad that the English language

isn’t more precise like Greek. In Greek, there is a different word that means unconditional love: agapao, compared with phileo, which means brotherly love. In fact there are other forms of phileo, one of which, philanthropia, which means literally “love for man” hence, kindness. You can probably guess the source of our English word that sounds almost like it.

I was reading the section on forgiveness in Christ In Men…Today, when it struck me that forgiveness is all about unconditional love. When we read John 3:16, “For God so loved the world…”the text uses agapao, unconditional love, to describe “the attitude of God toward the human race, generally” (Vines Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words; ©1984, Thomas Nelson, Inc.).

So, where am I going with all this

and how does being empowered by love tie in? Let me offer a couple things that define what (unconditional) love is and isn’t. First the “isn’t.” It isn’t dependent on reciprocity and it never asks, “What’s in it for me? (W.I.I.F.M.)” Now the “is.” Love is giving. Love is sacrificing. Love is putting others first. And there’s a list of 15 more in 1 Cor. 13:4-7.

In 1 John 4:8, we’re told that “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” God is love. Let that sink in for a moment. We could describe God as a lot of things, for example, He is powerful (He spoke the universe into being). He is patient (read Psalm 78 to understand the extent of His patience). He is the personification of integrity (see Titus 1:2). And He is so many more things, but He chooses to define Himself, wait for it…as Love. And this is the real deal. Remember my definition in last paragraph? What could be more giving, more sacrificing, more putting others first than a Father who would allow His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be mistreated, hated, and finally killed a brutal death because He loved us? Again, take a moment to reflect on the implications of this.

The God who didn’t just allow Jesus

to go through that, but planned it from eternity past, is the same God who, when we turn to Jesus as the Savior we need because of our sin, gives us the Holy Spirit to live in us and fill us with His power to produce the fruit of the Spirit identified as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22, 23).

The Spirit, through His power living in us, causes us to be empowered to produce and display the list above. And how does this all come about? The God who IS love, fills those of us who are new creatures in Christ (see previous post: When the Past Becomes the Future) with His love, and commissions us to be His Ambassadors to a lost world. This is another thing to pause and contemplate, the actual power of God, the power that created and sustains the universe lives in you and me. And it all started with God who so loved the world that He gave…