Book 2 Term Paper 2 -2/21/2026
Notes
Transcript
Agape Love
Agape Love
My second term paper is going to be on Agape Love. This is a selfless, unconditional, and sacrificial love that prioritizes the well-being of others without expecting anything in return. Rooted in the Greek language, it is considered the highest form of love. It is often defined as a conscious choice or action rather than a feeling. It represents God’s love in the New Testament.
I am going to do my best to describe this love using Scripture that Paul wrote to the Church of Corinth. Let us take a look at the key aspects of agape love.
The first aspect I want to mention would be unconditional and sacrificial. It is given regardless of the recipient’s worthiness or response, as exemplified by Jesus’ sacrifice. The second aspect would be action oriented. This is more than an emotion, agape is a deliberate decision to show kindness, empathy, and care. The third aspect would be the highest form of love. Unlike philia love (which would be friendship) or eros love (which would be romantic; agape love is selfless and directed toward the “highest” good of others. The fourth aspect of agape love is the definition in the Bible. This is what I plan on going over with this paper.
Let us look at the verses.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
In the Old English, agape love is translated as “charity”. It is the standard of love taught to be extended to neighbors and even enemies.
Let us go through this verse by verse
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Love is patient.
It is long tempered which is the opposite of “short fused”.
Love is learning how to put up with each other.
Love has restraint of anger, wrath, temper, in all sorts of life situations.
Patience is the key factor which is required in order to express this kind of love.
When you have lack of patience, this is evidence of lack of love.
Love will always think of the other person first, the lack of patience will put oneself first.
Love shown to be giving of one’s self , time, interests to another while giving up one’s rights, privileges, and concerns.
Love is never in the abstract, it involves relationship with God and neighbor. It will never stand alone.
Love is kind.
What is kindness? Kindness is the opposite of all that is cruel and severe.
Love is thoughtful of other’s feelings.
Love is gentleness in action and not passive.
Love cares for others and actively helps in a concrete way.
Love is not jealous.
Love rejoices in others good fortunes.
Love has no desire to lessen the desires, virtues, achievements, or happiness of another.
Love will always put others first before self.
Love will share their possesses and enjoys helping others develop their assets.
Love does not boast.
Love does not parade one’s self before others.
Love does not need personal significance in the eyes of others, but gives praise to others.
Love makes no disgusting comparisons.
Love does not down others in order to lift self up.
Love keeps quiet about even genuine achievements, but deflects from self to give praise to God.
Love is not proud.
Love acknowledges God’s hand in all his achievements. Love always has an attitude of thankfulness to God in all things.
Love exhibits a sense of humility recognizing God is all.
Love does not demand rights, privileges, significance or praise.
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Love does not act in an ugly way. Love is not rude.
Rudeness was on display in the Church of Corinth in their disorderly worship services and selfish communion meals. To be rude is to act indecently.
Example
17 Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. 18 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. 19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. 20 When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. 21 For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. 22 What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.
An unloving person will do things , say things, assume attitude of which he will later be ashamed.
Example
1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. 2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
Rudeness insists on self-expression and self-gratification at the expense of the feelings and experience of others.
Love never offends by indelicate or crude acts and words that are violent and foul.
Love is concerned about manner as well as matter.
Love is not self-seeking. Love does not insist on its own way.
Love is never self-seeking, it always yields.
Love seeks the other person’s welfare and does not calculate what benefits he may accrue. There is no boomerang thinking.
Love does not do for others as a gimmick to gain certain personal gains.
Love does not say “what is in it for me?”, but does what God to do in order to please God first.
Love is not easily irritated.
A quick temper is often evidence of viewing other people as obstacles to reaching one’s own goals.
Love views serving other people as the goal itself. This removes one reason to flare up when they get in our way.
Getting easily irritated refers to “rousing to anger”.
Love considers and thinks carefully before being irritable. This checks his spirit and sacrifices his self, his plans, and schedules for others.
Love does not keep the records of wrongs.
Love is not resentful.
It is a natural human instinct to keep score, to get even, and to hold onto hurt feelings against those who have mistreated us.
This love is Christ-like love.
Follows this pattern.
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
Love recognizes the great sin God has forgiven in us through Christ.
Love is turning to do the same for those who sin against us.
Forgiveness is the key problem for one who is resentful.
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Love is not happy about injustice, but happily stands on the side of truth.
Love does not sit idly by when God’s word is attacked.
Love is not mute about unfair actions against others.
Love stands a stand for what is right.
Love is against what is wrong.
Love does not delight in evil.
Anytime a Christian finds him/her self tempted to root for or enjoy injustice or wrong choices , the fact is that their actions are not motivated by love for God or each other.
Example
Perhaps we pick a side and cheer for one believer to defeat another in a lawsuit.
1 Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? 2 Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? 3 Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life? 4 If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. 5 I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? 6 But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. 7 Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? 8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. 9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
In such cases, our motive is not love for brothers and sisters in Christ.
