1 John 4:7-12,16-21
[7]My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
[8]Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love.
[9]This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him.
[10]Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins.
[11]My dear friends, if God loved us so much, we too should love one another.
[12]No one has ever seen God, but as long as we love one another God remains in us and his love comes to its perfection in us.
[16]We have recognized for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
[17]Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is.
[18]In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love.
[19]Let us love, then, because he first loved us.
[20]Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen.
[21]Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother. "
There are four levels of expressions of Love; Agape, Philia, Storge, and Eros. The Agape, is the highest form of love, the love of God for man and the love of man back to God. Philia is the brotherly love, while Storge is for parent's love to their children and vice versa, (and also covers love for your country). Eros is an intimate love and affection of one’s beauty (both physical and internal) for your spouse.
We can say that everyone, especially the adults have covered Philia, Storge, and Eros in their lives, in their hearts at the same time. These all are dwelling in us if not every time, most of the time.
Among these four, Agape is the everlasting one. Because Agape in itself is GOD. (1 John 4:16). But when will the Agape or GOD be in our hearts?
When you love someone, because you are aware of God’s love for you, and that you want to love Him back through loving His creations that you see, and you are doing it as an expression of your love for GOD that you cannot see, then this Philia or Storge becomes Agape in your heart.. 1 John 4:20-21 Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” Jesus added in Matthew 25:40 which says, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Eros, on the other hand, can be transformed also to Agape in our hearts. The intimate love of husband and wife should be subjected to His Law of Love. The matrimony becomes victorious when Spiritual submission and faithfulness are present. It requires submission of body and spirit and fidelity to your spouse.
Agape between husband and wife is surely bounded by Ephesians 5:21-25. Those verses says; Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...”
Examples of how Jesus loved the church, His apostles/disciples:
He offered His life for her. (1 John 3:16)
He helped their relatives. (Matthew 8:15)
He washed their feet.(John 13:1-5)
He provided for them.(Matthew 17:24-27)
He feeds them. (Matthew 14:13-21)
He is faithful even if they're not. (2 Tim 2:13)
Etc.
But if we love all others for the love of our own selves, we may still love, but Agape disappears in our hearts. For Agape is a selfless love. It is to love others even if others will not love us back. Luke 6:32-34 speaks well of this; “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.” It is good and desirable and not wrong to let others love us back. What is wrong is our love is for our own selves and not for GOD’s creations.
GOD is not in us if the ‘Selfless Love’ in Luke 6:34-36 is not happening to us. Jesus Christ defeated the devil on this Selfless Love, for the devil can only love those who love him. Because GOD who is the Agape, is in Jesus, subjected all the enemies under His feet. (Ephesians 1:22) He conquered even the power of death in us. (2 Timothy 1:10, Hebrews 2:14)
This is what is written according to the Holy Scripture about this Selfless Love that has power, that conquers and will remain:
1 Corinthians 13:1-8,13
"1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
When Jesus gave us one new commandment “Love one another just as I have loved you” (John 13:34), Jesus arms us with the power of GOD. Let us now be in love with GOD who is Agape, the only one that will remain forever. AMEN
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