The following is an excerpt from my book ‘God’s Power Revealed’:
[The aspects of love in humanity is riddled with accounts of how many ways one can declare such a fashion of senses and emotions to another person and be out of character to the love of God. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 LOVE NEVER FAILS. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away .1 Cor. 13:4-8. (NKJV) (Capitalized Emphasis Mine)
The one thing the Lord has revealed is that a marriage is a covenant and within such a union there needs to be acceptance of the things that bind it together. Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been a witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. Mal 2:14.
A covenant in scriptural terms basically means a contract or an agreement, but the main emphasis from the word is on how it is made or entered into. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: Gen 15:18. The word in Hebrew is (karat) and translates into the English word made but really means to cut, or a cutting. This has a significant meaning in that a covenant when established, represents sacrifice or a willingness to expend life to receive the life of another if required.
Think about it, didn’t Jesus the Son of God willingly expend His own life and shed His own blood for a new covenant established by His father to bring about a salvation plan for all humanity?
You’re probably asking what’s covenant got to do with love? Well, what was it that caused Jesus the Son of God to willingly sacrifice Himself so that God could present a new covenant? For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:16-17. (NKJV)
See there, it wasn’t some grandiose event, but a mere revelation of a truth, Jesus loved us enough to die for us. This is why I want you to focus your thinking around a truth that pertains to every individual who claims to be a believer, it’s an unconditional aspect of the relationship established by God; Every believer must be able to manifest the same character of love that Christ has for them.
There are various types of love we can have for one another as explained in the word of God, but the only outline of LOVE clearly above all others is (Agapao). This is God’s kind of love. Most believers are centered around the love they have for each other but many of them begin based upon some manner of love that’s typically not this God kind of love. Some express love in a way that’s described as (phileo), this is a kind of love that’s based on just a fellowship or companionship. Another kind of love that’s very common is (eros), which is founded on physical attraction or sensual personal satisfaction.
Our knowledge of all these different kinds of love is significant because the only one that matters is the AGAPE, described as a “charitable” love feast. This is a love that takes us beyond all the pains and struggles of life that occur due to issues caused by another person’s living influence in life only I’m accountable for. Love in a marriage is not about what’s going on in the world’s way of loving things though that has an influence. But rather about what’s going on in the marriage by the influences imposed upon it by two people creatively different fulfilling roles of husband and wife.
The word continuously outlines AGAPE as the kind of love that GOD IS, that’s right the word says God is love. Beloved, let us love (agape) one another, for love (agape) is of God; and everyone who loves (agape’s) is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love (agape) does not know God, for God is love (agape). 1 John 4:7-8. (NKJV) This kind of love is powerful and fully able to transform anyone into His Spiritual Offspring who in Jesus Christ are born-again from the very DNA of God.
So, as a spirit, living in a body created out of the dust, and having a soul, if God is (agape) then all of us born from Him have the inherited ability to be this love as well.]
The reason for my posting this short content on Agape love. Is because today we have many who are claiming they are believers in Christ but act contrary to the love of God or this Agape manner of love. The current hate-filled rhetoric that’s common today is not of the same character of love we see here, instead, it’s a love of the emotions and the anxieties created by narratives that demean and ridicule others. In other words, they love the thing they do, more than the ones they do it too, so there is no way any love that’s characterized by God is going to appear from them. The difference is they know of God but truly do not know God. He who does not love (agape) does not know God, for God is love (agape).
