Love the perfect Way.

A new commandment I give to you,that you love one another; as I have loved you,that you also love one another.
By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another .John 13 34,35.
With this single statement Jesus gave to us the identifying badge that would readily identify us as being his disciples to the eyes of the world.
It is the single clearest sign that we are followers of Jesus Christ if we have love for one another.
At the same time this one statement of Christs has probably caused more consternation, condemnation and guilt to fall upon those who consider that they have tried but failed to live up to their expectation and to this standard and almost all of this condemnation could have been avoided if we understood that there are two kinds of love.
Jesus is not talking here about having the same love that we had before we became Christians.
Neither is he talking about our human love operating with a higher or loftier principle or ideal.
Rather he is referring to an entirely new kind of love that has invaded fallen humanity,a divine love that has been poured out into the hearts of those who have been redeemed, that we now become the recipients and the demonstrators of this supernatural love of God that is dwelling within us.
One of the primary obstacles to our understanding what Jesus is saying to us in this commandment to love is simply the relative weakness of the English language in comparison with the Greek.
In the Greek language(which is the language that the new testament is written in) the word for love can be translated in several different ways.
And for each of these different ways a different word was used leaving no confusion as to what kind of love was being referred to in each instance.
In English by contrast when we read the word love we bring to it whatever thought we may have in our minds as to what love means to us.
We have to use a sentence to be more specific, the Greek language can achieve this with a single word.
For instance in English we may speak of someone being in love referring to their physical or emotional attraction towards a particular person.
Similarly we can speak of a loving friend denoting the qualities of loyalty and support.
We can think of love as the motive for noble sacrifice or the driving force behind crimes of passion.
People can refer to love as merely a stronger form of liking something such as loving their house or loving their holiday.
There is little doubt that this lack of understanding the weight and depth of Jesus words has cost us and cost us greatly.
In the new testament there are two basic forms of love that are referred two, or two kinds of love revealed.
On the one hand there is the word Phileo used to refer to the natural love and affection that families or loyal friends would normally have for one another.
And then there is the word that Jesus uses continually whenever he speaks about love.
This is the word Agape and it would seem that in using this word Jesus created a brand new word that never existed before in the Greek language.
For in reality he came to bring a new kind of love to this earth one that never existed before.
When Jesus said a new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you he was using the agape word.
That you agape one another as I have agaped you.
Before I talk about what precisely this agape love is and how we are to show it to one another let us look at the contrast with phileo.
Phileo love simply means human love.
It is the natural human affection of a parent for their child and of a child for their parent.It is the natural human love of a friend for a friend.
It is the best thing that this world has to offer apart from Christ and yet it is the most wretched thing also.
It is the high priestess of the divorce courts and the high priest of violated vows.
Phileo swears to love to its own cost and consistently fails to do so.
Phileo promises until death do us part but once crossed becomes vindictive and vengeful.
Consider throughout the course of human history how often phileo has begun with words of kindness and love and ended with jealousy and hatred.
For the truth is that Phileo is bound by its own limitations which is the natural fallen nature in man.
Phileo springs from the natural heart of man, it is therefore the manifestation of the natural man.
Agape springs forth from the reborn heart of a child of God and is the manifestation of Gods nature living in men.
2 Peter 1 v4 tells us that we have become partakers of the divine nature and the first manifestation of this new nature is Agape love.
The great failure of Phileo is that at its core it is utterly selfish,for it will ultimately serve its own interests first.
The glory of Agape is that it has a new centre which is outside of itself and which is therefore no longer limited to itself.
And that new centre is none other than God.
And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.God is love;and he that abides in love abides in God and God in him.1 John 4:16
This contrast between Phileo and Agape is nowhere more clearly contrasted then in the last chapter of Johns gospel where Jesus is restoring Peter after his denial of Christ.
Jesus asks Peter three times the question "Simon son of Jonah do you love me?"
In each instance he is using the agape word and Peter responds at first with "yes Lord you know that I phileo you"
Finally he catches on to what Christ is saying and responds the third time "yes Lord You know all things you know that I agape you."
Peters concept of phileo was extreme loyalty even unto the death,but as we know when fear of death gripped his own heart his professions of loyality lay in ruins.
Agape love is a spiritual love that comes from the reborn spirit of a born again child of God.
It is energised and quickened by the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us.
Phileo is a soulish love or a love bound to the senses.
It is more sensuous in nature and needs outside stimulants to inspire it.Phileo needs to be fascinated amused drawn inspired but at the heart it thrives upon what it can get rather than what it can give.
Many Christians simply do not make this distinction between the supernatural nature of Christs love that is now abiding in them by the power of the Holy Spirit and the limitations of their own human love.
They read all of the new testament exhortations to love as a reminder to aim for something higher or nobler but all the time rather than living by faith in the love of God at work within them, they are in fact relying upon their own efforts with miserable results.
We know that at the heart of this agape love is forgiveness and it was FB Meyer who reminds us so well in one of his writings how revolutionary this kind of forgiveness and this kind of love was and is that Jesus brought to us.
He says "Forgiveness is the exclusive prerogative of Christianity.
The schools of ancient morality had four cardinal virtues-justice in human relations,prudence in the direction of affairs,fortitude in bearing trouble or sorrow,temperance or self restraint.
