“We love Him, because He first loved us.” (1John 4:19)
The love that John is talking about is agape love. In the Greek there are eight words that mean love. The God kind of love is agape love. Agape love is selfless and not motivated by any personal gain. It’s unconditional and given without reserve or obligation. And it’s sacrificial placing another’s needs before one’s own needs. It’s interesting that in any secular Greek literature agape love is not mentioned. It’s only mentioned in the New Testament of the Bible.
John writes we love God selflessly, unconditionally and sacrificially because He first loved us selflessly, unconditionally and sacrificially. This is the love that took Jesus to the cross for us. “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1John 4:9-10) Man without God is incapable of this kind of love because this kind of love only comes from God. If one is separated from God, he is separated from this kind of love. If he is apart from God, he is apart from this kind of love. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1John 4:8)
After the Last Supper and after Jesus washed the apostles’ feet, He spoke many things to them. He also commanded them to love. This commandment applies to us also as His followers and disciples. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34-35) Jesus used the Greek word agape. Jesus commands us to love each other selflessly, unconditionally and sacrificially, just as He selflessly, unconditionally and sacrificially loves us. This is a true gage of a disciple of the Lord.
John writes that to have the God kind of love that Jesus has for us, we should be willing to give our lives up for our brethren. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1John 3:16) That word perceive means to know and understand. Our willingness to lay down our lives for the brethren is proof of agape love operating in our lives. Paul wrote, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” (Philippians 2:4) And to the Corinthians, Paul wrote, “ Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth.” (1Corinthians 10:24) This is agape love. This kind of love is not found in the world. The world’s thinking is to look out for number one first.
In chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote about the God kind of love that is selfless, unconditional and sacrificial. In the King James translation, the word has been translated charity. But the original Greek word that Paul used was agape, the God kind of love, the love that is selfless, unconditional and sacrificial. Speaking in tongues, having the gift of prophesy, having all the knowledge and having great faith without having selfless, unconditional and sacrificial love, we are nothing. When Paul wrote this, he used the Greek word “oudeis” which means a nobody. (1 Corinthians 13:2) We are deceiving ourselves into thinking we are a child of God. “For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” (Galatians 6:3)
We can do all the good works that we can but Paul mentions that even if we give all our possessions away to feed the poor and give our lives to martyrdom and yet don’t have the God kind of love that is selfless, unconditional and sacrificial, it’s not useful or beneficial. (1Corinthians 13:3) Then Paul continues to specify exactly what agape love looks like. We can try in our strength to demonstrate agape love, but if it’s not part of us, we are merely imitating it and cannot demonstrate it for long or always.
Like all things in God’s kingdom, we can only have agape love by faith. This is not merely believing that we have agape love but believing that God is able to make such a dramatic change in us that we will not only demonstrate agape love, but have agape love. How does that work? When we look at the list in 1 Corinthians 13, we see our deficiencies. We must confess our failure and recognize it as ungodly and un-agape. We must repent of it and ask the Holy Spirit to work God’s agape love in us. Then be ready because there will be many opportunities to show agape love. It’s only in complete surrender of ourselves to God that we will be able to have agape love.
Jesus gave Himself to the punishment and death of our sin because of His agape love for us. (Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:9) He is our example of righteousness and love, agape love.
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