God, Jesus Christ, Order, Love
by Barry Delk
In the beginning all things were made by God (Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit) and for God and through Him all things are held together (Gen 1:1-27, John 1:1-3, Col 1
:16-18). Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made (John 1:3). The entire known universe in which we exist comes directly from God. It must be and cannot be any other way.
All matter, even down to the atomic and subatomic levels are God’s proclaimed energy in motion in some form. Even “so called modern day” science has not figured it all out, but it is all energy in motion. Every atom, every molecule, every element, every rock, plant, animal, and the heart, soul, mind and body of mankind itself is from God’s energy. He was the only source that could produce it then, and the only source that maintains and sustains it now.
Of course, beyond the energy that created all matter (things), is the order or design of its arrangement in all forms. Without order and design, the matter does not matter. While we can observe energy in motion and the order and design in matter, the overall complexity and energy of it all is beyond our ability to comprehend. We can observe the power of a nuclear reactor or atomic bomb and the energy expended by the dividing or splitting of atoms and it is incredible, but consider God spun it all together in the beginning to the finest of detail to create a place for us and Him to interact in relationship. Further and most important, was that beyond the energy and order was His purpose, and that purpose was to express love, a love more incomprehensible than even the energy and order from God’s infinite mind. It is a passionate and eternal love that was at creation’s very root, and we are the offspring of His desire to love us and for us to love Him and to share His love with others.
Now about that love:
If you have ever gotten a hand-crafted gift, it touches your heart because of the love involved in its making. Consider the depth then of God’s love for us as he crafted an entire perfectly ordered universe with glorious diversity and creative design to delight us and provide for us. He sustained that gift in perfect harmony until we broke “order” by choosing “disorder” (Genesis to Revelation). We should always thank God from the depths of our hearts when we look upon the glorious works of his hands, heart and mind and be saddened when we see the broken works of our own. (That is a discussion for another time, let’s get back to love.) Just as God is the only source of energy and order in the universe, He is also the only possible source of a perfect, pure, eternal, fulfilling love in the universe and beyond. That love was intimately entwined as part of God’s perfect order. God’s love is unconditional, eternal, caring, patient, kind, unbreakable, selfless, serving, never failing and immeasurably more. It always seeks the higher good, always uplifts and brings peace and comfort to its target and we are all His target.In the Greek language, God’s form of love as noted above, is often referred to as “Agape Love” (see note 1). The other common forms of “love” in the Greek language (some in the scriptures, some not) are Phileo (a brotherly love, friendships, often based on common interests, and can be an emotional love with strong ties), Eros (is physical love and intimacy, passion, lust) and Storge (a familial love, not based on common interest but in a family dynamic, parent to child, etc.) These “loves” are normally used in the context of being a love shared between people, but in the English translation they are simply written as “love” (without a distinction). Phileo, Eros and Storge are important forms of love, not to be discounted, but it is the Agape love from God that keeps all other forms of love or passion in proper “order,” just as it was in creation. Some have said Agape love is fundamentally a fixed “One Way” love expecting nothing in return as it springs from God’s nature. Phileo, Eros, Storge expressed between people is often based more in feelings, emotions, familial ties, shared interests and other and are said to be “two way” loves. This means these loves usually (with Phileo and Eros) have expectations or conditions attached to them, whereas Agape has none. In fact, Phileo and Eros’ love may not even be initiated by some people without first having an expectation of some type being met while Agape always stands ready to love, like the story of the returning prodigal His love with others.
