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In our last lesson, we saw the major issue that the New Creation faces was the love issue. We shall now see why this is so.
God is Love (1 John 4:8). The New Birth which makes a man a New Creation is the reception of the nature of God (2 Corinthians 5:17 & 2 Peter 1:4). It is the receiving of this love nature. Therefore, the Holy Spirit gives us the following in 1 John 4:7-9 "Beloved let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. He that loves not knows not God, for God is love."
The test of the New Birth is the love test. 1 John 3:14 "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He that loves not his brother abides in death."
These are searching statements of truth. He tells us that if a man loves, he has been born of God, and knows Him. And if a man does not love, regardless of his religious profession, he is abiding in spiritual death, alienated from God.
If it were not for the understanding of the Greek word for love used here, these passages would be hard to understand; for, we are familiar with a certain love that belongs to man who has never been born again.
According to Greek Biblical authorities, the word for love used here is "agapa." It seems that Jesus coined the word, when He expressed the new law that was to govern the New Creation in the following words: "A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if ye have love one for another."
It seems that Jesus wanted to express something and there was no Greek word in current use available. He had brought to the world a new thing; something that had been lost to the world since the fall of man.
It was the love of God that had been displaced by the selfishness in the heart of man. There had been a verb used but no noun, "Agapa."
Man was to receive a new nature, which brought him into a new family and gave him a new father, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were to be a new people, a new creation, and there must be a language to fit this new kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Christ (Colossians 1:13-14). In this new realm they must have a language to fit the new relationship.
So He says, "A new commandment I give unto you — By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have "agapa" for one another."
A new love would make known to the world that they had become children of a God of love. The disciples did not understand the meaning of this new word until Pentecost when they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
We catch a glimpse of it in Romans 5:5 "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit." What is this that is shed abroad? It is the love of God. It is the manifestation of the nature of God within us.
Vegetable life in a peach tree manifests itself first in the leaf, then the blossom, and then in the luscious ripened fruit. The nature of God, eternal life, will manifest itself likewise in the nature, conduct, and speech of the child of God.
When one is born from above, the nature of God comes into his spirit (2 Peter 1:4). That nature is bound to manifest itself in love. It is divine love that is radically different from our old human nature, or human love, although it operates through the same faculties.
When the church was born on Pentecost, the phenomena of the Jews deliberately giving their property away and performing other acts as strange, were the first manifestations of this new kind of love that had come to the earth.
Acts 4:32-35 "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them said that ought of the things that he possessed was his own; but they had all things common, and with great power gave the apostles their witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them, and laid them at the apostles feet; and distribution was made unto each, according as anyone had need."
This was "agapa" manifesting itself in the lives of the new creation. The power of Pentecost was "love." We shall now contrast this love that springs from the nature of God, with the love of natural man.
Greek scholars tell us that the common Greek word used in Jesus’ day was "phileo," which means "human love" as the love of a mother for her child, the love of a husband for his wife. This was the highest type of love that man had ever known. There was no other word for a higher type of love than "phileo." This common human love of ours is the most blessed of the human, and yet the most dangerous. This "phileo" love is the goddess of the divorce court; it is the high priestess of human suffering, the parent of most of our tears, sorrows, and heart agonies.
It turns to jealousy and murder at the slightest pretext. It is pure selfishness; it feeds only upon self-gratification. Jesus brings a new kind of love, a love that seeks not its own. This new kind of love is the real religion of the heart nature of God. Human love is the interpretation of the human; this new kind of love is the interpretation of God.
The old love springs from the natural heart, the new love springs from the retreated heart. One is the manifestation of God in the new man, the other of natural man. Self is the center around which "phileo" moves. "Agapa" has a new center. This center is God at work through the lives of His children.
There can be no "agapa" manifestation today except through those who have become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). There is no such thing as a synthetic "agapa." It is the one thing that cannot be duplicated for it is the nature of the Almighty God. It is the badge of Christianity. It is God’s manifestation in the flesh. It is the heart of God throbbing through human beings!
"Agapa" is not only the law of the family of God, but it is also the life and joy of the family. It makes Christianity more beautiful, than all the so-called religions of the earth. It makes the life of the saints the sweetest life and most fragrant of all humans.
Its prayer under persecution is "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." It breathes the fragrance of forgiveness. It is bravery dressed in the garment of humility. It is strength clothed in gentleness. It makes the strong bear the burdens of the weak, the sick pay the bills of the poor, the cultured become the companions of the ignorant. It is Christ again manifest among men.
It is hard to define "agapa." The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul has shown to us, however, its composition. The thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians is heavenly. It is untouched by the human mind. It is God's own description of His life at work through man.
