I enjoy a wide range of music covering a number of different genres but one genre I have always personally loved is soul music. And particularly Motown music which I fell in love with as a very young teenager. When one thinks of Motown music, one will usually think of such as performers as Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, The Temptations etc.
However, one of my favourite songs is by a very much lesser known Motown singer called Tom Clay. The song itself is well known, ‘What the world needs now is love’ and it is blended with Marvin Gaye’s classic ‘Abraham, Martin and John’. That said, it is very different to Burt Bacharach’s original starting and ending with a young child’s innocent answers to questions blighting the world at that time. You can have a listen yourself by finding the song on YouTube.
If the world 50 years ago was in need of love, how much more so in these dangerous times in which we presently live? The problem is, how do we define love? The word trips off our tongues so easily these days. How many times do we see people depart from each other and shout, “See you, bye… love you.” And then again, we say we love our husband/wife; we love our dog or cat; we love Tranmere Rovers (no other team allowed!); we loved smoked haggis with sprouts - well, maybe not …
In English, our one word, ‘love’, covers many different meanings and expressions. It must be so confusing for someone learning our language.
In God’s Word, we are called… to love. We are to love The Lord; to love one another; to love our husbands and wives; to love good deeds; to love mercy etc. Helpfully, the Greek language in which our New Testament was originally written uses different words to differentiate between the different expressions of love. We’ll look at four main ones.
‘STORGE’ relates to family relationships.
‘EROS’ relates to sensual, sexual relationship.
‘PHILEO’ relates to love between friends - what we would call Brotherly love. The meaning of the United States City of Philadelphia is ‘brotherly love’.
‘AGAPE’ Let’s look closely at this word. This relates to the type of love that chooses to continue to love a person no matter who they are; whether they deserve it or not; and totally regardless as to how the person responds. It is a completely selfless, all-giving love that does not look for anything back in return.
Now, here is the strange thing. Agape love is one of the rarest words in the Greek language. In fact, the word is found hardly anywhere else in any Greek literature and yet it is one of the most common words used within the New Testament. And here is the grace of our God. Agape love is the love [that brought God to so love] …”the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”
(John 3:16).
It was the totally sacrificial, self-giving love that held Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour to the cross as He paid, in full, the insurmountable cost of our sin, even though he only had to say the word for 12 legions of angels to immediately come down and rescue him!
And now, here’s the hard part. It is AGAPE love that God calls us as His children to pour out one to another. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35).
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We may well feel discouraged at this point because, like myself, keeping that commandment of His is totally impossible for you. But this is a totally unselfish love that comes from God alone. Indeed, if we are true believers, we already have God’s love within us “ …because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).
I could easily stray into a sermon here but let’s sum it up this way. We are to be channels of God’s love one to another, where God’s love, flowing through, us is always fresh and free-running. The problem is that we often put a bung in the outlet and God’s love within us becomes stagnant, common-place and taken for granted. The big ‘self, me, I’ becomes the bung and we become merely receivers and not givers. And as God’s Word tells us that it is more blessed to give rather than receive, we so easily deprive ourselves of God’s blessings.
That is why we are to die to self on a daily basis, and I guess that is the hard part.
So if the world of the 1960’s and 70’s needed ‘love, sweet love’, how much more our dangerous, confusing world today. Bringing it right down to our own church family, so many have suffered in many different ways over these last 18 months. People are in deep need of love, support and encouragement.
Can you and I be open to God to make us channels of His love to those who are in need?
Remember, Agape love is a love we choose to give one to another. It’s an act of our will and God’s strength, and both giver and receiver will be all the richer for it.
If you are reading this and you have never surrendered your life to God and personally received Jesus Christ into your life to forgive you your sins and give you the free gift of eternal life in heaven, we here and now make ourselves available to help you do so. In Agape love, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die in your place. In Agape love, Jesus Christ sacrificed His life to pay the penalty for your sin so that you can go free. BUT you must personally receive Jesus and make Him your Saviour. Otherwise, I have to be very blunt and warn you that you will spend eternity in Hell separated from God because God cannot and will not allow sin into Heaven. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
If we can help you, please contact us through the contact page on this website. If you live in the area, we warmly invite you to come and join with us for our services each Sunday morning at 10.30am when you will hear about this amazing God of grace whom we love and serve.
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