Now about that love:
If you have ever gotten a hand-crafted gift, it touches your heart because of the love involved in its making. Consider the depth then of God’s love for us as he crafted an entire perfectly ordered universe with glorious diversity and creative design to delight us and provide for us. He sustained that gift in perfect harmony until we broke “order” by choosing “disorder” (Genesis to Revelation). We should always thank God from the depths of our hearts when we look upon the glorious works of his hands, heart and mind and be saddened when we see the broken works of our own. (That is a discussion for another time, let’s get back to love.) Just as God is the only source of energy and order in the universe, He is also the only possible source of a perfect, pure, eternal, fulfilling love in the universe and beyond. That love was intimately entwined as part of God’s perfect order. God’s love is unconditional, eternal, caring, patient, kind, unbreakable, selfless, serving, never failing and immeasurably more. It always seeks the higher good, always uplifts and brings peace and comfort to its target and we are all His target.
In the Greek language, God’s form of love as noted above, is often referred to as “Agape Love” (see note 1). The other common forms of “love” in the Greek language (some in the scriptures, some not) are Phileo (a brotherly love, friendships, often based on common interests, and can be an emotional love with strong ties), Eros (is physical love and intimacy, passion, lust) and Storge (a familial love, not based on common interest but in a family dynamic, parent to child, etc.) These “loves” are normally used in the context of being a love shared between people, but in the English translation they are simply written as “love” (without a distinction). Phileo, Eros and Storge are important forms of ove, not to be discounted, but it is the Agape love from God that keeps all other forms of love or passion in proper “order,” just as it was in creation.Some have said Agape love is fundamentally a fixed “One Way” love expecting nothing in return as it springs from God’s nature. Phileo, Eros, Storge expressed between people is often based more in feelings, emotions, familial ties, shared interests and other and are said to be “two way” loves. This means these loves usually (with Phileo and Eros) have expectations or conditions attached to them, whereas Agape has none. In fact, Phileo and Eros’ love may not even be initiated by some people without first having an expectation of some type being met while Agape always stands ready to love, like the story of the returning prodigal son (Luke 15:11-31). Agape love may even chase you down sometimes as in the one lost sheep of the hundred (Luke 1Likewise, Agape is a deeper love, tied to the Holy Spirit and from him, Phileo, Eros and even Storge are more from the flesh (but not exclusively).
Agape is the love God transmits to us and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot love from Agape without the Holy Spirit living in us or directing us from beyond. Yet, the Lord commands us to walk by the Spirit and walk (and live) in that love. It is also part of what transforms our heart from death to life and makes us brand new at and after salvation. So, in that sense, the expression of Agape love should become part of our very essence as a person, the well from which we draw every reaction from our being and that by the power of the Holy Spirit. A person fully yielding their heart to such love will radiate a presence of peace and joy from within them. When people say they want to be “more like Jesus,” there is no other way to do that than to have a heart yielded to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to fully flow from you with Agape love. We are quite literally to become the conduits of God’s heart to others. Nothing in us should ever block the flow of God’s love through us.
The above seems like a simple concept and it is what is specifically taught by Jesus and his disciples. Yet, why is it so often missed or certainly misunderstood? There are many reasons:
Improper or incomplete teaching on the need for reliance on the indwelling Holy Spirit. *
- Our flesh nature resists anything “unconditional.”
- A self-focus on behavior modification or obedience in our Christian life instead of “living by the spirit,” which brings those about.
Incomplete understanding of “Newness” at salvation.
- Past life experiences or abuse that is not healed.
- Pride, Anger, Bitterness, Doubt, Fear
- An unforgiving heart
- A lack of knowledge about Agape love or that it should be our first order of love, as it is from the Lord.
And there are another one hundred or more. But whatever it is that blocks the heart of a Christian from expressing God’s Agape love to others, it should be rooted out in prayer to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and with the help of caring brothers and sisters of the faith. The Lord (via the Holy Spirit) will take whatever ground of your heart you yield to Him, and He will help you do it as well, as it does not come naturally. In that, He will supernaturally change your heart and desires to His as you allow. The bible instructs us that when we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are to go to him like an unformed piece of clay waiting on our Creator to remake us. This is very much as Jesus told Nicodemus he was to
be reborn of the Spirit, and reborn is about as new and unformed as it gets. We are to go to God as a blank slate, inside and out (much as the earth was first formless and void before God started his masterpiece work). If this is done, God can make quicker work on renewing us. However, most people go to God seeking a repair kit to mend what “they” think is broken, like a sin they struggle with or even a number of them. They think they will start working on changing behavior not knowing, it is only God (via the Holy Spirit) that can do it.