Love does rejoice in the truth.
The truth, no matter how difficult it may be, is always the best path through any situation.
It is the way of and to Christ, who is the Truth.
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Wanting what is true to be understood and accepted by others is one way we express love.
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Love covers (bears) all things.
Love does not say “this far and no farther”.
Love is not limited by what is reasonable or by what other people would be willing to put up with.
Rather than make a point of every offense against himself, the lover bears wrongdoing patiently.
This does not mean you should allow someone to continually wound you by other believers and/or family members.
Sometimes love bears pain from a safe and legal distance , but true godly love does not quit when others become annoying and difficult to deal with.
Out of love, he/she covers what was done to him/her or others.
Not every wrong should be made an issue , but love covers every little rub between believers and covers these from his own eyes as well as from others.
Love believes all things.
The choice to believe those who may be deceiving us removes the burden to catch others in the act of lying and projects onto them a respect they may or may not deserve.
This means, the one who is loved carries the burden to be truthful or to be held accountable to God., rather than us.
When others doubt. the one who loves firmly believes.
Only hard evidence would make him doubt another’s words.
Love thinks first of others and not ourselves, thus , involves us in risk.
We would rather injure ourselves than to injure another.
Our disposition is always to believe the other person if it is at all possible.
Love hopes all things.
Love roots for victory in others, for good to win, for truth to come out.
In the Bible, hope is more than just a wish, it is a confidence that God will do as He says.
Example
8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul’s confident hope for this church was one evidence of his love for them.
Love always give the other person the benefit of the doubt.
Love hopes for the best in others.
Love does not go around looking for the wrong in others.
This optimism does not grow out of faith in men, but in God who can change them.
Whereas, a spirit of hopelessness or resignation, can be further occasion for the person to fall.
Love endures all things.
Christians face hard times. Those who believe and choose to love as Jesus does, do not stop loving when life becomes difficult.
Love for God and others endures through tough days and long nights.
This means that every type of offense, pressure, affliction, and persecution can be endured in love.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
Paul ends his description of God’s kind of love, using the Greek term agape.
This is an unselfish, sacrificial, active love, different from romantic or brotherly love, which use the terms eros(romantic) and phileo(friendship).
Paul introduces a statement that may make believers feel it is truly impossible to love as God does; Love never fails.
Fact:
However, the truth of this statement does not mean no human can ever love as Christ does. It is true that believers will sometimes fail to love. When we choose to love in this selfless, sacrificing way, love will not fail to be effective. One person’s choice to love, selflessly, never fails to build up the church in a powerful way.
The other way in which love never fails is that love is eternal. Selfless love will continue in the Lord and in His people forever.
It is absolutely the way we live in relationship with each other in eternity.
Examples of selfless love in the present are glimpses of the normal state of things in eternity.
Fact:
This is not true of the spiritual gifts. The gifts of prophecy, tongues, and knowledge will all pass away. By this, Paul means eventually these gifts will not be needed.
Some Christians believe that the time for these specific three gifts has mostly come to an end already. They believe these gifts were intended by God to help establish the church and show that the message of the gospel was from Him. All Christians understand that at the end of time, when we live with God in person....
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
there will be no need for these gifts. They exist only in human history for a limited time and purpose.
God’s love, though, and our reflection of it to each other, will go on endlessly.
Conclusion
Did Jesus command us to agape love?
The answer is yes. Jesus explicitly commanded agape love.
When establishing the greatest commandments of the Law, Jesus employed agape love in both instances: loving God and loving one’s neighbor. This wasn’t merely a suggestion, but a direct mandate to his followers.
The scope of this command extends beyond those we naturally care for. early in His ministry, Jesus announced a new ethical framework calling His disciples to love as He loves.
Specifically, Jesus directly commanded His followers, “ Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you”, demanding agape love.
This is not storge(natural affection), eros(romantic love), or philia(friendship), but rather a love that transcends natural human preference.
What makes this command distinctive is its character. Agape operates as a deliberate choice rooted in the will, “a deep, continuous, growing and ever-renewing activity of the will superintended by the Holy Spirit”, where one consciously chooses to love another by God’s grace.
Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another with this agape love, establishing it as a defining mark of Christian discipleship.
This command carries weight because Jesus Himself embodied it. Jesus demonstrated agape love on the Cross. His death for humanity while we were still sinners provides both the model and the motivation for this sacrificial, unconditional love.
Reference Scriptures illustrating this command of agape love.
34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. 15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. 17 These things I command you, that ye love one another.
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
And of course the verses I went over in this text in 1 Corinthians 13. The simple fact is if we are Christians and we follow Jesus. Our love should be to follow His command. Jesus commanded us to agape love. Who wants to be that person who goes to the judgment seat of Christ to explain why you would not follow this command? I will go on to say that if we, as Christians, are not capable to apply this command in our lives, then the question should be who do we truly love?