But they knew nothing of mercy or forgiveness,which is not natural to the human heart.
Forgiveness is an exotic,which Christ brought with Him from heaven."
Agape is something that Christ brought with him from heaven, but thank God he did not take it back with him.
"I will not leave you as orphans but I will come to you"and he has come to us by his Spirit who now dwells within us and empowers us to walk in this new kind of love.
If you think that forgiveness is not alien to the heart of natural men then just ask someone who has recently been double crossed or wronged or taken advantage of to simply forgive,and see what kind of a response you will get.
Forgiveness may not be natural to the heart of a natural man because his nature has not been changed but forgiveness is instinctive to a child of God because he now has a new nature residing within him.
And that new nature is now like Gods nature for God is love;therefore the wellspring of this new redeemed nature in a born again child of God is essentially love.
Why some will say if this is true are there so many Christians who walk about in strife and harbour bitterness for one another?
I think that it is a tragedy that Jesus who went to the cross and became our substitute and poured out his life's blood in other to offer us the great exchange;the exchange of his life for our death his righteousness for our sinfulness and his love for our fear and hate, it is as I say a crying shame that he who gave such great sacrifice to give us a brand new nature should receive so little reward in the willing obedience of our hearts But I believe that before he comes again that will greatly change
The truth is that we can have the infinite wealth of the resources of Gods word and of Gods Spirit and yet fail to appropriate very much of these spiritual realities in our lives because of our spiritual ignorance and our unbelief.
The mighty agape love of God ought to be cultivated in our lives but it will only be so when we know what belongs to us in Christ and lay hold of it by faith.
The word of God says in Romans chapter five that the Love of God is now shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Do you realize that your regenerated human spirit is now the container of the mighty Glory of God and of the love of God himself?
Why are these things then not more made manifest in the church?
Because like everything else in the kingdom of God they are only ever appropriated by faith not by good works.
And faith begins where the will of God is known.
"So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God"
Some people have heard some teaching on the subject of this agape love vs phileo and often what is communicated by those teaching upon this subject is that agape is essentially of the will, a matter of choice where as phileo is the love of sentiment.
Those who have heard this (myself included in my earlier days) are therefore left with the distinct impression that this agape love is to be something rather stoical "I love you not because I like you but because I will to do so".
That presentation of the love of God (or one that fosters that image) is I believe a warped view of agape, a picture of Christianity as individuals who can be unfeeling and uncaring like automation's willing to love others in Christs name.
It is certainly true that this new love is no longer tied to our feelings but is a decision that we make(a choice of the will) thereby freeing us from not loving and not forgiving others when we may not feel like doing so.
However it is equally true that when we allow this magnificent love to have free course in our lives our hearts will be supernaturally enlarged and will have a capacity for compassion and for sensitivity to the heart of God that exceeds anything that we have ever known.
When the scripture says that Jesus was moved with compassion if you think that refers to a stoical objective love you are most stupendously deceived.
Jesus was the only man who ever allowed the full force of the love of God his heavenly Father to course through his entire being like a Niagara of Gods compassion for man in his lostness and captivity to sin.
Paul prays in Ephesians the third chapter that we as believers would be supernaturally strengthened with the might of God in the inner man so as to be rooted and grounded in agape love and so as to know this love that surpasses knowledge.
How can you or I know something that surpasses knowledge?
By being quickened and strengthened by the mighty Spirit of God to experience more and more of this love of God until our whole inner man is permeated with it and our words and thoughts are filled with it.
In other words this is a process that we are to experience more and more through our lives.
Those who are baby Christians, either because they are newly born again or because they are largely ignorant of the Word of God will always be more captive to their feelings.
This may be excusable if you are a brand new christian and yet untaught but not if you have been saved for any considerable length of time.
Christians who are led by their feelings are always going to struggle to walk consistently in the love of God.
Ask most Christians who are struggling to forgive why that is so and you will invariably hear the answer is them telling of the offense that someone has committed against them and rehearsing it in vivid colours.
If you press these people further and suggest that love keeps no record of wrongs then finally you will almost certainly get to the place where they will say "I just don't feel able to"
When the agape love of God is operating in our lives as it was intended to be we can actually keep our hearts consciously free of all ill will, ill thought and ill feeling towards another human being.
So how can we walk in this agape love of God so that we are not misled by our feelings or bound by any unforgiveness?
Is it possible for us to walk consistently in this supernatural love of Christ so that it has a free course in and through our lives no matter how great the provocation we may face or the trial that we may be called upon to endure.?
IT most certainly is.
The word of God says that agape never fails.
We most certainly do fail, but this love of God this agape love can never fail.
And it is as we walk by faith in this love that we move over into another realm where we are not any longer bound by our own limitations or hampered by our own efforts to try to keep this love, but are walking in that place of confidence and rest in what this love is accomplishing in and through our lives.
And the simple key that opens and keeps open that door in our lives is our diligence to keep Gods word .It is the steadfastness of our faith.
Three times in John chapter 14 and 15 Jesus makes clear the truth that our ability to practice this agape love towards God and towards one another is vitally joined to our commitment to walk in obedience to Gods word.

