Video transcript below.
I was talking to a lady the other day, and she was telling me about her heartbreak. And she was really shattered, and she made the comment, she said,
I really wish I could just find somebody who loves me completely and loves me no matter what. And I said, well, what does that look like? What does it look like to have somebody love you no matter what? And so she began to describe that. Somebody who will put up with her, somebody who will not react in kind, somebody who is compassionate when she’s suffering, somebody who’s always there for her. And then the list went on and on and I said, well, that sounds a lot like First Corinthians 13. And, she goes, well, yeah, it is. And I said, well, let me ask you a question. I said, have you ever given the kind of love in First Corinthians 13 to somebody else? And she got kind of quiet and she goes, well, I really don’t think I have. And I said, you know, I really appreciate your honesty. I said, because I think that when we are heartbroken, it’s good for us to remember that sometimes we’re holding the person that has broken our heart to a standard that we ourselves are incapable of meeting. And so we talked about it for a while, but the discussion actually provoked me to think about this topic and to put together this video about what kind of love do you want? And have you ever given it yourself, the kind of love that you want? Have you given it away? And so let’s dig into this.
God’s word has four definitions for love, or four ways that utilizes this word love.
And, you know, we use love for anything from coffee, which I love, to God, right?
I mean, we have a whole range of things we use the word love for. But in the Bible, love is used first of all, there’s the word Storge, which is the love of family. There’s Eros, which is sensual love, Phileo, which is for close friendships and Agape, which is God’s love. And you know, most of us experience the first three. We regularly experience the first three, maybe in differing and variable amounts because of our family relationship or our friendships. But we do. But what’s amazing is that by virtue of being born again, our soul and spirit are made in Christ. And then we are capable of entering into this thing called Agape love, which is God’s love. So the question is, why don’t we see more Christians who agape each other or agape their enemies or agape their employees? Why don’t we see that more? And I can’t say I can answer for everybody, but I can say as a general observation, I can say that I think our enemies, our world culture has influenced Christianity so much that we see in televisions, movies, here on the radio, social media, we see all the lower versions of love, especially the erotic love being presented as ultimate love, as the best love, as the best, the most, the highest experience of love. And, so of course our enemy wants us to believe this because he knows that the day that we uncover and that the experience of agape love, then we’ll never want to settle for anything less. And I know this is true, because I’ve experienced it. And so, you know, God has, has made a masterpiece in each of us, right? We’ve talked about this, how we are all created uniquely. All 6,7, 8 billion people of us are all created uniquely. And God has written, we know that God has written a special story for us, right? Psalms 139.
And so Satan, though, is the evil storyteller. He doesn’t want us to experience the story that God has for us. So of course, he has diverted us into thinking that friendship, sexual love and familial love are the highest forms of love, or love of coffee for some of us. So how does that strike you? Does that make you upset and say, Hey, you know what? I want to find out what this agape love is about.
I want to know if there’s a higher love, right? And so, when we think about, okay, what does that look like? How do we get it? Well, first of all, let’s just see what Jesus said. Jesus said to us, he actually commanded us, to love like he loves. And, so that tells us something, right? That tells us that it’s possible, or he would not have commanded it. He said in John 13:34-35, he said, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. Wow. That is Jesus, who is God is saying, Hey, Kim, you love your fellow man the way I loved You. Well, you know, I know myself, I know I’m not capable of doing that. I can’t forgive like he does, but would Jesus have told me to do something that I was incapable of doing?
Absolutely not. The trick is, if you want to call it a trick, or the key is that I can’t love anyone else like God loves me unless I do it with God. God’s love does not happen without God’s presence. And when we are born again, we are endowed with the mind of Christ. We are given the Holy Spirit. Our soul and spirit are made righteous, our flesh, not so much, right? Our flesh is always wanting what it wants, and it wants more and more and more, and you can’t ever satisfy it, right?
That’s why it’s so important to develop our spiritual growth. We need to grow in the mind of Christ, in the presence of God. And then as we do that, agape love is not only coming, flowing into us, but it’s flowing out of us. Because the very nature of agape love is that it can’t stay inside of us. We can’t keep it to ourselves. We have to give it away, because that’s what it is. It is the action of giving. And when we are receiving it from God, it by its very nature, cannot be hoarded. Okay? The experience of God’s love is not just like a dead sea. It’s a Jordan river, right? It’s got to come out of us. That’s how agape love works. Which is different than, you know, the more limited kinds of love, like erotic love or friendship or even family. You know, it’s interesting because agape is a supreme love, right? It’s the ultimate love. And it’s the kind of love that’s willing to die for an unworthy enemy. And we’ve learned that in John 3:16.
