What manner of love the Father presents to us, so that we are called children of God, and so we exist!*
The word for "what manner of" is also translated as "of what country" or "of what kind?"* It is true of Agape love it is not of this world, as John writes, of what kind of love is this, of what country? Who loves like this? God exist love so agape love is from a country where God exists, of the heavens. The one who loves, John writes, has been born of God, and agape love is a primary distinction of God's people. A manner describes a way of doing things, or outward behavior or way of behaving toward others. Agape love has no dimension, no breath, width, height, or depth, a love we will always be experiencing for eternity. Agape love is difficult to capture its whole meaning in a few words. Agape love is often explained as sacrificial love, but I believe it is best described as relational. God so loved the world, sending his Son as a sacrifice for sin, condemning not man but sin in the flesh. What is the object of God's love? it is relationship, the point of the sacrifice of His Son was to reconcile man to a relationship with Him. The object or end goal of agape love, which is often requires sacrifice, is relationship. God's love sacrifices for relationship. This is the manner or behavior of agape love and how it treats others, seeking relationship.
For this is the way God loved the world; giving his only Son so that all who believe in him, that none be lost but still more have eternal Life.*
We were once lost but God so loved us he sent his son to restore relationship. Now in Christ we have been found, even more so we have received eternal Life. The word for loved here is agapao, which is defined as "to love, value, esteem, feel or manifest generous concern for, be faithful towards; to delight in, to set store upon." This word is derived derived from agape, which speaks of the love of God. The word have speaks of echoing, reflecting, or being "Christ like." What manner of love is this? What best describes agape love? Being like Christ which is the definition of being a Christian. What best reflects being like Christ? Jesus said "by this all people knows that exist my disciples, if you have love for one another."* It is an amazing thing, but as Paul writes our faith, speaking truth, giving, or our sacrifice so much so as to become a martyr is nothing, without love. Though Jesus found glory in doing the will of the Father the greater glory he longed for was to be restorred to a full relationship with the Father.
In this the children of God and the children of the world the devil, are revealed, all those not practicing righteousness exist not of God, also those not loving his brother.*
Righteousness is given to us as a free gift, along with abundant grace, when we believe in Jesus, it is a righteousness by faith according to grace or by grace through faith. How can one practice righteousness? He must be born of righteousness, entering into that country of the kingdom of God, he is born of Spirit, partaking of God's divine nature. What is the primary defining factor of being born of God? the fruit of righteousness leads to sanctification which end is life, so therefore one who is born of God is righteous, walks in Life, and agape love best describes him. John writes the message they heard, that which they abide in, consisted of truth and love, "For this existed the message that you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another."* Of course the message existed in Jesus Christ, who exists the message, the Word of God, the Word of Life, Eternal Life. To partake of this living bread is equivalent to receiving Life, of being connected to the vine, and one must abide in truth which is abiding in love, truth in love is inseparable. Abiding is equivalent of having fellowship with the Son and the Father and being forgiven of sin. What is another way abiding and fellowship can be described? as a relationship. Connected in a relationship, we must continue in that fellowship often to bear much fruit, or for that relationship to become deeper, more meaningful.
In this we know agape love, in that He laid down his life on our behalf, and we are indebted to lay down our lives on behalf of the brother.*
This word for know, speaks of realizing or learning especially from personal experience. How do we know agape love? "we love because he first loved us!"* We have experienced His great love for us, therefore we love as he loves through a personal relationship experiencing His love. Johns defines those born of God as those who love their brothers. If we understood agape love we would be indebted to love our bothers. We can not say we love Jesus and at the same time excuse away the reason we lack empathy and love for one another. We see this often in the church, we want to fulfill God's call in our life, or we want to put emphasis on something important but what ends up happening is that we sacrifice this indebtedness and command to love one another. James points out that our faith requires deeds of love within the body of Christ. Jesus didn't say we will be distinguished by how much we tell the lost how much He loves them but actually how the world sees that love is demonstrated in us, the Church loving one another. The greatest hypocrisy we can show the world, is to speak of the manner of agape love while we do not love one another in deed and truth.
