I mentioned that Agape is the love that must abound in a marriage. It sanctions the mutual spiritual bond between believing husbands and wives, through which grace flows even amid adversity. You need to notice that a distinguished pattern is revealed here. 1 John 4:7-11 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
First, believers must love one another since love is from God. Then, the defining fact is that those who love (agape) one another do so because it is in their nature to do so. Remember that this is the love God is, that we are discussing. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. Those who do not love lack such a nature and are clearly without Agape. Therefore, no active work of the Spirit of God occurs in and through them.
9 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. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. He conveys that His love toward us is in Christ, who, through salvation, is because of His love for us, not our love for Him.
If we apply this to a marriage of believers, grace is to abound in each spouse’s love toward the other; it is founded not upon what each does but upon Agape within the married spouses. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Most believers testify they have grace for others simply because they love God. However, many will reach a point where their love for each other does not match what we see displayed here.
Many fail to see that Agape love and grace are from the same nature and reveal the same character, meaning both are unmerited and cannot be earned. The evidence is the number of divorces among believers each year and the world’s irreconcilable differences. Tells us that the work of grace is not appearing, and that is a direct reflection of the messages given at pulpits, as the Holy Spirit does not speak by any other manner than grace to His children.
If Agape and grace are, by Scripture, without any efforts of the one who is the object of such, then they are still purposely afforded even if ignorance is in the way. Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God acts out of Agape love through the grace afforded us when He sent His Son to the cross for our sins. It is God’s nature to give us love and grace even though sin keeps us apart from them.
Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Characterizing the purpose of faith, He removed our sins so we could receive His blessings. Marriages of believers struggling with life issues need to see the correlation between God’s Agape love and grace, which He has made known through His word by the Spirit of God.
2 Cor 12:7-10 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Here Paul writes about the issue of those attacks from a satanic spirit through the Jews and others, who recused his faith. 8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. He presented this issue to God three times.
God said His grace was sufficient, and His power made perfect because of Paul’s suffering. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Paul finally saw how God’s power had become more effective in his life because he could not remove the issue of those spiritual attacks. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
So, if God’s grace was sufficient considering Paul’s inabilities, why should it not be sufficient considering our marriages? Simply put, it is unmerited and cannot be deferred or removed just because we are weak or immature in our natural use of God’s power by love. This aspect of grace, to have a more precise meaning to us, the word ” strength in verse 9 above is the Greek word dynamis. It is the same word used in another scripture. Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
What is this dynamis or power?
Some view it as an inherent ability, but since it is written as power seventy-seven times in the New Testament, we can understand it as an intrinsic ability to produce miraculous results. As Paul shows, he survived those spiritual attacks not because he could overthrow them, but because God did so through His grace. God’s love has brought to us an inherent power. Thus, when marriage abounds in grace through the Agape love between the spouses, it casts an image of God’s very nature and character.
1 Cor 13:4-7 (MSG) Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, 5 Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, 6 Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, 7 Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.
The blessing of a marriage that honors God, keeps His word, and loves by agape has grace abounding within. Ps 84:11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
Now, every believing spouse who has arrived here, declare the following verse to one another every morning. ‘1 Cor 1:3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.’
Amen:
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