But here’s the other thing that God’s word says, that if we don’t agape, if we don’t agape, then God says, we really don’t know Him. I’m not saying we’re not his child, we’re not born again. But the proof that we know him is in loving, like he does. First John 4:8 says, anyone who does not love, Agape, does not know God, because God is love. See, when you know God,you have this relationship with him, then you know how to agape. Because to Know God is to experience his love coming into us and necessarily pouring out of us. I hope that makes sense. Romans 5:5 says, God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So when we are born again, we receive the Spirit, right? The Holy Spirit comes to live in us, and we then are empowered to take this pouring into us and pour it out of us. C.S. Lewis wrote this remarkable quote, and I’m going to read it to you. In Mere Christianity, he said, give me yourself and in exchange, I will give you myself, my will shall become your will.
My heart shall become your heart. You see, divine love springs from our heart when it’s wrapped up in divine love, which is God. We can’t help it.
So after we’re born again, how do we learn to agape? Well, we have to surrender. We have to continually surrender every day our will to God’s will. 100% of everything that we have, our time, our energy, our passion, everything surrendered to God, and that’s giving ourselves 100% to him. And then he gives himself 100% to us. And that’s when people start to look at us and say, I want what you have. And we can say, oh, that’s God. And then the proof that we have His love is in First Corinthians 13. Love is patient and it’s kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Don’t you want to be with somebody who’s that way? Yeah. It does not demand its own way. It’s not irritable. It keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices when the truth wins out, it never gives up. It never loses faith. It’s always full of hope. It endures through every circumstance. And love lasts forever. Man, If you could put all that in one person, that would be a person who is in love with God. It has to be. Because there’s no human that can love that way.
And so we need to ask ourselves if we really want to be agaped, right? That experience will never happen unless we are 100% surrendered to Jesus Christ in every area of our life. But when we surrender, we will be so full of patience, kindness, you know, humility, servanthood, just amazing compassion, forgiveness, all the things, mercy, right? That everyone that knows us will know that person has something that I want to be around them. I want to know them. And then we can point them back to Christ, which is our purpose, right? Our purpose. We’ve talked about this in the last video, that our purpose, humanity’s purpose is to glorify God. What better way to glorify God than to agape those around us in a world where they don’t see it, they don’t see it, usually there’s an angle on every kind of love. There’s an angle. They, somebody wants something from you in exchange. And believe me, I’m guilty of that. I’ve been just as guilty as anyone about having this quote love with some kind of expectation. One of the reasons, you know, this lady that was talking to me was so crushed, was because she had put all her hope in this relationship. And, unfortunately, the person that had broken her heart was incapable of loving her the way only God could love her. And so, you know, as I’m talking to her and trying to encourage her, I’m encouraging her to seek her relationship with God. And that’s where she’s going to find that well, that well of love that never runs out. That well that God has given us, each of us who have been born again, each of us who have received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and trusted in His word and who He is, to not only save us, but to sustain us in our life, in our purpose, and give us so much more than we ever could ask for, and even more than we can imagine.
So if you are experiencing a dearth of love, if you feel unloved, if you feel like you’re all alone, God wants to fill you with a love that is so mind blowing, you’ll never want to even think about not having it. You know, I know from my own experience in developing my relationship with God, that once I’ve, once I began to experience the amazing love of God, I’ve just been amazed at how he allows me to love others so much better than I ever have been able to. And I know it’s all him. And I can always point back to him and say, wow, God, this is your wild love. This is the kind of love I’ve always wanted to experience, and now I’m in the flow. It’s coming into me and out of me because of you. And man, that’s the kind love we want, the kind of love that goes, comes into us from God and flows out of us through his spirit and into others. Promise you, you won’t be disappointed.
We would love to hear your thoughts about this devotional. Did God speak to you or challenge your daily walk with him? Or is there a topic that you would like Kimberly to cover or expound on? Please share with us in the comments below.
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