Children love not in word or speech but in action and truth.*
It's a phenomenon in the Church, loving in word and speech but not in action and truth. Oh, I am praying for you the man who lost his job hears. What is the main focus of prayer? I would say it is relationship. Prayer is a part of the fellowship we have with our heavenly Father. Prayer is powerful but if everyone is praying then who is doing? Of course there is spiritual warfare but most of our prayers are directed at things in the natural. Once, Jesus told the disciples to pay taxes by catching a fish that had a gold coin in it. God could have materialized out of nothing a coin, but he used what existed in the natural. Faith is as a key into the heavenly and faith without love is nothing, Here is the truth of the manner of agape love, as Paul writes, if I am praying for my brother in need while I have a gold coin I could use to help him, then I do not love him. Truth in love would not just pray for my brother, it would give him the gold coin he needs. And here is the hypocrisy of a church that says it loves one another, it is one that has a gold coin but would use it to help someone outside the church, not the brother in need. This is not agape love, there is some other motive at work. Agape love focuses first on relationship, and relationship begins first with self and God, then its to immediate family, then to family in the body of Christ, then outward.
If I give all that I own and surrender my body to be burned but echo not agape love, it profits me nothing.*
Agape is love is echoed through loving one another, not through sacrifice. Remember the story of Ananias and his wife in the early church of Acts, who sold all their land giving it to the church? his motive was wrong, he saw Barnabas get recognition and for status and self glory he did it. If I become a famous evangelist and by doing so sacrifice my relationship with my children, am I great in the Kingdom of God? some would think so, that evangelism is loving God so much that it would sacrifice relationship, but this is not agape love, it doesn't sacrifice relationship, its goal is relationship. In this early church we see in Acts they agape loved one another contributed to the needs of one another. This is what is what attracted the world, their love for one another.
Brotherly love must continue.*
This brotherly love is philadelphia, agape love encompasses brotherly love. Love in action should line up with speech and truth so saying you are sacrificing for Jesus while sacrificing love for one another is not truth at all. This applies to serving also. I was helping with this outdoor church which reached out to the homeless, so it was hoped here was a church that would accept them. Others would come to serve there, but most would not sit with them in the service and often the mentality of serving would interrupt the actual service. By traditions they break the commandments of God. True serving sacrifices for relationship, it would sacrificially love those who are hard to love. Relationship begins at the smallest unit of relationship, extending outward. It begins with self and God, then extends outward to family then community and the church, to restore others in a relationship with God. Though agape love often requires one side to sacrifice, it is not one sided, as its end goal is relationship, which is not one sided at all. Loving your enemy or loving a brother by speaking truth to him, such might get a undesired reaction requiring you to turn the other cheek. This is agape love it sacrifices for the end goal of relationship.
For if anyone doesn't know how to maintain the practice on his own, how does he take care of the Church of God?*
Leadership is often defined as influence and by example. Using more defining factors of leadership we can say there are two primary duties of leadership in the Church; to accomplish the mission and to care for one another. Our purpose or calling is our mission. Great leaders, Jesus said, are servants of all. What is servant leadership, does it not serve to build up others in their mission? Paul writes in Ephesians the mission of the Church is to build one another up in faith that is active in love until we reach the full measure of the stature of Christ. This is not how most churches operate, they say come sacrifice and serve in their calling, that your calling is to serve them, thus they teach others to serve them in their mission. Is this truth of scripture? If leaders are servants of all and leadership is by example and agape love is sacrificial then leaders should exemplify this love. I believe true leadership would sacrifice so that you grow in relationship with God. It certainly would not exalt itself over others, lording over others, but would be a servant of all.
In this exists love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as a propitiation for our sins.*
While God could have counted our sin against us, he instead sent his Son to bear our sin. Therefore as Paul writes agape love bears all things. Agape love covers sin, it covers a multitude of sin.* Do you love your brother so much that you would cover his sin? What if his sin was that he owed you a lot of money? Would you count that against him? The Church at Corinth had a problem with this manner of love, holding wrong against one another they did not love as agape love does.* Some would sue principles of stewardship to excuse away agape love for a brother, but we should not love the things of this world but do the will of God.* Paul writes agape loves believes, endures, and bears all things. The Greek word for family love, expresses mere acceptance or putting up with situations that others would not. With great love God put up with us, adopting us into the family of God, bearing and enduring. What manner of love is this? one that believes in you. It is an amazing thing, agape love believes in you, our Father sees us as we truly are, though we are being transformed into this identity, He believes in us.
