Agape Triumphs when Eros Fades

Because it is Valentine's Day, here are a couple random thoughts on the difference between God's love and the love we celebrate today- eros love- romantic love. God's love is of no comparison with eros love. God's love is called agape love and remains far superior to eros love.

It is the kind of love that is unconditional, the kind that would hold a Saviour to the confines of a bloody tree for a bunch of people who could have cared less, that were busy spitting on Him, cursing Him. Could we not use that kind of love today in our relationships with our families, the very ones we care about most? In fact, isn't it really what this whole world is crying for?

But back to eros for now. Eros says, "You're attractive. You don't have wrinkles or grey hair. You are not heavy or slobby or ..."{whatever you want to fill in there.} I once read on a Christian board a woman complaining about her husband because he had become unkempt with bad teeth. All the other women were advising her to dump him! The person receiving the love usually has to uphold something in order to be loved, to stay in the good graces of the lover. They need to wear fancy clothes or drive the right car or have the right degree or hold the right job or.... you get the idea. They have to merit the love in some way, shape or form. They have to earn it somehow.

What happens when you promise each other to love each other for the rest of your life but then your spouse gets grey hair or slobby or heavy or....? Does that give you free reign to go out and get a new one then? Eros is conditional in this way. It is not a "till death do us part" kind of love. It is only a "till my feelings do change" kind of love. That is why you see the break up of so many marriages today. Eros didn't hold them together. The marriage only lasted as long as the passion did. Once the passion left, so did the commitment.

But God and His love are so different from ours. Thank Him for that! Jesus could have given up on us, but He did not. Agape, not nails,is what held Him to the cross that day. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, did you know that God does not see you in your sins? The last time He saw them was when He judged them in His Son upon the cross. So He sees you as being perfectly righteous. (II Corinthians 5:17) Agape is what is needed if we want our marriages not to be added to the casualty list. But we cannot produce it. It must be Divinely produced within us.

If we have not been walking in agape, we need to confess it before God. He will not be surprised, nor will He be angry with us. He took out His anger on His Son.(Hosea 14: 4)
We ask Him to teach us His way of agape, He will not despise us if we ask Him in genuine humility. We need to come, and keep on coming, to Him. He never tires of us coming, or asking. (Matt. 11: 28-30, James 1: 5)

"Show me your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day." Psalm 25: 4-5

But we must realize we bring nothing before Him, our hands are empty. It is not, we do a little and He'll do a little. No, He must do it all. God shares His glory with no one. (Isaiah 45: 22-23)

"And this is the commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also." I John 4: 21

What is true love?

Since we are in the month of February and Valentine's Day is just around the corner, let us think for a minute about true love described in I Corinthians 13. These are the verses you hear at every marriage ceremony. They are read, but how many really think that the definition of agape can be carried out in real life?

"Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous, love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...."(I Cor. 13: 4-8a)

If you and I are honest, we have to admit that we just do not have what it takes in and of ourselves to love others the way Paul described above. If we are honest with God, He will not condemn us. He knows we are but dust anyways.(Psalm 103:14) Once we admit that we can't, He can whisper to our hearts, "But I can inside you" "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Phil. 4:13

Once we know that only He inside us can love like that, we can look to the only One who ever lived that love perfectly, without failing once. He is Perfect Love.
"...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Heb. 12:2 This perfect, giving Saviour lives inside us and wants to live His life through us.

Here is agape:

A bundant life freely

G iven at Calvary

A ccomplished perfectly and

P aid in full for

E veryone who believes.


Lord Jesus, I ask you to teach me the way of agape so that I can truly love others the way you want me to. In Your Blessed Name, Amen.