RUSSELL SANDERS
6-29-2022
THE SPIRIT-LED LIFE – LESSON 2
LOVE- AGAPE OR AGAPAO
The first characteristic of a Holy Spirit-led life we shall consider is love. It is the first one listed in Galatians 5:22 of the fruits of the Spirit. It is also listed in 2 Peter 1:7 as charity which is the same Greek word in both verses, agape.
Agape is the noun form of the love that God has for us. (Pr. A-gah’pay) Using the gospel of John to illustrate agape as a noun (a thing or object), we look at John 13:35 where Jesus told his disciples, “by this (test, manifestation) shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” It is “thing” that we possess, and it shows in how we live.
Agapao (Pr. A-gah-pa’-oh) is the verb form. It shows an act or action. This action we see in John 3:16 where it says, “For God so loved the world…” This was love in action.
In each case, it is a love that originates from God, and is therefore often called a “God-love.” When we are born again through Christ, a result of God’s “love action,” His love, comes to dwell within us. It is by this love that we love fellow believers. It is a common link between us connecting God-love to God-love. It is a “thing” (noun) we possess within us that we actively (verb) share one to another. It originates from God alone.
It is different from the human form of love which we possess naturally which in the Greek is “phileo” (fil-ay-oh) and its many various forms. This human “love” carries a sense of comradery or “brotherly love,” a very natural way in which we bond with others or in which we treat others in a benevolent manner. All people possess some degree of “phileo,” some more and some less. There are many variant meanings, but all start with the prefix root “phil...”
The “agape’” and the “agapao” can be spiritually sensed even by unregenerate sinners and that is how they can discern even in their own human spirit that we are true disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ.
We can clearly see how agape’ and agapao are used in I John 4:7-8. “Beloved (disciples), let us love (agapao – verb, action) one another, for love (agape-noun, a thing) is of God, and everyone that loveth (agapao) is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not (no agapao) knoweth not God (not a disciple, a believer), for God is love (agape’)."
If you are born again, Holy Spirit has placed “agape” within you, and you are to “agapao” others of like faith and love.
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