If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has achieved its goal in us.*
What is the goal of God abiding in us? to love one another. Remember Cain killing his brother? God had told him that sin was knocking at his door and he should master it. We know the Law tried to perfect man through the fear of punishment but it was weak because of the flesh. Paul writes we will not master sin under the law but under grace, How? "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear echos torment. So the one who fears is not perfected in love."* Some say that fear can be good to lead some to Christ, but here we see agape love casts out fear. How did you come to know God? because you knew of his love or because you feared going to hell? Can you say you love him because you first leaned to fear him or because he first loved you an you learned to love Him? In any case agape love perfects in the new covenant, not fear, thus fearing speaks of immaturity not perfection which is accomplished in love.
And the commandment echoed from him is this: the one who loves God must also love his brother.*
Some want to evangelize the lost, to grow the church in numbers, so they implement principles of sacrifice, of serving to accomplish such. But if such teaching excuses away the more important matter of loving one another, then this is not agape love. Sacrificing relationship in the family is not sacrificing for Jesus, if some teach this there is some other motive at work, not agape love. John, and Paul, point out agape love dwells in the hearts of those who have the worlds goods and seeing their brother in need they do not turn their hearts from him. Some by traditions break these commandment of God. While some have tried to define agape love primarily as a sacrificial love, the most defining factor of agape love is that it loves one another, this is what Jesus said, and for what purpose? He sacrificed so that we have relationship. Agape doesn't sacrifice relationship within the body of Christ for those lost. Why did God send his Son? Because He so loved the world, he gave His Son? why did he sacrifice his Son? So that the world would be saved through Him. What does this mean, that we are saved? The sacrifice was so that we might be reconciled, redeemed or restored in relationship to God. Jesus sacrificed so that we might be reconciled in relationship with his Father. Though agape love is often sacrificial, agape love is a love that focuses and in which the end result or goal is restoration of relationship
What manner of love. Remember the old hymn, At Calvary? It is was agape love that planned the sacrifice of Jesus and it was grace that brought it down to man, it was mighty gulf that God did span. It was agape love that drew me in, in agape love I was adopted and found a home. I love my heavenly Father because he agape loves me. My Father is perfecting me in agape love, he believes in me, he endures and has bore all things for me, so that I have and continue in relationship with Him. Oh, I am so blessed, to know agape love. I will serve you because I love you.* "What manner of love the Father presents to us, so that we are called children of God, and so we exist!"
Who You Say I Am
The word for "what manner of" is also translated as "of what country" or "of what kind?"* It is true of Agape love it is not of this world, as John writes, of what kind of love is this, of what country? Who loves like this? God exist love so agape love is from a country where God exists, of the heavens. The one who loves, John writes, has been born of God, and agape love is a primary distinction of God's people. A manner describes a way of doing things, or outward behavior or way of behaving toward others. Agape love has no dimension, no breath, width, height, or depth, a love we will always be experiencing for eternity. Agape love is difficult to capture its whole meaning in a few words. Agape love is often explained as sacrificial love, but I believe it is best described as relational. God so loved the world, sending his Son as a sacrifice for sin, condemning not man but sin in the flesh. What is the object of God's love? it is relationship, the point of the sacrifice of His Son was to reconcile man to a relationship with Him. The object or end goal of agape love, which is often requires sacrifice, is relationship. God's love sacrifices for relationship. This is the manner or behavior of agape love and how it treats others, seeking relationship.
For this is the way God loved the world; giving his only Son so that all who believe in him, that none be lost but still more have eternal Life.*
We were once lost but God so loved us he sent his son to restore relationship. Now in Christ we have been found, even more so we have received eternal Life. The word for loved here is agapao, which is defined as "to love, value, esteem, feel or manifest generous concern for, be faithful towards; to delight in, to set store upon." This word is derived derived from agape, which speaks of the love of God. The word have speaks of echoing, reflecting, or being "Christ like." What manner of love is this? What best describes agape love? Being like Christ which is the definition of being a Christian. What best reflects being like Christ? Jesus said "by this all people knows that exist my disciples, if you have love for one another."* It is an amazing thing, but as Paul writes our faith, speaking truth, giving, or our sacrifice so much so as to become a martyr is nothing, without love. Though Jesus found glory in doing the will of the Father the greater glory he longed for was to be restorred to a full relationship with the Father.
