Part 2: Agape [WORDS] // Ty Gibson & Nathan McKee

imagine that you are one of the disciples in the first century your james or john or peter or even the apostle paul and you have to come up with a word to encapsulate for your greek audience in the greek world in which you live you have to come up with a word that describes the essence of who jesus is and who god is well in our time together today in this part two of our word series we're going to discover that there was a very important word that the new testament believers and authors had to bring into play in order to describe the beauty and the goodness and the wonder and the majesty of god's character i have with me my friend nathan mckee who has an interest in the greek language specifically because of his interest in the new testament nathan again welcome and uh share with us just briefly again why your interest in words in general and why your interests in the greek language in particular yeah i mean i just i'm very interested in words and and their meanings and and how between different languages there's not a direct you know correlation between words sometimes so you really have to dig into the meaning behind the words to really get at the definition because that's where that's where greek comes in to the new testament uh for me is just being able to to read a little bit the story behind the word um and and it's the fullness of its definition right right yeah so so you know words are the building blocks of sentences uh which are the building blocks of paragraphs which are the building blocks of chapters and stories without words um we would be lost on the landscape of reality we wouldn't know what to do or what to make you know that's right we'd be gesturing at each other yeah yeah sign language which is beautiful um but words have so much power don't they i mean scripture itself nathan says that god created the universe and our world with words by the word of the lord scripture says that that creation was brought into being and and we do the same thing in a lesser sense of course god is the creator who literally created the world in the universe with words um we're his creatures we were made in his image and we create new realities in one another's minds with words like i formulate a sentence the simple sentence hello how are you creates a sense in your mind of friendliness and interest on my part to which you can respond and say well actually i'm doing fine yeah and so we've created um a kind of connection or meaning with one another through the use of words and sentences and paragraphs we build our whole lives with words that's right it's the basis for how we communicate and connect with each other and we affect each other that way like you said words are powerful and words have history they have history they have meaning so what is the history of the word that we're looking at today our word in this part two of our seven part series on key words in the new testament is the word a gape agape agape that's right you knew that i knew that it's the word it's the word agape so so so take us to this word give us a little bit of the historical background yeah why this word it's a greek word and and it shows up in the new testament why well first ty let me let me put a proposition to you so what how would you react to the to the statement love is meaning i like it i think i think there's truth in that i think that love i would maybe add a word love is the ultimate meaning yeah yeah so i really like victor hugo and um was sharing to you a little bit my name is rob that's right and my love of french kind of directs me in that direction so here's one quote from him to love or have loved that is enough ask nothing further there is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life that's so poetic and beautiful so that's that's victor hugo yeah on a similar note a few months ago i was i was listening to a um a playlist of french popular songs okay and i heard this one it's called calcan madi what does that mean which means someone told me someone told me okay and translated some of the lyrics read like this they tell me that our lives aren't worth much they pass in an instant just like a rose withers they tell me that the slipping time is a jerk that it makes makes coats of our misery nonetheless someone told me that you still loved me someone told me that you still loved me could it be possible and there's the meaning you were talking about that's right and so this song struck me because i'm like wow here this this artist this this um this woman is singing starts out with a very pessimistic view of the world pretty much meaning you know it's all meaningless vanity of vanities ecclesiastes yeah what's the point of all this suffering and time and it just it all ends in death anyway but then you see a glimmer of hope that yet forget about all that other stuff someone loves me someone loves tell me more about that isn't that incredible so that immediately gave her meaning to hold on to despite all of this pessimism yeah yeah so so all of us have human loves you know i i love my wife i love my children they love me you you have a wife and two children you love them there's all this love that is moving between human beings that gives meaning and significance to life um what do you think of this idea what do you think about the idea that all human love all human love is derived from the love of god that the the reason why we as human beings love one another ever so imperfectly is because there's a perfect love yeah that that birthed us into existence created us and so so to to love is to in some sense uh experience god and this is what the new testament says explicitly yeah i like that idea tai and i think it's i think it's biblical but we have a problem okay what's with english with love uh-huh the problem is this tai what's that i love my wife i love my children okay i love pizza i love tacos and skateboarding so so now i need to do the hard work of of sorting out the difference between yeah pizza and your wife bethany that's right yeah i happen to know i know your wife and and and i know that she would not want to be on a par with pizza yeah so does this mean that i i put the same loving energy into my love of pizza that i do for my wife and children or what does this mean ty it's confusing it is amazing yeah yeah there is a difference between my wife and tacos there's a difference between your wife and pizza yeah we're kind of limited with the english language