Great Love polus agape Lets go a little deeper into Gods agape (26). Gods love is often viewed today as some sort of shallow sentimentality, but Gods love is deeper than we can even begin to comprehend. When the average person today says love, they do not even know what they are saying because they do not mean a self-emptying self-sacrifice. Love today is more self-gratifying than self-emptying. Its interesting to note that in secular Greek, agape was actually rather colorless. As one Greek authority explains, agape originally carried an element of sympathy and spoke of the love of a person of higher rank for one of a lower rank; it even went so far as to speak of a love that was not self-seeking. 19 But the Lord Jesus transformed the word; it took on the much deeper meaning of being totally sacrificial. As the same authority says, [It] thus creates a new people who will tread the way of self-sacrificing love that [Christ] took. 20 We, therefore, humbly offer the following definition of Gods love: A self-emptying self-sacrifice in which God gave of Himself in the form of His only begotten Son Who gave His life for us. But Paul is not satisfied with using just agape in Ephesians 2:4; he speaks of Gods great love [pollen agapen] wherewith he loved us. The basic meaning of the Greek polus (4183, great) is much or great. But when used figuratively, as it is here, it conveys the idea of intensity. 21 In other words, Paul is not speaking so much of the volume of Gods love as much as he is its passion. Many of us enjoy doing certain things in life; at times we all pursue a hobby or other interest intensely. But if we could multiply this by infinity, we would even then only scratch the surface of the great love of God. This truth again immediately begs the question, Why does God love us? In all my years of ministry, the only answer I have ever come to is this: I dont know. When we look at Ephesians 2:1-3 from the human perspective, there is no reason God should or would love us, but He does. This is not some syrupy sentimentality about Jesus loving everybody, but rather it is a deep, incomprehensible passion for those who are totally undeserving of love. Scriptures for Study: Meditate again on the verses studied yesterday. Write down the thoughts that they generate in your heart and mind. (A Word for the Day)
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 01:34:27 +0000
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