In this the children of God and the children of the world the devil, are revealed, all those not practicing righteousness exist not of God, also those not loving his brother.*
Righteousness is given to us as a free gift, along with abundant grace, when we believe in Jesus, it is a righteousness by faith according to grace or by grace through faith. How can one practice righteousness? He must be born of righteousness, entering into that country of the kingdom of God, he is born of Spirit, partaking of God's divine nature. What is the primary defining factor of being born of God? the fruit of righteousness leads to sanctification which end is life, so therefore one who is born of God is righteous, walks in Life, and agape love best describes him. John writes the message they heard, that which they abide in, consisted of truth and love, "For this existed the message that you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another."* Of course the message existed in Jesus Christ, who exists the message, the Word of God, the Word of Life, Eternal Life. To partake of this living bread is equivalent to receiving Life, of being connected to the vine, and one must abide in truth which is abiding in love, truth in love is inseparable. Abiding is equivalent of having fellowship with the Son and the Father and being forgiven of sin. What is another way abiding and fellowship can be described? as a relationship. Connected in a relationship, we must continue in that fellowship often to bear much fruit, or for that relationship to become deeper, more meaningful.
In this we know agape love, in that He laid down his life on our behalf, and we are indebted to lay down our lives on behalf of the brother.*
This word for know, speaks of realizing or learning especially from personal experience. How do we know agape love? "we love because he first loved us!"* We have experienced His great love for us, therefore we love as he loves through a personal relationship experiencing His love. Johns defines those born of God as those who love their brothers. If we understood agape love we would be indebted to love our bothers. We can not say we love Jesus and at the same time excuse away the reason we lack empathy and love for one another. We see this often in the church, we want to fulfill God's call in our life, or we want to put emphasis on something important but what ends up happening is that we sacrifice this indebtedness and command to love one another. James points out that our faith requires deeds of love within the body of Christ. Jesus didn't say we will be distinguished by how much we tell the lost how much He loves them but actually how the world sees that love is demonstrated in us, the Church loving one another. The greatest hypocrisy we can show the world, is to speak of the manner of agape love while we do not love one another in deed and truth.
Children love not in word or speech but in action and truth.*
It's a phenomenon in the Church, loving in word and speech but not in action and truth. Oh, I am praying for you the man who lost his job hears. What is the main focus of prayer? I would say it is relationship. Prayer is a part of the fellowship we have with our heavenly Father. Prayer is powerful but if everyone is praying then who is doing? Of course there is spiritual warfare but most of our prayers are directed at things in the natural. Once, Jesus told the disciples to pay taxes by catching a fish that had a gold coin in it. God could have materialized out of nothing a coin, but he used what existed in the natural. Faith is as a key into the heavenly and faith without love is nothing, Here is the truth of the manner of agape love, as Paul writes, if I am praying for my brother in need while I have a gold coin I could use to help him, then I do not love him. Truth in love would not just pray for my brother, it would give him the gold coin he needs. And here is the hypocrisy of a church that says it loves one another, it is one that has a gold coin but would use it to help someone outside the church, not the brother in need. This is not agape love, there is some other motive at work. Agape love focuses first on relationship, and relationship begins first with self and God, then its to immediate family, then to family in the body of Christ, then outward.
If I give all that I own and surrender my body to be burned but echo not agape love, it profits me nothing.*
Agape is love is echoed through loving one another, not through sacrifice. Remember the story of Ananias and his wife in the early church of Acts, who sold all their land giving it to the church? his motive was wrong, he saw Barnabas get recognition and for status and self glory he did it. If I become a famous evangelist and by doing so sacrifice my relationship with my children, am I great in the Kingdom of God? some would think so, that evangelism is loving God so much that it would sacrifice relationship, but this is not agape love, it doesn't sacrifice relationship, its goal is relationship. In this early church we see in Acts they agape loved one another contributed to the needs of one another. This is what is what attracted the world, their love for one another.
Brotherly love must continue.*
This brotherly love is philadelphia, agape love encompasses brotherly love. Love in action should line up with speech and truth so saying you are sacrificing for Jesus while sacrificing love for one another is not truth at all. This applies to serving also. I was helping with this outdoor church which reached out to the homeless, so it was hoped here was a church that would accept them. Others would come to serve there, but most would not sit with them in the service and often the mentality of serving would interrupt the actual service. By traditions they break the commandments of God. True serving sacrifices for relationship, it would sacrificially love those who are hard to love. Relationship begins at the smallest unit of relationship, extending outward. It begins with self and God, then extends outward to family then community and the church, to restore others in a relationship with God. Though agape love often requires one side to sacrifice, it is not one sided, as its end goal is relationship, which is not one sided at all. Loving your enemy or loving a brother by speaking truth to him, such might get a undesired reaction requiring you to turn the other cheek. This is agape love it sacrifices for the end goal of relationship.