with the word love we have a we have a variation we might we might uh catch ourselves and say no i don't love tacos i like tacos and i love my wife so there there would be a nuance of that that we might we might distinguish with but we don't have a lot to work with yeah with the english language yeah we're forced to gather from the context yeah yeah yeah so so so so here is the text we'll begin with and then we'll we'll we'll look at the word itself the word agape notice this in first john 4 8 i want to encourage all of you to get your bibles and some kind of way to take notes you'll see here i have my own little journal and i wrote agape at the top of the page here and i'm a note taker i want to encourage you in some way shape or form to become a note taker i've known people over the years i don't really like taking notes and so i've encouraged my students in class at times okay while i'm teaching doodle draw pictures and diagrams of what you think i'm saying and that's a a way of taking notes as well but be a note taker capture the ideas that we're going to be unpacking during our time together so in first john chapter 4 and verse 8 grab your bible and open with us he who does not love does not know god for god is love and that goes back to what we were saying that that all human love is approximating the higher and ultimate love of god as the source and origin of all love now the word here is agape yeah and literally the text is saying that that if i don't love my fellow human beings i can't possibly love god because i'm i'm i'm i'm living contrary to the essence of god's character and the essence of god's character is love god is love the word agape in the new testament here is a range of definitions that we that we um gained from our our study of the greek word agape agape means something like goodwill benevolence esteem it also means to have preference for to wish well to or to regard the welfare of and the idea here is you know there's me and there's you and if i have agape for you if i have agape quality love for you then then i prefer you over myself i i i wish uh well for you over myself and then it even can take on the meaning of to have to take pleasure in a thing to prize it above other things like you know tacos and wife and and children to be unwilling this is amazing to abandon it or to do without it i mean i'm willing to abandon and do without tacos i am not willing to abandon my wife yeah right and christ is not willing to abandon the lost sheep that's right he goes after it he goes after he pursues us and so there's a basic definition everybody of the word agape again for the note takers please please you know just just capture the ideas here because it's going to really make a lot of sense so time oh yes yeah it's going to make a lot of sense as you incorporate this word into your vocabulary um expand your vocabulary when you hear the word love now think in terms of agape and think in terms of good will and benevolence well i was going to just mention tai we mentioned words have history yes agape has a very fascinating history okay so the use of the biblical use of agape to say love is is traced back to the authors or the translators of the septuagint okay which is the greek version of the old testament that was drafted a few centuries before christ there was this group of jewish scholars who knew obviously hebrew and greek quite well and greek was becoming the more fluent language of the hellenistic jewish community which was now spread out more than just israel but there were jews living in small communities throughout the greek speaking world and so they were translating the hebrew old testament into greek and trying to find words that matched up yeah and when they got to love they kind of had an issue because a lot of the other greek words for love didn't quite um didn't quite do it right right so you know i i don't know exactly how how the scene happened but but they must have gone back and forth you know debating with each other what words should we use for love right and they came up with agape agape um in contrast to other greek words exactly in contrast to other greek words so this is this is what um we're calling the the love complex in in in the greek language and that is to say that that love is a multi-dimensional reality for the greek mind and so unlike english where we just have the word love and maybe the word like um in in the greek language they had four words yeah for love and they were eros phileo storge and agape now it's interesting that in the first century eros was in vogue phileo was in vogue storge was invoked people were using these words they were you know you you'd hear that word and it would be a common word eros is the word that was used in greek language for like aesthetic love so so it's not it's not limited to eroticism or sexual attraction but it is a passionate love it's a heart thumping love yeah so you would have eros for um somebody that you're physically attracted to sexually attracted to but you would also have arrows for a beautifully prepared plate of food that has an aroma or a painting or or or a sculpture or a song yeah the word passionate or a sensual love by which we mean it appeals to the senses right and then phileo is a light friendship love right yeah oh yeah i mean and it could be a very um a very strong love yeah but but yeah i mean you could you could file your friends yeah it's a way to express love between friends in fact in the in the new testament in the book of revelation we have uh the church of philadelphia along with you know ephesus and pergamos and laodicea and in the word phileo philadelphia is is um the word that means brotherly love um the city of philadelphia in the united states just means brotherly love there's the word phileo it's friendship love right yeah and phileo is probably the broadest um word for love in this list yeah and then storge what's that yeah so storge is a little bit of a less common word and storge is is pretty much limited in its meaning to uh familial love so the love family that's right family the love between a parent and a child right or between a child and a parent uh it was used for maybe for weird uncle bob as well who comes only around on thanksgiving or christmas yeah yeah he's weird but he he's ours he's ours yeah so we stargate exactly yeah we store get him because he's ours yeah he's ours and we love him yeah yeah we love him yeah um but then the word agape first century as best we can