Agape

Busy and tired I am I am. Busy and tired I am.

I’m working frantically on school right now. I had to get an extension to get all my work done, so I’m working it for all it’s worth.

But since I haven’t posted anything in weeks, I thought I’d post a snippet of my homework. Below is a part of my interaction requirement for my Theology class. The question I’m responding to is:

>What does it mean to say that God is love (that is, that God both acts lovingly and is in his essential being Love)? How does this relate to (pick one or more):
>1. The doctrine of the Trinity
>2. God’s holiness and human sin
>3. What it means for His creatures to love Him
>4. The cross

My answer is long and meandering because *I* am long and meandering.

* * *

At least in Western society, the idea that “God is love” is so well known and so thoroughly understood, that it’s actually been used as a talking point to describe a kind of God that is very different from the one that we actually worship. It’s very common to hear people say “if God is love, why is there suffering in the world?” or “God is love, so he would never send people to Hell,” or any other goofy thought process that equates a God who is love with a God who is superabundantly permissive. The picture we get is something like the stereotypical loving mother of a hardened criminal: “Oh I know he’s a violent murderer and a pathological liar, but I can’t hold that against him–I still love him just the same!”

According to this mindset, God’s love is so overwhelming and unqualified that it cancels out any other quality he might have, such as judgment, or holiness or even self-will. How could it be otherwise? The Bible doesn’t say “God has love,” it says “God is love.” Of course, this idea is completely contrary to scripture. “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him” (Proverbs 13:24), and “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son” (Prov 3:11-12, Heb 12:5-6). Absolutely God is compassionate, but compassion and love are not necessarily the same thing.

I suppose I’m not really saying anything new here, but it was insightful to me to do a small word study on the word “love” in the New Testament. A quick scan through Strong’s Concordance shows that there are really only two words translated “love” in the King James Version (barring one exception that might better be translated as an inclination than a love). The two words, of course, are *agape* and *phileo*. *Phileo*’s the normal one, meaning “brotherly love,” “affection,” “Platonic love” (take your pick). But in terms of sheer numbers, *agape* far overwhelms *phileo* in the New Testament. Traditionally, you hear the word interpreted as “Godly love” or “true love” or something self-sacrificing, without reference to self. Strong’s, though, distinguishes the two in terms of will or feeling. *Phileo* is a feeling (extending even to philoteknos—love for one’s children). *Agape* is an act of will.

*Agape* is also supposed to extend from the Greek word *agan*, which means “much.” I think this is important because it means that the word has not only a teleological connotation, but also a feeling of exuberance. God’s love is not so much a feeling he is afflicted with, as it is something he has purposed from the abundance of His heart. To say that God is love is to say that he is “willful abundance.”

God’s love isn’t something he’s afflicted with, but is rather something that he wills out of the expansiveness of his nature. This fact has some great implications on other doctrines: It means that God’s love isn’t in conflict with His holiness. Rather, it is His love for us that causes him to design to conform us into the image of His Son. If I love my car the way that God loves us, no amount of tinkering would be too costly. Nothing would keep me from conforming my car into the image of the perfect car. It would be my love for my car, and for cars in general, that compelled me to leave nothing as it is. If that means tearing my car apart and putting it back together, that’s not a problem. So also God disciplines those whom he loves. My love for my car would take the form of willful determination to remodel it, perhaps to remodel instead of discard. It certainly wouldn’t be the kind of weak affection a person has when he says “well, it’s a clunker, but I love my car.” That kind of love is barely love at all. It’s a sort of passive feeling, but it isn’t “much.”

Author: KB French

Formerly many things, including theology student, mime, jr. high Latin teacher, and Army logistics officer. Currently in the National Guard, and employed as a civilian... somewhere View all posts by KB French