Tag Archives: agape

Don’t forget the command that goes with the love (John 21:15-19)

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
What was Jesus trying to tell Peter when He ask three times if he loved Him? Did you remember His command each time as well?
Scripture
1. John 21:15-19
2. Jesus: Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these other things?

Simon Peter: Yes, Lord. You know that I love You.

Jesus: Take care of My lambs.

Jesus asked him a second time . . .

Jesus: Simon, son of John, do you love Me?

Simon Peter: Yes, Lord. You must surely know that I love You.

Jesus: Shepherd My sheep.

(for the third time) Simon, son of John, do you love Me?

Peter was hurt because He asked him the same question a third time, “Do you love Me?”

Simon Peter: Lord, You know everything! You know that I love You.

Jesus: Look after My sheep. I tell you the truth: when you were younger, you would dress yourself and go wherever you pleased; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and take you to a place you do not want to go.

Jesus said all this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. After this conversation, Jesus said,

Jesus: Follow Me!

Devotional
1. A lot has been said about why Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loved Him
  1. Three different words to describe love
    1. Like something like you like ice cream or a good movie
    2. Love like brotherly love
    3. Unconditional agape, god-like love
  2. Peter denied Jesus three times so Jesus asked Peter three times for each denial
  3. Peter needed to reach deep into His core to get past the flippant answer we all give to questions most of the time
    1. How are you? Fine
    2. How was your vacation? Great
    3. What can I do for you? Just looking
    4. Do you love me? Of course I do
2. What we often forget is the command Jesus gave Peter that goes along with his declaration
  1. Take care of my sheep
  2. Shepherd my sheep
  3. Look after my sheep
  4. Do the hard work of keeping these fledgling followers encouraged during hard times
  5. Teach them My ways when the world is trying to drive them another way
  6. Give them help when they’re caught in the storms of life
  7. Be their shepherd
3. Jesus is telling Peter the same way James tells us in his letter
  1. Faith without works is dead
  2. Works do not save you
  3. But faith without works is not the faith Jesus wants of His followers, either
  4. Just ask Peter
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Love is the universal language of the world (John 14:23-34), April 1, 2017

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Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
We hear about love a lot. We think we see it everywhere. Jesus commands that we love. So what is it, anyway?
Scripture
1. John 14:23-34
2. Jesus: Anyone who loves Me will listen to My voice and obey. The Father will love him, and We will draw close to him and make a dwelling place within him. The one who does not love Me ignores My message, which is not from Me, but from the Father who sent Me.
Devotional
1. I went to everyone’s favorite source of perfect information to find the answer to the question, “What is love?” The Internet, specifically Wikipedia
  1. Love is a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes that ranges from interpersonal affection (“I love my mother”) to pleasure (“I loved that meal”). It can refer to an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment.[1] Love can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—”the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another”.[2] It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans, one’s self or animals.[3]
  2. Ancient Greeks identified four forms of love: kinship or familiarity (in Greek, storge), friendship (philia), sexual and/or romantic desire (eros), and self-emptying or divine love (agape). Modern authors have distinguished further varieties of romantic love. Non-Western traditions have also distinguished variants or symbioses of these states.[4][5] Love has additional religious or spiritual meaning—notably in Abrahamic religions. This diversity of uses and meanings combined with the complexity of the feelings involved makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, compared to other emotional states.
  3. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.[6]
  4. Love may be understood as a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.[7
2. Does that get us any closer to understanding love?
  1. Definition of love is like definition of ice cream
  2. Must experience it to really understand it and even then do you really understand it?
  3. How can you really describe the experience?
  4. Yet when we go through the event, when we eat ice cream for the first time, we know we like it and we want more
  5. When we experience real love, not the mushy fake lust we see advertised, but real love,we know we like it and we need it and we want more
3. How do we get love?
  1. We get it unconditionally from God
  2. Most of us get it unconditionally from mothers and fathers who try to be good parents no matter how flawed they are
  3. Most of us get love, though sometimes misunderstood and again flawed by the image of what love is from the media and the world in our marriages
  4. But the best way to get love? Give love to others – unconditionally
  5. What kind of love? – that one that says, “Love can be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection—”the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another”.[2] It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards other humans,
  6. That’s the love God shows toward us and asks us to give it to others in return
4. Jesus says if we love Him we will obey Him, His commands usually come in the form of helping others, thinking of others more than we think of ourselves. Doing and giving and lifting others to show them real, genuine love in a world that knows so little about real love today
5. Love is the universal language, but so few know how to speak it today. Go out and teach them through your actions
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

All you need is love (Luke 10:26-28) October 28, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Zephaniah

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 10:26-28
Jesus (answering with a question): What is written in the Hebrew Scriptures? How do you interpret their answer to your question?
Scholar: You shall love—“love the Eternal One your God with everything you have: all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind”—and “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus: Perfect. Your answer is correct. Follow these commands and you will live.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

A couple of weeks ago we held a community event at our church. We had a pumpkin patch and bounce house for the kids. A petting zoo and hay ride. Some of the members organized games and face painting and we had some gourmet food trucks that provided goodies throughout the day. But the big event was the antique car show. A couple of the local car clubs brought their cars to show off. I was roped into the role of DJ for the day.