With that incomplete approach, they also shortchange the ability for the Holy Spirit to fully express God’s love through them. In other words, people carry so much baggage with them to the cross of Christ, they forget to leave it all there at salvation and it hinders and blocks God’s purification process. Some of the worst “blockers” of God’s work are not always sin, but instead people hanging onto prior coping mechanisms that are not so “obvious.” People commonly have tied false identities to themselves based on life’s positions or choices, like being a “Father, Mother, teacher, preacher, …. sexual, baker, son, daughter, patriot, Republican, Democrat, etc. These self-identifiers are positional and based on held beliefs and desires, but they need to be submitted to the Holy Spirit’s control as well.
I once shared with my son that we are to be the Lord’s spigot or faucet of God’s love. And while God waits within us to share His love with full force, we control the handle. We can allow a trickle or a full blasting stream. Also, with that we need to allow the Holy Spirit to first clear the pipes of our old baggage and gunk or be His new pipe altogether. We want nothing getting in the way of God’s light and flow in us and through us.
As noted, Agape love is an integral part of God’s energy and order as well. In fact, the energy, order and love are divinely entwined in beauty like our Triune God, making a complete perfect combination. If energy, order or love ever to get out of sync, we have chaos both in nature and in life. We live in a broken world so finding the right balance in our lives is a work only the Holy Spirit can help us accomplish, for while we can do all things through Christ (Phil 4:13), we can do nothing without him (John15:5) (and again that with the Holy Spirit’s help). God commands us to love one another as He loves us, and as the Father and Son love each other, that is Jesus passionate desire for us (John 17:20-26). So, in that sense, we are to treat each other just as we will treat Jesus himself if we truly love them (and Him).
It is shocking to encounter Christians who do not understand this or disagree with it as if we are to pick and choose who to love and how to love them, as that is not what we are commanded to do. Please note, this is not talking about a person loving someone who is actively physically beating or abusing them (although Jesus loved others even in these cases) as they would be advised to avoid such violent conflict. But instead, it is in the day-to-day differences of opinions, of ideologies, or having neglectful or uncaring spouses, children, friends or other
along with various other less than ideal interactions: in all these we are called to love, period. God’s word does not say we are to love others when they agree with us, when we feel like it, or are in the right mood, or in return for kind acts. It says we are to always love in Agape as Christ did for us. Agape love is God’s nature, and it should be our own. God does not change or waiver or examine conditions, he just loves without ceasing.
Likewise, the Word says love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), much as Jesus love, death, blood and resurrection covered all our sins. So, as we allow God’s same love to flow though us, it often stops evil in its tracks. You do not know if a kind word, gesture or even a smile from you to a person who has had a horrible day may change their mood from anger to joy. That joy goes home with them instead of the anger and it may carry further. What we do know is that sin, without love as a “sin check” in its path, will keep on destroying things along its way. For Christians, which is why the bible urges us to not let the sun go down on our anger (Eph 4:26), to allow it to take root and become bitterness and far worse (James1:20). We are to give that over to the Holy Spirit and the Lord’s love within us to heal.
As Christians, we need to really keep something fundamental in mind. When we withhold Agape love from others, or even Phileo, Eros or Storge filtered through Agape, we are withholding God’s love from that person, not our own. Remember “we” have no “real” love to give without God first granting it to us by the energy of the Holy Spirit. So really, we are keeping God from His people and in some cases causing them to “stumble” by our own selfishness by withholding what God has gifted to us by his grace. Whenever we are faced with a tough time to love someone or a group of someone’s (and we all have them daily), just keep present in mind Jesus on the cross, beaten, bleeding, stripped of dignity, stripped of flesh, in a pain beyond comprehension, looking out and saying, “forgive them Father.” That is God’s Agape love, and it should be our heart’s as well.