tell from the reading i've done the word agape was not in in common use it wasn't it wasn't just being thrown around left right it's not this super common word and again going back to the step two again when they were finding ways of of describing god's love when they were translating the old testament from hebrew to greek they chose agape because it was disused yeah yeah or out of use yeah so it was this kind of lesser obscure lesser used word for love that didn't have all this baggage that the other ones had so you know you think of arrows well you know that's the root of our word for erotic and so you know that doesn't it has that connotation to it we can't use that for god's love vallejo didn't quite fit it for them storegay so so they that they wound up with agape yeah so if you're john if you're peter if you're paul and you're you're you know hunting your vocabulary or the greek vocabulary for a word it was really an ingenious move to take a word that was not in common use and then to employ it yeah and to infuse it with meaning i mean really it was it was a word that was like a piece of clay that they could they could shape into and they said god is agape yeah it was a blank slate for them yes um and of course they could look back to the to the greek old testament step two again and and see it being used there and carry that idea forward into the new testament as well so so when the new testament writers said god is love it's really in interesting to to to notice that they're doing something here um that is that is extremely powerful they're they're not saying that that god is love among other things they're saying god is love in totality that's what and who god is god is love in in our modern use of the word love we've we've kind of reduced it you know um the word is fill filled with with with you know paul mccartney wrote the lyric the world the world is filled with silly love songs well godzilla isn't silly yeah and and it's not merely the way that love songs are used today where you you listen to to you know an album of modern popular music and track one i love you baby because you're beautiful not because there's something about me but because there's something about you so i love you because you're attractive right by track three i don't love you baby anymore because i found some other person that i'm more attracted to so i've abandoned you for someone else because you aren't sufficiently meeting my needs so if i love you because of what you do for me that's not agape that's not god's love that's selfish yeah and and you could probably describe that as arrows love arrows that's more that's more like arrows exactly that's aesthetic love the love of attraction and that type of thing and the passion dries up and so does the love so does the love that's right so so when the bible says god is love i'd like to suggest that this is a statement a declaration that encompasses everything that is true of god so i'll say it this way everything that is true of god is true of god because god is love so we don't need to to distinguish between for example love and justice because justice is a dimension of god's love it's not like it's not like when god executes judgment or is just that he's breaking ranks with his love to be something other than love rather the truth of the matter is that god is agape god is love and therefore god is merciful and just impatient and kind and compassionate everything that is true of god falls under the heading god is love god is love yeah ty that's such a powerful concept because you know a lot of times like you said people kind of force this dichotomy right he's you know he's either loving or judgmental right he's like no he judges because he's loving in the same way that as a parent you discipline your child because you love them exactly you know if you didn't love them you would just let them get away with anything and wouldn't teach them right from wrong um and and let them bear the consequences of that and they'd get hurt yeah and they'd get hurt right um but because you love them you do the hard thing yeah which is to discipline them sometimes what what is the there's a term for that tough love yeah right not abusive love but it's tough love it's like oh there's a line here and you my little friend my child my son my daughter may not cross this line yeah daddy you don't love me no i do love you and that is precisely why i've created this line that you can't cross because there's danger over here that i don't want you to be exposed and guess what the easy thing to do would be not to create that line and not to establish anything yeah that would be very unloving and it would be unloving it would be unloving that's right so okay let's throw another idea on the table um and and that is that um eros is a kind of love that loves the beautiful i've kind of mentioned that already in the sense that you know with modern pop music the the idea is very very sentimental and it and it's very it's very much oriented toward what i derive from what you bring to the table it ignores my part of the relational dynamic where for example in marriage vows you know in sickness and health well do i love you even when you're sick as well as healthy for richer or for poorer we're we we have money and things are easy and i love you but if we're flat broke do i still love you do the stresses of life compromise my love in in this relationship so eros loves the beautiful beautiful plate of food the beautiful work of art the beautiful song the beautiful human right but agape is different and this is this is to me just a remarkable idea agape beautifies the beloved so so so god loves me and god loves you even when we're not morally beautiful when we're when we're yet sinners christ while we were still sinners romans 5 christ died for us while we were yet sinners so god's love okay let me say it this way god's love defines who he is right who he is consistently regardless of the external circumstances of human failure human defects human sin right and then god's love which is lavished upon me even though i am unlovely even though i'm not beautiful even though i am a sinner and i fall short of the glory of god the goodness of god god loves me and then that love has the effect of drawing me into its vortex so that i became i began to want to be like the one who loves me so that's what i mean when i say that that agape beautifies the beloved if there's something wrong with me god is going to love me out of it his his