Until the pastor asked me to fill in that role, I had almost forgotten the times one of the local stations in the town I went to high school let me run a show for them once a week as part of preparing for extemporaneous speaking competitions, debate, and other speaking contests I participated in during my high school days. It wasn’t much of an audience, but I did get to spin a few records. Well…I plugged in a few 8-tracks and had to make sure the commercials ran on time, grabbed the news and weather off the teletype and made sure I could read through all the typos that appeared in the faded ink on that flimsy yellow paper.

As the DJ in this particular community event, though, I decided to use a fifties theme since we were using the car show as the major draw for the community. So I pushed the top 100 hits from the 50s all afternoon and everyone had a blast listening to those old songs. At least they were polite enough to tell me they enjoyed the music. Based on their expressions and activity, I’m pretty sure their compliments were true.

So, that brings me to today’s verses, they reminded me of a Beatles’ song made popular in the 60s. You probably remember the words to the chorus. They go like this:

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need

The Beatles probably weren’t thinking about agape kind of love, God’s unconditional love, but those words are true. We just can’t seem to get them right. We try to put other stuff in there instead of loving God and loving others and think that’s what’s necessary to please God. It’s not. The scholar who came to Jesus seeking information about the greatest commandment got it right. In Matthew, Jesus is said to have summed up the law in those two statements, love God and love your neighbor. He went on to tell us that all the other commands, every other law is built on those two commands.

If you think about it, it’s true. If we love God, we will do nothing that would cause Him harm or pain or displeasure. We would obey Him in every respect. We would worship Him for who He is and give Him our whole self to do with us whatever He chooses. We would never say no to one of His instructions to us if we really love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And what about loving our neighbor? Wouldn’t we do everything we could to advance our neighbor if we loved him? Wouldn’t we always say kind words about him? Wouldn’t we help whenever we could? Wouldn’t we be a listening ear and a helping hand when she needed one? Wouldn’t we be the very best friend we could be if we really loved our neighbor with God’s unconditional love? Wouldn’t we share the story of God’s salvation to our neighbor is our neighbor isn’t a Christian so that he would know God’s grace and saving mercy so that he would not find himself facing judgment without hope? If we really loved our neighbor wouldn’t we do everything we could to introduce her to the Savior so she could know the peace and joy that comes from serving Him?

Isn’t that what love is all about? Isn’t love about giving it away and not about trying to get it from others? At least that’s what Jesus seemed to teach us about God’s love. Yep, the words of the song are right when you talk about the right kind of unconditional agape love that God can put in our hearts. All you need is love. Love is all you need. Sometimes it’s a little hard to find these days, but you can share it. You can plant the seeds of God’s love around you and who knows, you might grow a bumper crop in the neighborhood where you live. Give it a try. It certainly won’t hurt anyone to love them. And it might make a huge difference in their eternity.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Love, do you pass the test? (Matthew 22:37-40) May 23, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Exodus 29-32

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus (quoting Scripture): “Love the Eternal One your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is nearly as important, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The rest of the law, and all the teachings of the prophets, are but variations on these themes.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

There must be a bazillion songs about love. And no wonder. Love is a wonderful thing. The problem with most of those songs, though, the world has so corrupted even the word that we don’t know what love really means any more. Most of the songs deal with satisfying some selfish desire for carnal pleasures. But that’s not what Jesus was talking about when He talked about loving God and loving others.

We’ve fallen into the world’s trap that somehow love is for us instead of for someone else. We think love is supposed to make us feel better or gain some place in the life of someone else. We talk about sharing our love with someone, but look at that phrase. Jesus never talked about sharing our love. He just said to love. Sharing implies keeping some for ourselves. Divvying up the pie, so to speak. But Jesus doesn’t see love that way. Jesus says give it all away. He wants us to follow His example.

So what did Jesus do? He emptied Himself. He loved like no one else. Jesus took on the sins of the entire world so that He could forgive us of those sins. He loved us enough to die for us. He left the throne room of heaven and wrapped Himself in the frail flesh of humanity, suffering the same things we suffer, enduring the same pains and heartaches and disappointments we endure so that when He stands before the Father, He can act as our perfect advocate.

He gave all of Himself for us. He loved us to the extreme. Not the mushy, gushy, lustful stuff the world calls love, but God’s kind of love that sacrifices all for the good of someone else, even if that someone is your enemy. That’s what Jesus did for us while we were still sinners, far from God. Working against Him. Doing things far outside His will.

Jesus says there are two commandments on which every other law rests. Love God and love your neighbor. It’s all about love, so we should understand what love is. The love of God is deeper, wider, higher, and longer than we can imagine. It began before the world came into being and will last long after it disappears from the scene. Love never fails. It’s always there and always comes through. It strengthen us in the darkest night. Love keeps us safe from the wiles of the enemy so we can stand before God at the end of time.