If we have truly died to ourselves, putting to death our flesh at salvation and were filled with the Holy Spirit (as is spoken of repeatedly in the scriptures) then Agape love should be the natural response in all things in our lives from that day forward. But the “should and the actual” are the battle. Again, there are many reasons as noted earlier, but a main one is people often do not grasp God’s flow chart. It is simply this. God loves us, indwells us with His love and infuses that love to others (and to ourselves) as we allow Him. The stopper is quite often that we think “it is us” that is loving others and we put our attachments, expectations and other on it before we express God’s love forward (or really replace it with our own Phileo, Eros or Storge types). First, it’s not our love to block, it is God’s. We (our flesh needs and desires) should be out of God’s way in loving others through us. Finally, even if we do express love to someone after they pass through our check list, it is not real love at all, it is a selfish unfiltered counterfeit. I have never heard this expressed by others, but the truth is, “We should never seek or desire the heart or love from another person as contained in their flesh, we
should only want God’s love (heart) that flows from them, absent their fleshly attachments.” That makes perfect sense when we acknowledge our flesh does not have any good in it that can be transmitted in a pure form without the Holy Spirit’s cleansing. Again, therefore we are continually called to live by the “spirit” as guided by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.
It was noted that it is Agape love that helps filter or bring to order Phileo, Eros and really any other form of love or any thought in our lives. By this, I mean, the Holy Spirit guides us in Agape love as it is His nature. Phileo, Eros and Storge can be and are often guided by feelings, emotions, conditions, moods and can be self-seeking if not reigned in, especially in non-believers. But it can be just as prevalent for believers. This is because very few consider filtering the other loves through the Holy Spirit and non-believers cannot as they do not have the Holy Spirit. Again, Agape loves without seeking “self” so a brotherly love, emotional love, familial love, even erotic love, first filtered by the Holy Spirit will be pure and holy in its expression to others. It also advances God’s kingdom.
Pure love would never seek control, harm, to gain favor or other from another, it would instead be motivated to bring the person joy, comfort, lift their spirits, or help them in some other way. The golden rule to love your neighbor as yourself fits well with this of course but add to that that we are instructed to love others even “above” ourselves (Phil 2:3) and we can rest in that Agape love. While this is not always easy, it becomes easier in time as your heart becomes the heart of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, I believe the greatest gift the Holy Spirit gives us is the true heart of Jesus and He makes that available to anyone who really seeks it and grants Him that ground in their mind, heart and soul. That is surrender, but it is also the Holy Spirit that helps us do it, we cannot do it on our own.
May we pray, “Precious Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit, anytime I am angry, unkind, unforgiving, fearful, judgmental, selfish, doubtful, self-destructive, unloving, joyless, hopeless, bitter or unsettled in my spirit, by your power lift these burdens from me. Sear closed their place of hold on my heart. In their place, fill me with your love through and through to overflowing, that it is no longer me, but You that love. Let me not lean on my own understanding of things Lord, nor on my own ability to love but yours, by the power of your Holy Spirit. Let me seize the true joy this brings and never let it go. Amen
Note 1 (In the Old and New Testament scriptures the various forms of love noted in the writings can sometimes be interchanged depending on context or other. This essay was not to delve into the deepest levels of interpretation of the various forms of love as written in the Greek. This essay merely chose the Agape form as the root word for God’s unconditional, perfect, eternal, patient, kind, etc., etc. love for us and how we are to express that same love to others.
There are many writings on the other forms of love and their application in scriptures and elsewhere). Further, Storge and Eros are not noted in the Greek
New Testament scriptures but are commonly referred to in other Greek writings. Other writers identify even more forms of love, but that will not be addressed as they are not critical to the topic.