Mother's Day

The thing about girls:

Honor is what Love looks like: Fawn Parish

Elevate Love in our Church.

Much of what passes for biblical interpretation, whether in books or sermons, implies that God has used an artificial, coded, or even esoteric language. . . .

God has spoken to us in the language of the people.

a selfless love that is passionately committed to the well-being of others.

Gordon Fee on Love:

The Necessity of Love, the Character of Love and the Permanence of Love.

Agape is the fourth word for love. It is a love that loves without changing. a selfless love that is passionately committed to the well-being of others.It is a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting repayment. It is love so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing. It is love that loves even when it is rejected. Agape love gives and loves because it wants to; it does not demand or expect repayment from the love given. It gives because it loves; it does not love in order to receive. According to Alan Redpath, we get our English word agony from agape. “It means the actual absorption of our being in one great passion.” (Redpath) Strictly speaking, agape can’t be defined as “God’s love,” because men are said to agape sin and the world (John 3:19 and 1 John 2:15). But it can be defined as a sacrificial, giving, absorbing kind of love. The word has little to do with emotion; it has much to do with self-denial for the sake of another.

We can read this chapter and think that Paul is saying that if we are unfriendly, then our lives mean nothing. But agape isn’t really friendliness; it is self-denial for the sake of another.

Marriage is a good context to practice pursuing the needs of others before considering one’s own; however, this was not at the fore front of Paul’s thinking. For Paul, the application of this kind of love happened in the daily interactions between.

Paul establishes the necessity of love in his opening paragraph (1Cor 13:1-3 Paul then follows this (1Cor 13:4-7) with a description of the character of love. Finally, Paul ends with the permanence of love and establishes agape love as a mark of true Christianity by asserting, “the greatest of these is love” (1Cor 13:13). Immediately following (1Cor 14:1),

Paul literally challenges the Corinthians to “pursue love;” to put others’ needs before their own.

It defines the character of God himself and therefore needs to define our character. This love then informs every relationship a believer has in the church, at home, at work, at play.

Philippians 2:1–11 ESV

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Trust, Respect, Empathy, Affection and Kindness