Text: 2 Samuel 13:1-18
Memory text:
“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Rom 5:5 NKJV
No one can know true love outside of God. God’s type of love is called, ‘Agape’ in contrast to ‘Philieo’, the world type of love. God is love, and true love comes from Him. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (I John 4:8). Agape is really a mark of true salvation.
Agape is not based on pleasant emotions, good feelings, or goose pimples that might result from a physical attraction or bodily contact. It is not built on the world criteria for love such as beauty, physique, sex or any natural endowment of the person being loved. Rather, agape chooses as an act of self-sacrifice to serve the recipient. It is not infatuation or impulsive love but a decisive love. In other words, agape is volitional, but Philieo is emotional. Amnon’s love for Tamar is an example of impulsive love. He was overpowered by his emotions, and so he fell in love, but when the emotion crashed, he instantly fell out of love! This type of impulsive love is completely contrary to God’s decisive love because He is in control and has a purpose in mind.
God demonstrated Agape love towards us, as demonstrated in Calvary (John 3:16). God had a purpose in mind, even though He knew the cost, He still went ahead and gave His only begotten Son. Agape is God’s love and is the love that God is. It is self-sacrificial in nature, seeking the benefit of the one who is loved, a love which means death to self. It seeks the welfare of others and sacrifices one’s self for the benefit of the object loved.
You see, God’s type of love is stirred up by the need to add value to the one being loved, unlike the world type of love, which is moved by the favour one wants to get. Agape makes one to be devoted to the object of love.
Agape love is not human affection. It’s commanded by God, originated from Him, and produced as fruit in the heart of a yielded believer by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5). Thus, agape love is the natural fruit of the indwelling Spirit. In fact, the first on the list of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22).
Agape love is the manifestation of victory over sin and the flesh since the essence of sin is self-will and self-gratification.
Friends, is your love the God type of love or the world type of love? When you have God’s type of love, it will be easy for you to discern the type of love being shown to you by others, and you will be delivered from the trap of the enemy. Above all, know that anyone who does not know God personally and experientially can never exhibit agape love.
Prayer points
1. Father, please, quicken Your love in my heart again, in Jesus’ name.
2. Father, please, deliver all Your children from ignorance and help them to discern true love in Jesus’ name.
Today’s declarations
1. God’s type of love is a love of devotion, while the worldly type of love is a love of emotion.
2. I will not yield to the desires of my flesh or to self gratification but to the desires of the Spirit.
Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng