"love is an ever-fixed mark"
-shakespeare
throughout my (now count 'em, 5) semesters at bible college i've heard at least a dozen or so studies on love. any biblical theology student knows there are 3 basic kinds of love found in the original greek text- eros, phileo, and agape. we all know eros is the erotic love- the kind meant to be shared between a husband and a wife... or as our society has perverted it today to be shared between anyone or anything. phileo love is the brotherly, friendship kind. and then there's agape. oh, agape. there are books about agape. volumes upon volumes. but the truth is that you could read every single edition there is out there written about agape love and not understand a thing about it. scientists can't formulate it. the most gifted artist couldn't paint you a picture of it... the most talented lyricist couldn't write you a song with the equivalent of the beauty of agape love. true love can't be understood without the cross.
i absolutely love, love LOVE seeing older couples together. i don't mean people who are in their 50s and 60s but people who are at least 85- you know, the couples who have been married for 60 years and are still as in love as the day they got married. yeah, you know who i'm talking about... their love is so sweet- aged to perfection you could say. they know each other's ins and outs- they've seen the good and the bad... and the really bad. it's a love that's a conscience choice and is not afraid of speaking the truth. it's the dying on the bed at the same time, notebook style kind of love. it's the kind of love that only comes in time and through maturity. but, unfortunately... that's not agape love. really?... really.
i'm not usually an over-emotional, cry at the movies type of girl (i mean, really... i didn't even cry at the end of a walk to remember, you know when mandy moor finally gets married then she dies of cancer... i know... i'm heartless). however, if there is one thing that pulls my tear ducts it would have to be the love that a mother has for her children. i remember once watching a segment on oprah about this mother who put herself in front of a car which was rolling towards the edge of a cliff to save her kids who were trapped inside. she was paralyzed from the waist down, confined to a wheel chair for the rest of her life. through tears she admitted the truth- if it meant saving her kids' life all over again, she wouldn't think twice about jumping in front of that car a second time. maybe it's because i don't have kids of my own (yet) but part of me doesn't fully understand that... and maybe won't until i do have my own. but the human instinct to love inside me naturally respects and admires it- you could even say is in awe of the unadulterated love that is second nature to mother and child. and as beautiful as that is, it's not agape love either. so... what is agape love?
romans 5:8
"but God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
it's easy to overlook that verse... to take it for granted. as a Christian i've heard this verse more times than i can count. but it's the last part that always gets me... while we were still sinners. while i was still an ignorant, self-seeking, murderous, adulterous, lying, cheating, blaspheming thief (you think it's an exaggeration but it's really not). not, "while we were made perfect" or "while we were changed into righteous beings". no... while i was still a dirty, sick and twisted person Christ died for me. He died knowing that i have the free will to choose to love and accept Him or to live my life as if nothing ever happened. He died knowing my faults and (intense) failures- knowing the times well after i would come to be His child and still would screw up and let Him down. He died for me knowing that i would come to the point in my walk with Him that i would doubt and question His love for me at all... and that's agape love. that's the love that the world is looking for... the love that singers sing about, the love that artists try to capture, the love that poets write about and the love that men have tried to understand since the beginning. it's the love that transcends every kind of counterfeit imitation love out there...
that's the love of the Father.