For if anyone doesn't know how to maintain the practice on his own, how does he take care of the Church of God?*
Leadership is often defined as influence and by example. Using more defining factors of leadership we can say there are two primary duties of leadership in the Church; to accomplish the mission and to care for one another. Our purpose or calling is our mission. Great leaders, Jesus said, are servants of all. What is servant leadership, does it not serve to build up others in their mission? Paul writes in Ephesians the mission of the Church is to build one another up in faith that is active in love until we reach the full measure of the stature of Christ. This is not how most churches operate, they say come sacrifice and serve in their calling, that your calling is to serve them, thus they teach others to serve them in their mission. Is this truth of scripture? If leaders are servants of all and leadership is by example and agape love is sacrificial then leaders should exemplify this love. I believe true leadership would sacrifice so that you grow in relationship with God. It certainly would not exalt itself over others, lording over others, but would be a servant of all.
In this exists love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as a propitiation for our sins.*
While God could have counted our sin against us, he instead sent his Son to bear our sin. Therefore as Paul writes agape love bears all things. Agape love covers sin, it covers a multitude of sin.* Do you love your brother so much that you would cover his sin? What if his sin was that he owed you a lot of money? Would you count that against him? The Church at Corinth had a problem with this manner of love, holding wrong against one another they did not love as agape love does.* Some would sue principles of stewardship to excuse away agape love for a brother, but we should not love the things of this world but do the will of God.* Paul writes agape loves believes, endures, and bears all things. The Greek word for family love, expresses mere acceptance or putting up with situations that others would not. With great love God put up with us, adopting us into the family of God, bearing and enduring. What manner of love is this? one that believes in you. It is an amazing thing, agape love believes in you, our Father sees us as we truly are, though we are being transformed into this identity, He believes in us.
If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has achieved its goal in us.*
What is the goal of God abiding in us? to love one another. Remember Cain killing his brother? God had told him that sin was knocking at his door and he should master it. We know the Law tried to perfect man through the fear of punishment but it was weak because of the flesh. Paul writes we will not master sin under the law but under grace, How? "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear echos torment. So the one who fears is not perfected in love."* Some say that fear can be good to lead some to Christ, but here we see agape love casts out fear. How did you come to know God? because you knew of his love or because you feared going to hell? Can you say you love him because you first leaned to fear him or because he first loved you an you learned to love Him? In any case agape love perfects in the new covenant, not fear, thus fearing speaks of immaturity not perfection which is accomplished in love.
And the commandment echoed from him is this: the one who loves God must also love his brother.*
Some want to evangelize the lost, to grow the church in numbers, so they implement principles of sacrifice, of serving to accomplish such. But if such teaching excuses away the more important matter of loving one another, then this is not agape love. Sacrificing relationship in the family is not sacrificing for Jesus, if some teach this there is some other motive at work, not agape love. John, and Paul, point out agape love dwells in the hearts of those who have the worlds goods and seeing their brother in need they do not turn their hearts from him. Some by traditions break these commandment of God. While some have tried to define agape love primarily as a sacrificial love, the most defining factor of agape love is that it loves one another, this is what Jesus said, and for what purpose? He sacrificed so that we have relationship. Agape doesn't sacrifice relationship within the body of Christ for those lost. Why did God send his Son? Because He so loved the world, he gave His Son? why did he sacrifice his Son? So that the world would be saved through Him. What does this mean, that we are saved? The sacrifice was so that we might be reconciled, redeemed or restored in relationship to God. Jesus sacrificed so that we might be reconciled in relationship with his Father. Though agape love is often sacrificial, agape love is a love that focuses and in which the end result or goal is restoration of relationship
Dear beloved, agape love one another because agape love exists of God and all who agape love, these are born of God and know God. The person not agape loving not knowing, because God is love.*
Paul writes a characteristic of agape love is that it endures. Agape love endures, with great patience god endured those under the Law. Why? he endured because he loved thus he sacrificed. And what was the goal? he endured so that we might became vessels of his mercy. "But God being rich in mercy, through this his great love which he loved us."* God is love, John writes, and if truly know God and love God then we are born of God and we agape love. How important is it that we know what agape love is! as it will define who we are Christians, easily separating the sheep from the goats. Jesus said the most defining factor of being like Him, being a disciple is that love one another. Agape love then is the most distinguishing characteristic of being a Christian, it is not sacrificing, not serving, not tithing or giving, not living to the letter of the law but of echoing agape love for one another. As disciples of Christ we are to have an agape love for a lost world, but we must learn to love one another first, as we should be defined by our agape love for one another, for our brothers and sisters in Christ, this is what the world will see and seek.
