What's love got to do with it? EVERYTHING!
Hello sweet friend!
I hope your week is full of experiencing God's presence and love, from small things to big miracles.
As this is our last full week in February, I wanted to continue to study and look at the word "agapao." This is the verb form of "agape." Agapao occurs 142 times in the New Testament! Whoa!
When I saw that I had to take a look at where and how it's used. The more I study the Bible, the more convinced I am that every word is carefully chosen and written down for us to read, learn, and apply.
Today, we'll camp out in the Gospel according to John. I'll substitute the Greek word in every time we normally read "love." Let's hear what Jesus has to say about love.
John 3:16 "For God so agapao-d the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." (ESV)
John 15:9 "As the Father has agapao-d me, so have I agapao-d you. Abide in my agape (noun)." (ESV)
John 15:12 "This is my commandment, that you agapao one another as I have agapao-d you." (ESV)
Ok, so what does this mean?
Let's take it one step at a time.
Step 1: God loves the world with agape love. This kind of love drove the Father to give His only Son as a sacrifice, so that you and I could have eternal life with Him. That's an incredibly deep and rich love!
Step 2: The Father loves Jesus this way, and Jesus loves us this way. Remember, this word means to "love deeply," "to be fond of," and "to welcome." Meditate on this for a second. The same way the Father and Son love each other, is the same way God loves us. Wow!
Step 3: In the same way that Jesus loves us, we should love one another. This abiding, deep love that welcomes others in (and we experience from Jesus) is the exact verb we should shower on others.
This may seem hard to do, but think of it this way. Instead of being a pond that just absorbs God's love for me, I need to be a river that let's agape love flow from God, through me, to others.
So this over the next week, think about ways to agapao others in your life as an outpouring of the agape love you already experience from Jesus every second of every day.
As always, if I can be praying for you, please reach out! I love to hear from you.
In Him,
~ Stephanie
StephanieMBulllock.com