Perfected Love

1. Growing in Greater Love

I ONCE RECEIVED a very encouraging letter regarding a teaching I ministered on the love of God. The following is the content of that letter:

"Pastor, thank you for your recent teaching on the love of God. It truly blessed me and opened my eyes to what is missing, not only in our society but also in churches across America. It has always been and will be the message of love.

You conveyed the need to obtain a revelation, a deeper understanding of how we are to love. We seem to accept those who are most like us, and we draw a line as to how much of ourselves we give even to them. We shower friends and acquaintances with more love

but forget about people who are not in our camp. We just look the other way.

I have watched the actions of people of God toward the world and my own actions also. I don’t have the love Jesus wants me to have for other people. We have given more attention to some and less to others. That is not God. I pray that God would help me to have the love that transcends from Him to all mankind. I don’t want to come up short since that is the banner I am to carry."

Agape is the name of the church I established and pastored for 35 years. I will later give a complete explanation of the word agape. The Scriptures that the Lord gave to my wife, Jeanne, and me to establish our church was John 13:34-35. It is based on the truth that God has shed abroad the love of God in our hearts.

JOHN 13:34-35

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

I often think about the change that took place in me when I was baptized in the Holy Ghost. I was filled with the Holy Spirit and the love of God. What a tremendous difference this made in me! Of course, we are changed when we are saved, but when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, something more is added. In that moment, I realized I had a love I had not possessed before. It wasn’t human or natural love; it was agape love—the love of God shed in my heart by the Holy Ghost.

What does this agape (love of God) do? It changes us by allowing us to love the way that God loves. The love of God helps us to see people the way God sees people. We don’t see them in the natural with all their problems, hang-ups, and prejudices. Instead, we see them as God sees them, which is why the love of God is called more excellent.

1 CORINTHIANS 12:31 (AMPC)

31 But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all—love].

The word charity is used in the King James version of the Bible. It is the Greek word agape, which is God’s love, not human love. It is not the Greek word eros, which means erotic love, or the word phileo, which means human or brotherly love. This is agape—God’s love.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-3

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

The Bible reveals that even if we have and can do all the things referenced in 1 Corinthians 13:2 and 3, none of it will benefit us if we fail to walk in agape (God’s love). In this life, nothing that we do for God will profit unless we do it out of the flow and supply of the love of God. Love will always profit us.

As we continue reading in 1 Corinthians 13, remember that the word charity should be translated as love.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-8

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

In these verses, we have barely scratched the surface definition of the love of God. Yet, this text provides a definition of God's love that most of us have yet to experience. The love of God is not emotional, as some people think it is. The love of God is giving and moving, prompting us to reach out and help others. Why is God’s love greater than faith and hope? The Bible says that love never fails! In The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition, verse eight says, Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].

Agape Is Greatest

Human love can fail. It can wind up in divorce court. It can be hurt and offended. But God’s love never acts that way. Agape (God's love) is kind and longsuffering. It doesn’t puff itself up and is not easily offended.

1 CORINTHIANS 13:13 (NKJV)

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

That is a powerful statement! Of the three, consisting of faith, hope, and love, love is the greatest. You may ask, Why is it the greatest? Well, without the love of God, faith and hope won’t work. Faith and hope are love-dependent.

If you have ever attempted to walk in love, you know that it can be tough, especially if you are trying to walk in human love instead of letting the love of God flow through you. You can’t effectively love everyone with human love because everybody is not lovable. To love people correctly, you have to overlook their faults and problems like God overlooked these things to love us.

1 JOHN 4:16-17

16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

17 Herein is our love made perfect.

Every believer has the love of God that has been shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, but every believer is not perfected or matured in that love. In other words, God’s love does not automatically operate in us as it operates in God. Yielding to God's love and continually responding in love requires practice. Therefore, our goal is to develop our hearts in love so we can operate in it as God does.

We must learn to love one another by the same standard and in the same way God loves us! This is not optional; it is God's top priority. The Lord requires that we live by His love standard. He wants the love of God to be visible in our daily interactions. The people in the world will know we are disciples of Jesus Christ when we love one another in the same way God loves us.

Love First—Faith Second

Hebrews 11:1 says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the substance and evidence of hope. But hope is future because it has not happened yet. We may say, We are hoping for this. Faith brings the things for which we are hoping into the now and makes that hope a reality.

However, without love, our faith won’t work, and without faith, hope always stays in the future and out of reach. That’s why love is the greatest of the three. We can’t bring hope from the future into the present with faith if we are not walking in love! We must develop the love of God first, then release faith for what we are hoping. Then we will have the thing for which we are hoping!

God’s Love Constrains Us

We studied the biblical definition of love as found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. The next thing we should investigate is the description of love revealed in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15.

2 CORINTHIANS 5:14-15

14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

As I have matured in the Lord, I have come to a realization that, as Paul said, my life is not my own. I have been bought with a price, purchased with the blood of Jesus.

Many Christians have been taught to pursue their own desires and wishes. They go after the  things they want to do, pursuing their goals, satisfied with their natural accomplishments! One day, they realize I have been self-absorbed. I need to be Christ-centered instead of self-centered.

Years ago, I heard someone talking about all the things the Bible promised and said, It is really not about us! trying to sound humble.

But the Lord said to me, If it is not about you, who is it about? Everything I did was for you. What it is not about is self. He directed me to the following verses in Ephesians:

EPHESIANS 1:3-12

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

8 Wherein