love turns us into the person that we're supposed to be that we are always that is so i love that in an unfallen way yeah and and his love is loving us into that yeah he he his lobster again turns us in to who we were meant to be yeah isn't that something i mean it's a powerful influence then oh yeah and the only way it could be that powerful is if it is consistent in god rather than something that's fickle like up and down and yeah and i love you today i don't love you tomorrow god's love is constant it's it's the truth about him regardless of any external uh conditions or circumstances that's exactly right tai and and in a way god's love is a faucet if i can call it that that's that's never turned off it's on full blast all the time all the time it's just pouring pouring in regardless of our actions it's still pouring into it so you know nathan you were pretty good today god loves you nathan you messed up today guess what god loves you and uh he he pours that love into you nonetheless yeah and it changes us it's constant from outward and that brings us the constancy of it brings us to the hebrew background to the word agape you you hinted at this earlier where you suggested that there was the hebrew old testament concept of love and when the uh when the new testament authors needed to find a word to approximate the the love of god the the word in the hebrew was he said okay he said his said is covenantal love it's constant love it's faithful love it's described for example in isaiah 54 and verse 10 though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed yet my unfailing love those two words unfailing love are the single hebrew word he said my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed so there's the idea that all of nature could implode or or you know mountains shaken and hills being moved but god says no matter what happens i will never ever stop loving you wow and then isaiah 42 verse 6 is a prophecy it's a messianic prophecy of the coming messiah the savior i the lord have called you that's god the father i have called you the son jesus in righteousness and i will hold your hand i will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people again the idea that the old testament idea of the love of god is his said or covenantal faithfulness okay so that's the message it's covenant that uh is has said no covenant is not has said here okay yeah the the that's actually better heath in the hebrew but i'm simply pointing out that in the previous text that we looked at um my unfailing love is equivalent to covenant okay got it yeah yeah my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant nor my covenant of peace be removed right so then the prophecy is god's covenantal faithfulness his his set is going to take on living form in the messiah in the person of christ when jesus comes into the world he is going to be the covenantal love of god embodied this is this is the transition between the old testament and the new so bring us to the new testament then yeah i mean so so i mean one of the most common verses that we all memorize is john 3 16. so for god so loved the world that's agape that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life so that's describing what agape is what the love of god is like it's giving your only son it's giving up your life so so one of the characteristics as you're pointing out is giving or generosity god we might say is other centered and self-sacrificing because when it says here he gave his only begotten son there's a lot there he's giving jesus to the world he's not lending jesus to the world he's giving jesus to the world there's a whole big theological you know door that opens into that idea that according to the new testament god gave his son permanently to the human race to be a member of the human race so that according to the apostle paul in ephesians and in colossians and philippians as well as in the book of hebrews we have this idea that even after his his death burial and resurrection and ascension jesus bears our humanity he is our brother in the flesh for eternity so so so he was given to the human race in the sense that he was given as a member of the human race forever and ever and that's what makes him the perfect mediator for us yeah what a sacrifice in the deepest level he understood so that's agape agape as is self-sacrificing love it's love that gives it's generous god didn't withhold one author says it this way i remember reading um a line that says that that um all of heaven was given in the gift of god's son so jesus jesus is the one in whom god gives everything to the human race all the resources of heaven are put at the disposal of human salvation in the person of christ um okay so in the next verse verse 17 there's another characteristic of of this agape love for god did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved so so in verse 16 god's love is characterized by giving giving in the ultimate sense of self-sacrifice here god's love is is characterized by a lack of condemnation so we might we might say god's love is non-condemning non-condemning love and this is important to understand because again we're not dealing with eros here we're not dealing with a a love that is on one moment and off the next moment a love that's like i love you because okay i don't love you because yeah yeah dot dot dot yeah so get your act together and then come and see me no i love you before you get your act together you know and so i'm i'm relating to you without condemnation now that is not to say god is blind to our our sins it's not it's not fiction it's not play acting he's not like pretending like we've not done anything wrong he knows we're sinners yeah but he loves us still yeah yeah and his intention is to love us out of that state yeah there we are again with the idea that that the love of god the agape of god um elevates us it beautifies us it transforms us or or as you said it makes us in to the kind of people we were meant that's right to be that's right because because tai we were created in the image of god which is love which is love yes and and things went terribly wrong and we fell um but through god's love god is wanting to turn us into his image bearers to the world yeah and not only our hearts are changed but we start to affect others around us in a positive way this is god's love it's kind of like a cascading effect yeah like a trickle effect where where god loves me and i realize it and then as i realize god's