Verse 1: "If I speak with tongues of men and of angles, but have not "agapa" I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal."
The gift of speech is one of the most highly prized. If I understand all the languages of the earth, and if I am able to decipher the hieroglyphics on monuments reared by forgotten nations, if I am able to understand the language of the angelic hosts, but have not "agapa" I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. This strips Christianity of its verbal garments and leaves it standing naked. This gives the reason for the empty churches, the failure of Sunday Schools to hold its army of young people, the failure of Christianity in business and social life. Men have become mere sounding brass and clanging cymbals, empty words; words, words, words, ever words, only words, empty words.
Verse 2: "And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not "agapa" I am nothing."
Here is another universal desire of man: the gift of prophecy, the ability to foretell future events, to know the solution of the world's great problems; the divisions, the outcome of the strife between capital and labor, the solution of national, social, and economical problems. If one had the ability to foretell the future, no building ever erected would hold the people that would throng to hear him speak. No author has ever been paid per word the immense sum that this writer could demand and receive.
"He may posses this wonderful gift, yet is he does not possess agapa," God says, and His words drip with tenderness and tears, "he is nothing." "And if one knows all mysteries and has all knowledge." Now He is touching the heart of us all. How we have craved knowledge, how we have yearned to roll the curtain and look behind the scenes, and there read the revelation of the mysteries of nature that surround us. How we have struggled for this mountain-moving faith and yet one blow shatters our dreams, and cuts the tap-root of our ambition. What a blessing it seems, that we could become to humanity with an understanding of all knowledge, and of all mysteries and a faith that could remove mountains. Yet, God says, we would be nothing.
"And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned" verse 3 continues. That means, that if one were able to feed the poor of this generation, to rear libraries and hospitals, in every city and town, and if one wears himself out in philanthropic endeavor, and yet does not have "agapa" it profits him nothing. He has wasted his life. It is poured out like water on a sand pile.
What is this thing without which human endeavor, human learning, human achievements, are waste and failures? It is the new love, the revelation of the heart of God that Jesus brought to earth. It is a revelation, but it is more; it is the life of God outpoured in our heart, manifesting itself through our word and conduct. It is the pulsating of the very heart of God manifesting itself in an atmosphere that comes from our spirits blessing and comforting a needy world. It is God's answer to the broken-hearted human.
Paul tells us "that 'agapa' suffers long and is kind" (verse 4). "Phileo" may suffer but it grows bitter under the burden. "Agapa" envies not (verse 4); "Phileo" has always manifested itself in envy and jealousy. "Agapa" vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up (verse 4). "Phileo" has forever vaunted itself. Self is the center around which "phileo" moves. If you take selfishness from "phileo" it would crumble and fall to the ground, for that is its strength.
"Agapa" does not behave itself unseemly (verse 5). "Phileo" airs its grievances in the divorce court; it grows wildly jealous and often strikes out in cold blood against the object of its affection.
"Agapa" is not provoked (verse 5). "Phileo" is sensitive and difficult to handle. It is easily provoked and tells us that it is very sensitive and must not be neglected. Sensitiveness is, and always has been, of the devil. "Agapa" takes no account of evil (verse 5). "Phileo" is always discussing and feasting on scandal. "Agapa" rejoices not in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth (verse 6). "Phileo" cannot understand this. It turns to hatred and revenge at the slightest provocation, and it always rejoices in the fall of its enemy. It cannot rejoice with the truth, if the truth does not gratify itself.
"Agapa" bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (verse 7). "Agapa" never goes bankrupt. "Phileo" squanders its fortune in youth in riotous living, and before it comes to manhood strength, it is in danger of being dashed upon the rocks of failure.
What is "agapa?" 1 John 4:8 says, "For God is love (agapa)." John tells us that "agapa" is God. In other words, this new love that Jesus brought into the world, is the nature of the Creator, Himself, and this Creator intended that it should be the nature of men.
With the fall of Adam and Eve, spiritual death took the place of the nature of God in the life of man. Out of the awful nature of spiritual death (Ephesians 2:1-4) the nature of Satan manifests itself. Out of the well, springs of this death - hatred, revenge, jealousy, selfishness, cruelty, unbelief, and every evil force in the world today. A spirit of pain and restlessness grips all nature. Man and beast as well as all creation are dominated by this foreign unnatural power (Romans 8:20-23).
Yet the heart of the human and the heart of the animal are sobbing for "agapa" — God. All creation longs for the day when the strong will no longer feed upon the weaker, when the poor will no longer be exploited by the rich, and God shall rule over all.
"Agapa" is the new law of the family of God, the New Creation, the third race.