So if we follow Jesus example in loving others, it means we give of ourselves for their benefit, not ours. You still find that definition of love in the dictionary, but it has moved to the fourth place in Webster’s. Here’s how it reads: 4 a : unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: as (1) : the fatherly concern of God for humankind (2) : brotherly concern for others b : a person’s adoration of God. See we keep pushing it further and further down the line of definitions because we want what suits us, not what suits God.

The first definition listed in the dictionary today? Selfish desire; self-satisfaction. Listen to it: 1
a (1) : strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties maternal love for a child (2) : attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3) : affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests love for his old schoolmates b : an assurance of affection give her my love. All of these look at satisfying something inside us. They point toward our affection, our desire, our feelings.

God’s kind of love reaches out despite the wrongs that might be done against us. God’s love does good whether or not there is affection or attraction or kinship or ties. God’s love reaches out to perform acts of kindness to show mercy and grace to those who do not deserve it just because people are part of God’s creation. If God made them, they are good and so we love them because we love Him.

Love becomes an action verb that says we participate in making life better for those around us because we can. Not because we have to or even because we want to, but we do good for others because we can. That is love. Doing good expecting nothing in return. Wanting nothing except to pour out our lives as an offering to God in the form of service He asks us to do for those who do not deserve it because He poured out His life for us when we didn’t deserve it either.

That’s real love. Do you pass the test?

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Do you love Me? (John 21:15-23), August 19, 2015

Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Scriptures

Today’s Bible reading plans include:

Ready – John 21:15-23

Set – Psalms 105; John 21

Go! – Jeremiah 45-47; Psalms 105; John 21

John 21:15-23
¹⁵ They finished eating breakfast.
Jesus: Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these other things?
Simon Peter: Yes, Lord. You know that I love You.
Jesus: Take care of My lambs.
¹⁶ Jesus asked him a second time . . .
Jesus: Simon, son of John, do you love Me?
Simon Peter: Yes, Lord. You must surely know that I love You.
Jesus: Shepherd My sheep.
¹⁷ (for the third time) Simon, son of John, do you love Me?
Peter was hurt because He asked him the same question a third time, “Do you love Me?”
Simon Peter: Lord, You know everything! You know that I love You.
Jesus: Look after My sheep. ¹⁸ I tell you the truth: when you were younger, you would dress yourself and go wherever you pleased; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and take you to a place you do not want to go.
¹⁹ Jesus said all this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. After this conversation, Jesus said,
Jesus: Follow Me!
²⁰ Peter turned around to see the disciple loved by Jesus following the two of them, the same disciple who leaned back on Jesus’ side during their supper and asked, “Lord, who is going to betray You?”
Peter: ²¹ Lord, and what will happen to this man?
Jesus: ²² If I choose for him to remain till I return, what difference will this make to you? You follow Me!
²³ It is from this exchange with Jesus that some thought this disciple would not die. But Jesus never said that. He said, “If I choose for him to remain till I return, what difference will this make to you?”

Today’s Devotional

From today’s background scripture God might say:

Do you know what it means to really love Me? Peter thought he did. He thought he did when he told Me he would never deny Me. But when the time came, he ran away in the night just like the rest of My disciples. He thought he loved Me, but hid during My crucifixion. Only John stood at the foot of My cross and cared for My mother in the last moments of My agony.

Peter thought he loved Me when I appeared to the eleven of them cowered behind closed doors in the upper room where we gathered for our last meal together after My resurrection. At that time he really didn’t understand real love, though. He still looked for something I was not. He was closer to understanding Me, but not yet. You see, My Spirit had not yet come to live in him.

It wasn’t until Pentecost when those 120 devoted themselves to prayer and fasting, seeking for something they had never experienced before. Asking for something they didn’t know or understand. It wasn’t until I returned and lived in them that Peter learned to love with My love. Only then did Peter allow himself to die to all that was Peter and let Me reign in his life.

Was he perfect? By no means. He still made mistakes as evidenced by Paul’s rebuke when he changed his eating habits when the Jews arrived while he was ministering to the Gentiles. Peter continued to grow in his faith throughout his life just as I expect all My followers to grow in their faith. It takes a lifetime to transform your mind to Mine. But Peter began to love like Me when he gave himself fully to Me.

I asked him three times with three different words about his love. You only have one word for love in English. That’s unfortunate. The Greeks have four. Each time I asked Peter to go deeper in his quest for love for Me until I asked about his unconditional God-like love for Me. He finally understood he had a lot to learn. Only when He let My Spirit live in him and guide his life did he really begin to know what love was about.

When Peter began to understand I gave him some simple commands tend to My sheep, feed My sheep, care for My sheep. At least they sound simple. Peter would find the commands simple, but the tasks life consuming. Such is the life of real love. Loving others is consuming. If you’ve been in love, you know love consumes you. You think of nothing else but the person or people you love. Your love drives your every action. Everything centers on your love, longer for the good for the object of your love.

Do you love Me? Do I consume your thoughts? Does your love for Me drive your every action? Not until My Spirit engulfs your life by willingly giving of your whole self to Me will you understand real love. But when you enter the love I have for you, you will experience indescribable joy the world can never understand. Peter didn’t until Pentecost, then his world changed forever. Try it out.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.