love for me i don't i don't make god love me by my realization i just see it finally and then i begin to relate to those around me in the way that god has related to me and they begin to see god's love and experience god's love through a human medium through a human agent and then that deflects from me to him that's right so then they begin to love god as the source of that that love okay so then so then what we're suggesting is that jesus embodies the agape of love in our previous session we said that that jesus is the embodiment of the logos of god right the the operating system of reality the logic and rational process of of reality now we're suggesting well the new testament is explicitly telling us that jesus is the embodiment of the agape love of god and that's why when we see jesus his love is on display as a love that is constant a love that is non-condemning a love that is full throttle like like you said the faucet is open all the way and it's just gushing out and there's no there's no hesitancy on on god's part jesus embodies god's love so nathan let's go through a little bit of a longer passage yeah first john chapter four starting with verse seven and we'll not look at every single verse yeah but here's how the new testament again for those of you who are joining us um i would encourage you to take notes on on this passage because there's so much richness here you'll want to you'll want to capture some of these ideas so that you can share them in the future with friends and family so starting with first john chapter four uh to begin with verses seven and eight nathan okay so beloved let us one excuse me beloved let us love one another for love is of god and everyone who loves is born of god and knows god he who does not love does not know god for god is love so all of the words for love there are agape again that's right and that's right essentially what john is saying here is that love for one another love for fellow human beings right is a manifestation of the love of god yeah i mean the fact is our our horizontal love reveals the fact that we're partakers of of god's love on the the vertical level then verse 12 no one has seen god at any time if we love one another god abides in us that's quite a bridge of understanding there if we love one another that's evidence that's proof that god is abiding living in us and his love has been perfected or or matured um in us it's not flawless of course we're fallen human beings and we we make mistakes and we come short of god's agape but but we're in a maturation process as we partake of god's love for us where his love is being matured in us and then verse 13. how about that one nathan yeah so 13. by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit and verse 14 and we have seen and testify that the father has sent the son as savior of the world in verse 15. whoever confesses that jesus is the son of god god abides in him and he and god and finally we have known and believed the love that god has for us god is love and he who abides in love abides in god and god in him this is this is this has to be one of the most powerful paths it makes all the connections between god and love and us god being love yeah yeah so god god is love and if you live in love you live in god and god lives in you i mean it's it's it's poetic the way that that it's uh worded even in the english but again we're dealing with the idea here of a love that is first and foremost in god and that love that is in god is is the the birthplace of human creation i mean we could we could even say according to this passage in many other passages because god is love god created the world and human beings to be image bearers reflectors of his love because love has a a other centered quality that's right so if it has another centered quality you know for example you and bethany fell in love well it's it's a it's a logical natural next step to want to replicate your love by having children that you can lavish your love upon yeah and can be not only the the the recipients of your love but then you can watch your own little ones love each other and love you back and it's a beautiful thing the whole universe was made for this the world love isn't satisfied just to be alone love wants to give and receive yeah yeah you know god god created us because he wanted something to love yeah yeah and and when we when we love john says that's the evidence that's the evidence in this same passage we didn't read this verse specifically it said if i hate my brother i'm lying if i say i love god but i hate my brother i'm lying yeah i mean it's a very simple equation yeah you know god i love you you know i'm i'm i'm religious and i worship you and i'm going through the motions of religion but i hate my fellow human being god god says no if you say you love me that will manifest itself in love for your fellow human beings that's right if you have god in your heart you have love in your heart by definition yeah and this love this love that is the very essence of the character of god um reached its pinnacle revelation in the person of jesus christ and finally our fellow bible students at the cross of calvary so when john 3 16 says for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son well that giving didn't have any limits he gave jesus to us as the fallen human race and we turned on him and we crucified him and he yielded to our abuse and to our murderous sinful evil wicked intentions and when jesus died on the cross without retaliating he was revealing in the most beautiful and crystal clear sense that god when push comes to shove loves all others above and before himself amen for god so deeply so passionately so completely so perfectly so selflessly loved the world that he gave his only begotten son for the human race amen when we get together next time we're going to be looking at the third word in our seven part series on key new testament words that third word that we're going to be looking at in the series is the greek word sozo so if you want to do a little bit of homework and investigation yourself take some notes you can be prepared for our next time together as we look at the greek word sozo which you will find as the english word saved and salvation in the new testament thank you for joining us and we look forward to being with you again

Channel: Storyline Church

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Length: 40min 42sec (2442 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 10 2022