Words we need to know--Agape-03-05-06

This week’s word we need to know is “agape.” Like the words “paradigm shift” and “postmodern” agape has been used so much in the Christian church most, have at least, heard the word. There are plenty of other international words that have found their way into our lexicon, we have heard them but do we know what they mean? Amore` is Italian, what does it mean? Love. Then there is Bon Jour, which is French, what does it mean? Hello. Then there is Hola, which is Spanish but what does it mean? hello.

I want put the kids on the spot any further. My point is we may have heard the word agape and we may know how to use it in speech but do we know what it means?

In English we use the word “love” frequently. We use it connected to food, “I LOVE krispy kreme dounuts.” We use it connected to television shows, “I LOVE American Idol.” We use it related to music, I LOVE Coldplay.” Frankly we are not very discriminating we use it connected to anything we have a warm affection for. After all we may love Coldplay today and Blind Mellon tomorrow. Further we often use the word love because on the other side of the word is something we want. A child tells their parents they love them to receive something from them. A teenager uses the word “love” to explain a feeling that is closer to passion than love.

The music industry could not survive without love songs. Songs speak of true love, broken love, innocent love, cheaten’ love, you describe the love and a song has been written about it. Let’s test our musical knowledge, and the catagorie is love songs. Who wrote and sang;

People killin', people dyin'
Children hurt and you hear them cryin'
Can you practice what you preach
And would you turn the other cheek

Father, Father, Father help us
Send some guidance from above
'Cause people got me, got me questionin'
Where is the love

Where is the love
Where is the love
Where is the love, the love, the love

For those of you more fond of the Romantic ballad in the style of Teddy Pendergrass or Barry White there is;

Always and forever
Each moment with you
It's just like a dream to me
That somehow came true

And I hope tomorrow
Will still be the same
Cause we got a life of love
That won't ever change

Every day lend me your own special way
Melt all my heart away with a smile
Take time to tell me You really care
And we'll share tomorrow together

My funny valentine
Sweet comic valentine
You make me smile with my heart
Your looks are laughable, unphotographable
Yet you're my favorite work of art

Is your figure less than greek
Is your mouth a little bit weak
When you open it to speak, are you smart

Of course there are love songs that make fun of the love song industry, who can remember the author of;

You’d think that people would have had enough of silly love songs.
But I look around me and I see it isn’t so.
Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs.
And what’s wrong with that?
I’d like to know, ’cause here I go again
I love you, I love you,
I love you, I love you,
I can’t explain the feeling’s plain to me, say can’t you see?
Ah, she gave me more, she gave it all to me
Now can’t you see,
What’s wrong with that

Yet all of us who have ever practiced romantic love know that love does not always work out. This song describes well the pain of lost love, who sang it;

Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and mars
Any heart not tough nor strong enough
To take a lot of pain, take a lot of pain,
Love is like a cloud, holds a lot of rain .....
Love hurts ......

Oooh ...... love hurts.

I'm young, I know, but even so
I know a thing or two, I've learned from you
I've really learned a lot, really learned a lot
Love is like a stove, burns you when it's hot
Love hurts, love hurts

Some fools rave on happiness, blissfulness, togetherness
Some fools fool themselves I guess
But they're not fooling me ......

I know it isn't true, know it isn't true
Love is just a lie, made to make you blue
Love hurts ......

Sometime loves songs are about the times we live, not romantic love, but the need for love, this song puts it well, who wrote it;

What the world needs now
is love, sweet love
it's the only thing
that there's just too little of
What the world needs now
is love, sweet love,
no not just for some
but for everyone.

Lord, we don't need
another mountain,
there are mountains
and hillsides enough to climb
There are oceans
and rivers enough to cross,
enough to last
'til the end of time.

After all this the best we can say about the word love is we overuse the word and under practice the concept.

While we translate “agape” love, agape resembles our idea of love about the same way an “egg role” resembles an egg. Words often mislead, the restaurant labels the shrimp “jumbo” but their still small. We refer to our driveway, but we do not drive on it, we park on it, Language can confuse and mislead. We call something love and at best we are saying we have affection for it or at worse we lust after it.

Agape love is sometimes spoken of as “a God kind of love.” The kind of love God has towards us. Certainly God’s love for us is more than lust and a different kind of love than what we may have for a donut. Yet, can we practice agape?

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.[1]

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.[2]

Sounds like a difficult task? If it were easy everybody would practice it. The best things in life are never easy but they are always rewarding. Of course in the practice of agape we will take two steps forward and one step back, but at least we netted a STEP. The way of agape at least leads somewhere, and that is why we are asked to practice it. Not simply for the good of those around us, but for our own good.

It is a healthy way of living to practice the agape way. According to Paul the apostle, if I may paraphrase, the practice of agape makes us easier to live with and healthier.

Love helps us preserver. Love creates kind people. Love keeps the green eyed monster away. When we love we stop worrying about always coming out on top. Love thankfully frees us from pride.

Love frees us from being consumed with ourselves. Love removes anger as our first response. Love makes us forgetful. Love is our motivation for doing better. Love helps us take everything in stride, without giving up. Love believes all things. Love hopes for all things. Love keeps on in all things. In the present we have these three: faith and hope and love, but the greatest of these is to live with love.

Agape is not something we are forced to do, like eat our vegetables. It is something that when practiced will make us better people. Agape, love is a good habit, like brushing our teeth or wearing our seat belt. By practicing it we are freed and made stronger, never weaker. Jesus got stronger by loving, and so do we.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.[3]

[1] John 15:12-13 English Standard Version

[2] I John 3:16 English Standard Version

[3] I John 4:7 English Standard Version