"He who has my commandments and keeps them,it is he who loves me" Jn14 21

"If anyone loves me,he will keep my word;and my Father will love him,and we will come to him and make our home with him.
"He who does not love me does not keep my words". 14 23 24

""As the Father has loved me,I also have loved you;abide in my love.
"If you keep my commandments,you will abide in my love,just as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love"Jn 15 9,10.

How did Jesus abide and remain in the agape which he received from the Father when he lived upon this earth?
By keeping Gods commandments.
Notice that in each instance this little word "keep" is expressed.
"Keep my commandments......... keep my word "
In the Greek language this little word denotes a watchfulness and a guarding of Gods word to us both in our thought life and in our conduct.
It speaks of diligence.
In order to walk in this agape we have to walk in the light of Gods word and to be doers of the Word of God.
If the word of God says to forgive even as Christ has forgiven me, then I do not let my mind talk me out of that.
I forgive whether or not I feel like doing so, in obedience to Gods commandment and in doing so the love of God is being perfected in me.
Obedience opens the door so that the love of God can work in me and keeps me in this supernatural realm where I am walking in a love that comes from God and not from myself.
1John 4 16 says "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.God is love,and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.
We will be walking in an atmosphere of God and letting Gods love be perfected in us when we choose to act upon his Word and keep his commandment of love.
Similarly if the Word of God states that I must give and it shall be given to me,then I obey this even if I feel afraid of personal lack or being taking advantage of for in so doing agape is being perfected in me.
If the word of God says to think no evil or to get rid of slander than I choose to obey this even if I am in the company of those who are not walking in the light of this command.
For in so doing I am walking in the light as He is in the light and the love of God is being perfected in me.
So it is our faith in God, our faith in His love that resides within us and faith in that love working through us that is released when we keep Gods word before our eyes and choose to act upon it rather than anything else in our lives.
My feeling my thoughts or my sensibilities do not matter a fig when it comes to walking in the light of Gods word,neither will I tolerate them disqualifying me from the prize.
And what is the prize of being more rooted and developed in the love walk?
Simply this to be filled with all the fullness of God.(Eph 3 19)
When you are filled with more of the fullness of God depression self pity and hurts have very little place if any at all.
Most christians act as those who try to fulfill the commandment of love as if it is their own human love somehow energised or strenghtened by the Holy Spirit that is at play here.It is not.
It is a love that is other a love that is divine, a love that in the matter of all other loves is excelling.
It is a love that is perfect; a love that is invincible; a love that will never pass away.
It is a love that never changes; and can never "alter when it alteration finds"
We change, those around us change, our life's circumstances change; but this vast ocean of loving kindness and tender mercy that exists in the being of God; this love that flows unstopped from his throne has laid hold of you and has laid hold of me.
We are now slaves and captive to this love for it is this love that has set us free.