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Reflections

The Four Loves

Part 4

Valentine’s Day—whatever its beginnings—has become the time for expressing love, particularly to our one-and-only, but also to others we hold dear. Consequently, February is a good time to look at the various kinds of love referred to in Scripture. We will use the loves identified by C. S. Lewis in The Four Loves as a springboard for our thoughts.

Agape – Love with Pierced Feet

C. S. Lewis uses the word charity for agape, the final kind of love we’ll discuss. Agape, the Greek word for the selfless love of God, is usually translated charity in the King James Version of the Bible But the word charity in our culture has taken on the meaning of benevolent institutions. Therefore we will just use the original word agape to discuss this unique form of love.

Agape stands apart from the other forms of love because it generates from the character of the person rather than responding to external stimuli. For example, natural human affection comes in response to the birth of a child. From this relationship, affection is nurtured. Romance and friendship are born in response to interaction with other people.

Agape simply exists in the very nature of God according to John who tells us “God is love” (1 John 4:8). This is the kind of love God has poured “into our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” according to Romans 5:5. Our challenge is to let this love live through us.

This love is characterized by the pierced feet of Jesus. John tells us that “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10, NIV). Jesus’ death on the cross is the ultimate demonstration of agape love.

John ends the passage with the challenge: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11, NIV). Very few followers of Jesus have been literally crucified as He was, but all followers are called to live the crucified life.

Following Jesus means we walk with pierced feet, the self-life forever nailed to the cross as Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (NIV).

The shoes we wear—comfy old shoes, glass slippers, flip flops or hiking boots—no longer matter. It is the feet inside the shoes that are significant. Uncrucified feet still walk in self-centered paths, causing all shoes to wear out quickly. When affection, romance and friendship grow thin, the feet inside the shoes become apparent.

Agape love is clearly defined by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. We can use this passage to measure our love like we measure our feet in the shoe store. The difference is, after a certain age our feet stay the same size, but our hearts can be changed by the Spirit of God anytime we yield to Him. We can live in His love.

We may have many shoes in our wardrobe, and wear all of them at different times. That is good. We need natural affection, romance and friendship in our lives. These human loves may wear out like old shoes, but the divine love of God endures. Living in this kind of love becomes the “great quest” of our lives according to 1 Corinthians 14:1 (AMP). It can happen through the power of the Holy Spirit when we walk with “pierced feet.”

Points to Ponder:

Perhaps you have given yourself a spiritual test by reading 1 Corinthians 13 replacing the word “love” with the word “I.” As we conclude this series, this would be a good time to take this test again.

Come short? His love is available to us by His Holy Spirit. Draw on that supply today.

PEGGY MUSGROVE is a licensed Assemblies of God minister. She is also a speaker, freelance writer, author and prayer group leader. Her latest book, Musings of a Maraschino Cherry was released in 2004.. You can visit her at www.musgroveville.com.

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