Applying Biblical Love to Everyday Decisions We Make
In my recent article, (see), I commented on 1 Corinthians 13, aka, the love chapter. The topic of love has been one that I have studied for over a half century seeking to learn what biblical love is and to distinguish this from the love of the world and our present culture. This article has engendered more feedback than any other I have written. Here are some added thoughts about love as my personal study continues.
There are two opposite poles in the continuum of human existence. But before we look at these, we need to observe creation as it existed in the garden of Eden before the fall.
Mankind was created in the image of God as both male and female and given the ability to choose or reject God’s will. This was not free will as theologians like to debate. It was a communicable attribute God shared with His creation.
However, through the influence of Satan, a fallen angel, Adam and Eve chose to disobey rather than obey one simple command. As a result, this one attribute, the ability to choose, was damaged. This was and is the essence of the Imago Dei which was no longer available to mankind apart from God’s direct intervention. It is only when God repairs that damaged element of human existence that it can once again function so as to place an individual into a quality of existence (zoe, as in eternal life) with God.[1]
Agape is the single term that most characterizes the loss and regaining of zoe. It is the ability to choose to obey God. It is seen when men choose the world and reject God. The opposite is when men choose to obey God and reject the world. For this reason, we must allow the Holy Spirit to use the Word of God to transform[2] our thinking about love, and understand that this process of transformation is what James calls the salvation of the soul.[3]
When we ask the right questions of the Scriptures, who and what, not how and why, we come to the correct answers regarding our salvation through Christ Jesus our Lord. We must not think of love in human terms which only leads to confusion and darkness. But we must be transformed in our understanding of love, in the biblical sense of the term, in order to see the Light of the World [4] which men reject.
As this transformation takes place, it is or should be progressive over time. We then will understand how to make the right choices, redeemed agape, as we walk moment by moment in the power of the Holy Spirit.[5]
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[1] 1 Jn 5:11-13.
[2] Rom 12:2; Cf., 1 Cor 2:6-16.
[3] Jas 1:21-25.
[4] Jn 1:4ff.; 3:19ff.; 8:12.
[5] Jn 13:34-35; 14:21-23; Gal 5:16.