Feb 25, 20071 The Greatest of These is Love Session 4 Agape: God’s Love.

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The Greatest of These is

LoveSession 4

Agape: God’s Love

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Class notes

• PowerPoint Presentations and notes can be found at:http://www.tpcnc.org/SundaySchool/Love/

The Greatest of These is Love

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Review: The Different Types of Love

1.Friendship (Greek: φιλία philía )

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2.Romantic (Greek: ἔρως érōs )

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3.Affection(Greek: στοργή storgē )

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3.Affection(Greek: στοργή storgē )

4.God’s Love, Charity (Greek: ἀγάπη agápē )

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Differences between

human loves and God's love

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Differences

Natural

• Romantic love and Affection are both natural

• Preprogrammed into us for survival

• Romantic love for procreation

• Affection for raising family

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Differences (continued)

Self interested

• All three can have self motivated interest.

• Can be either good or bad depending on the subject of interest

• Sees others as they relate to our reality, our needs.

• Can become possessive, jealous

• Can absorb the beloved (assimulation).

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Differences (continued)

Missing Divine Love

• In spite of the resemblance to Divine love, only an image, or facsimile.

• Need Divine Love to be perfected.

• Can seek to replace God's love, and become, as Lewis says, demons.

• They lack the Holiness, or Joy, of God.

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Agape: God’s Love• It is a rational action; a will, not an emotion.

• Recognizes who we are.

• Recognizes our worth.

• Loves us for our sake.

• Selfless and giving.

• Does not absorb our personality.

• Freely given as Grace.

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Agape: God’s Love“But the great thing to remember is that, though

our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.”

C.S. Lewis “Mere Christianity” Book III, Chapter 9

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Classic Text on God’s Love:

1 John 4:7-12

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1 John 4:7-12 (New Living Translation)

7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

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Classic Text on God’s Love:1 John 4:7-12

• God is the Source of all love: 4:7-8

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9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

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• God models what genuine love is: 4:9-10

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9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

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• God models what genuine love is: 4:9-10

• God commands us to love others: 4:11-12

• God’s love is complete when if flows from God, through us to each other.

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How do we come to love God?

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How we come to love GodGradually

• Restlessness

• Craving

• Emptiness

• Awakening

• Will

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How we come to love God“God is not perceptible, nor his goodness experienced, as

long as we do not come to a realization that the good things of this world are unable to satisfy us. The good that God has done and the good that God himself is, which are testified to by Christianity, do not move us. Only if the seed of his love has entered us do we find ourselves responding to this testimony. Otherwise the church's witness only makes us see that we must give up a lot of things that we find desirable, as well as do many things that are not attractive to us, such as help the needy, support the church financially, and attend worship services. There are many restrictions on the way we behave. We are to control our passions and to come to terms with our desire for prestige. In short, responding to God seems only to be tedious.”

Diogenes Allen, “Love”, p.122

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How we come to love GodOther ways…

• Christians

• Scripture and Holy Spirit

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How we come to love GodWhat is it like?

• Starts small

• Our will changes

• Our focus changes

• Our goals change

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How we come to love GodWhat happens to us?

• Interests change

• We are challenged

• We receive and respond

• Our lives are revalued

• Our priorities change

• We become pilgrims

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How we come to love GodWhat happens to us?

• Our loves change“The natural loves are summoned to become modes of

Charity while also remaining the natural loves they were.

One sees here at one a sort of echo or rhyme or corollary of the Incarnation itself. And this need not surprise us, for the Author of both is the same. As Christ is perfect God and perfect Man, the natural loves are called to become perfect Charity and also perfect natural loves.”

C.S. Lewis, “The Four Loves”, p.133

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Next week:

Agape Continued…

Feb 25, 20071 The Greatest of These is Love Session 4 Agape: God’s Love.

Documents

Transcript of Feb 25, 20071 The Greatest of These is Love Session 4 Agape: God’s Love.