What is love (that is, the agape (ἀγάπη) kind)?

Very often we say that when the Bible speaks of love, it speaks chiefly in terms of an unconditional commitment to a sinful person. We say that the definition of agape is primarily in terms of sacrifice, and extol the virtues of giving things up for others. But I think that doesn’t quite get the heart of what biblical love is. It begins to fall apart when we talk about loving one another after the last vestige of our sin has been gone for eons. It falls short when we speak of our love for God (for in that there is surely no true sacrifice, nor a sinful recipient) or the Father’s love for the Son (which is perfectly and eternally given with, as far as we can imagine, nothing that would constitute loss or sacrifice in it). So what then, is the heart of the biblical definition of love?

What I would suggest is that love is not so much inherently self sacrificial, but rather, love, at its heart, is self-giving. It is a surrender of the self, a giving of all that you are, over to another. And perfectly, it is a complete self-giving.

Loss is not central, sacrifice is not central, rather they are implications of how love must work in light of fallenness. But at it’s core, love is the unconditional yielding over of the self.

And this matters. It means that when God says he loves us, it doesn’t just mean that He is committed to our well-being despite our imperfections. It meansHe gives us Himself. God’s love is His undeserved provision of the ultimate good, it’s Him giving Himself to us.

-djstevens

P.S. A working definition.

Idolatry.

Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one. (1 Corinthians 8:4)

Paul knew, that the “gods” behind false idols did not exist, and yet he also knew, that this truth did not make the fight against idolatry any easier. Idolatry is relentlessly seductive and subtle, and yet God makes no attempt to shy away from explaining the destruction that befalls idol worshippers. Though most of us do not experience idolatry in the way that the Corinthian church did, it does not make idolatry any less deadly. It is for idolatry that Jesus wrote to the Church at Pergamum in Revelation 2:14 warning that he would come with judgment. It is for idolatry that God slew 24,000 Israelites (Numbers 5:1-9). It is for idolatry, in thinking that the sinful pleasure was greater than the savior’s pleasure, that all have sinned. In idolatry we elevate good things, to ultimate things. Even we, the people of faith, can fall into the open rebellion of idolatry.

Idolatry will probably seldom tempt you to burn a young calf or a stick of incense to a fertility God, yet idolatry can take many more culturally acceptable forms. Martin Luther in his extended catechism suggested that in our idolatry, we make our “god” to be anything that we put all our strength, value and trust in. So where are the idols in your life? Some of idols may be easy to spot, like hundred foot gold status of Nebuchadnezzar that demanded regular homage. But others may be subtle, like the small household gods that Rachel hid, thinking no one would every find out. Wherever they are, we need to eradicate them. Where do your idols lay?

The idolatry of relationships? The idolatry of academic achievement? Career success? Reputation? Family? Acceptance? Wealth? or maybe even the idolatry of appearing pure and holy on the outside, though being full of dead man’s bones?

Upon the realization of the pervasiveness of idolatry of man, John Calvin said that man the human mind was like an idol factory. (Institutes I.XI.8) It’s upon this realization that 1 John ends his letter with the seemingly abrupt warning. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

If we have one new year’s resolution, or rather, a life time resolution, I pray that it would be that we keep ourselves from idols. And not only that we keep ourselves from idols, but that we set our eyes on the person who deserves every affection we have ever known, Jesus Christ.

-rbc