By this all people knows that you exist my disciples, if you have love for one another.*
When asked which was the greatest commandment Jesus said it was to love God and then he said there is one like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. Some teach that we must sacrifice empathy and love for one another so that we can reach the lost. The church doesn't have time to invest in your needs, it is not concern with you and your growth, not concerned with the workmanship God is doing in you, this is to be sacrificed so that others would come to know Jesus. But this contradicts truth and the fact tat Jesus said the world will know that we are his disciples by how we sacrifice and love one another. Do you see why this is important? I hope you do. A church that is sacrificing loving one another looks no different than the world, while the world is climbing all over one another for the purpose of materiel gain, the church that doesn't love one another looks the same though they claim the sacrifice is because of loving Jesus. Agape love John and Paul write is best seen as loving one another.
yea, if some do not know how to care for his own house, how will he take care of the Church of God?*
Relationship begins with one abiding with God, then it extends to family, then to extended family, the church, and it continues outward to the whole world. Some teach the opposite that sacrifice at the lower levels display agape love for the world, but hopefully we see the truth, that we are to agape love and do both, not one or the other. If one becomes a famous evangelist but forsakes his own family, was his motive agape love? if your motive for sacrifice, even to give yourself as a martyr, was not agape love, it was for nothing. The new covenant Paul writes is a ministry of reconciliation.* It is the power of the gospel of grace, that His power is working within us, raising us into newness of Life.
Not all are apostles, not all prophets, not all teachers, not all have mighty powers, not all echo the gifts of healing, not all speak in tongues, not all interpret. Now, set your hearts on the higher gifts but now I will show you a way beyond comparison.*
Agape love is the way beyond comparison, the most important gift. We are to set our hearts on our calling, on the gift given by grace to us, but these call never overrides agape love. The most important and basic element of relationship is agape love, therefore agape love always seeks relationship, whcih is never one sided. The purpose of our sacrifice is for the building up of others. Why? so they are fully restored in relationship to our Father. This agape love for one another is what the world should see in us. We sacrificially love the world so that the end result is they have a relationship with God. What manner of love is this? One can't begin to describe it in a few words and surely, it is not of this country, of the wisdom of this world. Paul writes agape love is the most excellent way that we should seek. If it is more important than any other gift then truly the Church should spend more time understanding this way. Our eyes can be opened to comprehending through the knowledge of the Son.
Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!
Not all are apostles, not all prophets, not all teachers, not all have mighty powers, not all echo the gifts of healing, not all speak in tongues, not all interpret. Now, set your hearts on the higher gifts but now I will show you a way beyond comparison.*
Agape love is the way beyond comparison, the most important gift. We are to set our hearts on our calling, on the gift given by grace to us, but these call never overrides agape love. The most important and basic element of relationship is agape love, therefore agape love always seeks relationship, whcih is never one sided. The purpose of our sacrifice is for the building up of others. Why? so they are fully restored in relationship to our Father. This agape love for one another is what the world should see in us. We sacrificially love the world so that the end result is they have a relationship with God. What manner of love is this? One can't begin to describe it in a few words and surely, it is not of this country, of the wisdom of this world. Paul writes agape love is the most excellent way that we should seek. If it is more important than any other gift then truly the Church should spend more time understanding this way. Our eyes can be opened to comprehending through the knowledge of the Son.
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary!
What manner of love. Remember the old hymn, At Calvary? It is was agape love that planned the sacrifice of Jesus and it was grace that brought it down to man, it was mighty gulf that God did span. It was agape love that drew me in, in agape love I was adopted and found a home. I love my heavenly Father because he agape loves me. My Father is perfecting me in agape love, he believes in me, he endures and has bore all things for me, so that I have and continue in relationship with Him. Oh, I am so blessed, to know agape love. I will serve you because I love you.* "What manner of love the Father presents to us, so that we are called children of God, and so we exist!"
Who You Say I Am