by Pastor Mitch Horton | October 2006

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, (36) “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” (37) Jesus said to him, “’You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (40) On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:35-40).

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. (35) By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (8) He who does not love does not know God, for God is love (1 John 4:7-8).

Love is the sum total of all that is displayed in the character of our Heavenly Father. His nature and attributes are wrapped up in an incredible and selfless desire to help, bless, and heal. In the human experience, we give and receive love from others, but nothing this life offers compares to the unconditional, self-sacrificial love offered to us by our God.

The above verses indicate that love fulfills all the Old Testament law commandments to please God (the Ten Commandments). Jesus gave His disciples an additional commandment to the ten, which if obeyed, would fulfill the ten and would be the true indicator of Christ likeness (See Romans 13:8-10).

There is no spiritual growth without growth in love! Spirituality is not determined by Bible reading, lengthy prayer, church attendance, or the amount of social cause volunteering. Spirituality for the New Testament believer is shown by love that is demonstrated in daily life. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death (1 John 3:14).

The Apostle Paul addressed carnality in the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. He told them that he could not speak to them as spiritual people, but had to handle them as carnal or body-controlled instead of Spirit-led Christians. He told them that envy, strife, and division classified them as carnal believers, and that they still needed the milk of the word, just simple teaching, so that they could grow out of the babyhood state. He said that as long as these fleshly reactions ruled them, they were still behaving as men and women who were not yet born again!

Understand that God’s kingdom operates on the foundation of love and faith, and that Satan’s kingdom operates on the foundation of fear, doubt, and unbelief. The results of what strife will do and how it opens the door to the enemy are clearly seen in James 3:16 (Amplified): For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices. When we choose to step out of love into fear and strife, we open the door for satanic assault on our relationships, and hence, much hurt and anguish in life. Strife and discord fuel darkness and enable Satan to bring harm. In the same way that oxygen fuels a fire, so envy and strife fuel Satan’s kingdom. Cut the oxygen, and the fire dies; cut the envy and strife, and Satan’s kingdom loses its power source in your relationship challenges.

When we as Christians choose the love way over the strife way, we invite God to come into our practical day and bring changes in how we treat others. When we choose love, we literally bring solutions from the kingdom of God into situations of hurt, pain, and discord. Outside of the love way, we are in the dangerous area where Satan can assault us, where the thief can steal, kill, and destroy. But walking in love will cover us with heaven’s protection and enable God to work in life’s most challenging circumstances!

Jesus introduced the concept of love to the disciples in Matthew 5. He introduced the concept of loving enemies in the harsh Old Testament environment of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Instead of treating people the way they treat us, He introduced the kingdom principle of love to His disciples: Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away. You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not tax collectors do the same (tax collectors were known to steal from the common person)?

I’m sure that when Jesus’ disciples heard His new ideas on how to deal with hurtful people, they were like a deer in headlights, shocked! This love way no doubt seemed foreign and strange to minds accustomed to an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

As Christians, we march to the beat of a different drummer! We are commanded to love! Our witness to the world hinges on what we do with love! 1 Corinthians 14:1 (Amplified Bible) reads: Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire this love, make it your aim, your great quest…The greatest thing in life is to love and be loved! 1 Corinthians 16:14 admonishes, Let all that you do be done with love.

We’re commanded to mimic God with our love walk in Ephesians 5:1-2; we are to clothe ourselves in love as stated in Colossians 3:14 (when you clothe yourself with something, it’s the first thing seen by others when they encounter you); we are to love one another fervently with a pure heart (1 Peter 1:22); we are commanded to have intense and unfailing love for one another, a love that will forgive and disregard the offenses of others (1 Peter 4:8, Amplified). Throughout the New Testament, there is an emphasis of love that should exude from the lives of believers.

The Greek word for the love I’ve been addressing is Agape. Agape is an unconditional, self-sacrificial love that loves others not based on what they do, but on the basis of God’s character towards them. Agape love can love the most trying, difficult, hard to get along with people without looking for any response from them. There are no conditions a person has to meet when loved with this Agape love of God. Agape love is also self-sacrificial, in that it puts its own needs, wishes, and desires last, and puts others and their needs first. Agape love produces a strength of character that overcomes fear and believes the best of every person.

God deposited in you and me this Agape love when we were born again! Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God is placed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Romans 5:5).

Here’s the challenge; God places Agape in our human spirits when we are born again. But we are spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Our spirits are born of God, but our souls (mind, emotions, and will) and bodies remain largely unaffected! After we are born again, we must retrain our bodies and minds and bring them in line with God’s will for us (See Romans 12:1-2).

Our minds are largely at odds with the will of God. Romans 8:7 reveals that the carnal mind, or the mind ruled by the flesh, is the actual enemy of God and resists God’s will. Our minds are set on self-protection and self-care at the expense of others.

Phileo is another Greek word for love that explains this carnal, natural mind and its tendencies. Phileo love is a love that loves what brings it pleasure. It is a love centered in the pleasure brought by another. When the pleasure another person brings ceases, this love ceases too! Phileo love is the natural human love that is familiar to all of us. We all have experienced phileo love. But the big problem with phileo is that it is frail and can easily turn to anger and hatred when not pleased! It can quickly turn from being nice and kind to being hurt, sensitive, angry, vindictive, and cruel.

Because our minds are steeped in this natural, selfish phileo love, it takes much effort to allow this Agape love placed in us in the new birth to come from our human spirits through our minds and into our relationships. You will not be able to love with Agape love just because you read about it, or hear a message about it. You must make a decision to walk in Agape love every day of your life! To do this, there must be time spent absorbing the characteristics of love into your mental processes, until the self–centered phileo love is replaced in your thought life with unconditional, self-sacrificial Agape love.

The next few issues of Victorious Living will be intensive in explaining this Agape love. I encourage you to read them and meditate on the truths from God’s word until your mentality is saturated with the characteristics of Agape, and it becomes normal to walk in this new and living way!

I made a decision over 30 years ago to allow Agape love to control my conduct. It’s been a growing journey, and I’ve found that this jewel called Agape love can grow until it crowds out selfishness, fear, strife, hurt, sensitiveness, touchiness, pride, ambition, malice, anger, unforgiveness, and rejection. Come and go with me the next few months as we discover the treasure of Agape that God has deposited within us!