Week #46

John writes “¹¹ This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. ¹² We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. ¹³ So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters,^[a] if the world hates you. ¹⁴ If we love our Christian brothers and sisters,^[b] it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead.”

The act of love is a characteristic that separates the Christian from the unbelieving world. Sure those that have not submitted to Christ can experience love. It is a natural God given emotion. Yet, for them it is not a way of life, for us it must be.

In the English language we only have one word for love. So we love our iPods, friends, pizza, and God all with the same word.

This was not the case in ancient times. In the Greek language there are three words for love, each with its own use and meaning. Philo is the love between friends (Philadelphia – the city of brotherly love). Eros is the love between husband and wife (sexual in nature). Finally there is Agape, the love between God and man as well as the love between Christians. This Agape love is what we should share between each other as followers of Christ.

John says that if this “agape” love is absent from our lives we are not a part of Christ. Christ says in John 13:34 “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

This new commandment is what we as Christians must live by.