“Agape” love is something that you choose to do or not to do. We may not always be able to control our feelings, but we can control our actions, and even to some extent our motivations. The love Paul is talking about is not primarily something you feel but something you do. Our English translations change some of the verbs to adjectives, but in the Greek they are all verbs. Paul describes “agape” love in verses 4-7 using a series of 15 verbs. Just as the various colors of the spectrum all work together to make white light, so Paul describes love in its component parts, a rainbow of actions that all work together to make true agape love.Īs we study Paul’s description, it becomes clear that he is not talking about a warm feeling but rather a conscious decision to love other people no matter what. Henry Drummond in his classic little booklet on 1 Corinthians 13 called, “The Greatest Thing in the World,” compares verses 4-7 to light passing through a prism and being separated out into its various colors. The word Paul uses for love here in 1 Corinthians 13 is “agape.” And so when Paul describes the character of love in these verses, he is talking about “agape” love. You could choose to love your enemy unconditionally regardless of how he treated you back. You could not have friendship love or romantic love for your enemy, but you could have “agape” love. And so the word came to represent unconditional love, choosing to love another person regardless of your feelings. The New Testament writers picked up on this word and used it extensively to describe God’s self-sacrificing love for man displayed in the sending of his Son, Jesus Christ. Now if “philos” is the love of friendshp, and “eros” is the love of romance, “agape” is the love of choice and commitment – choosing to love another person. And they had another word for love which they hardly used at all – that was the word “agape.” This was the word that the Greek translation of the Old Testament most often used to speak of God’s love. They used the word “eros” to describe romantic love with all of its passion and desire. They used the word “philos” to speak about friendship love and mutual affection. They even used different words to capture some of those meanings. The Greeks understood that love has different meanings in different contexts. What is love? Is it something you feel or something you do? Well, it depends. Now obviously the word “love” did not mean exactly the same thing in all those sentences. I particularly love Mexican food, seafood and Italian. I love my Mom and Dad, my brother and sisters. I love Jesus I love my wife I love my children. We use the word “love” in so many different ways in our culture. If nothing we do matters apart from love, we had better understand what Paul means by the word. Now in verses 4-7 Paul goes on to describe the true character of love. Nothing we say, nothing we have, and nothing we do has any value apart from love. Last week we looked at verses 1-3 of this chapter where we learned that love is the true measure of all that you do. INTRODUCTION: Please turn with me in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 13. Click here for more messages from the book of 1 Corinthians.Ĭlick here to return to the Sermons page.
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