Exactly a year ago, while I was praying about Paul’s use of “agape” (especially in Romans 5:5). I was inspired to understand that God gives the spiritual power of agape into our hearts as our way to open us up and have access to God’s Presence. What an exciting and inspirational 12 months have unfolded from that morning’s spiritual breakthrough. Of course, this blog was one of the results.
But these 12 months did not come about without a great deal of preparation. During the last several years of deeply opening up and realizing how God’s agape works in my life, I’ve discovered that there is spiritual power involved with agape that far surpasses anything that is meant by the word ‘love.’
One expression of that discovery was in my last posting when I explored the realization that Paul used a form of the Greek words for “love” as a metaphor to understand the spiritual power he experienced. I think he relied on a metaphor because our minds seem to need to use metaphors to understand Biblical truths. The reality that he tried to express with the strange word ‘agape’ was so powerful, and yet so essential to a his growth in faith, that he needed to help people understand it.
So Paul expressed that spiritual power with a word for an intense, intimate way of relating. In doing that he was very careful not to use the normal word for love. So I think he recognized that any of the usual words the Greeks used for love all fell very far short of the spiritual power he experienced. But he still needed a word that expressed intimacy, affection, and caring. But I think he saw that he would need to add meaning in order to express total, complete acceptance, support, and commitment -- without the beloved needing to fulfill any conditions -- and that means ANY condition at all. We remember how he explained in 1 Cor. 13:4, that would require the highest degree of patience and kindness. He was reflecting what Jesus had meant when he explained that we would need a depth of willingness to forgive such that the beloved could wrong you not just seven times but seventy-seven times (Mt. 18:22) -- and yet forgiveness is still granted.
I think also that Paul understood that a profound degree of spiritual development would be needed in order know God’s agape in our lives. Only a profound walk with God can begin to truly, deeply understand what happens when God opens us up with agape and uses agape to draw us into a close experience of Presence.
The other great insight that Paul learned from Christ’s spirit in his life involved actions toward other people. God’s agape not only opened us to divine Presence, but also agape opened us up to loving relations with those around us. What an insight into its double power! Through giving agape to humans, God makes it possible for us to be able to find the profound level of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. And Paul knew a sad lesson too well from personal experience with people -- that such a way of relating does not come from normal human living. Only the power of God’s Presence can transform a human life to perform such profound actions.
So following Paul’s advice for our lives, we desperately need God’s agape in our living.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
How does “Love” help us understand Agape?
In a few of my blog postings I’ve mentioned praying about Paul’s use of “agape.” During the last several years of deeply seeking God’s agape for my life, I’ve discovered that the search has opened my life to amazing changes, including deepening and expanding my perspective on the religious meaning of love.
Finally in just the last few weeks, the realization hit me that in the Greek version of the New Testament “love” is used as a metaphor. Of course, there are many metaphors used throughout the Bible to help people deal with profound wisdom. Metaphors need to be used because our minds cannot grasp such wisdom in any ‘straight forward’ approach. For example, we remember that a few metaphors used to try expressing what God means for human living are “light,” “air/wind/storm,” “water/rain,” “fire” and “smoke.” Of course, no one would confuse any of those with the Reality of God.
Unfortunately, some metaphors have actually brought about confusion. For example, many people were led into the mistake of imagining God in human form because of the use of metaphors such as “father” and “mother.” So we need to constantly keep in mind that they are merely metaphors and all such metaphors fall far short of the ineffable reality they are trying to reference.
But our minds seem to need to use metaphors to understand Biblical truths. This has become especially the case for agape. The reality that we try to express with the strange word ‘agape’ is so powerful, and yet so essential to a person’s growth in faith, that over the centuries people have used a couple of metaphors to try understanding it. The 2 main metaphors are “love” and “charity.” Unfortunately, most people have so completely confused the metaphor with the reality, that they made the mistake of thinking agape is ‘love.’
This is nowhere more confusing than in modern translations of the New Testament. That is similar to the confusion caused by taking Jesus’ use of ‘abba’ and translating it as ‘father.’ So it is absolutely critical to remember the difference between the metaphor and the reality to which the metaphor refers.
The normal English word ‘love’ is just not what is meant by God’s Agape. But that English word can help give us some metaphorical understanding. The use of ‘love’ as a metaphor means we form an understanding by looking at that intense, intimate way of relating. And then we use that to bring a meaningful depth and concern to life.
So what “love” helps us understand is that by giving us agape, God opens the guarded heart through intense, intimate relating in such a way that the person who responds to that will experience something like acceptance, support, caring, and even affection that is more profound than is possible in any other way.
Of course, as everyone says when commenting about using ‘love’ to understand agape, it has to be “the highest form of love.”
So what do they all mean by “the highest form?” Isn’t that merely admitting that the normal meaning of love falls very far short of the job of helping understand agape? So what does help? Well, the closest anyone seems to have gotten is the unusual modern concept of “unconditional love.” (Of course, we need to remember that “unconditional love” is not a Biblical phrase.)
What in the world could possibly be meant by “unconditional love”? That must be intimacy, affection, and caring beyond any of the conditions that humans place on relationships. So it would have to mean total, complete acceptance, support, and commitment without the beloved needing to fulfill any conditions -- and that means ANY condition at all.
So that kind of love would have to be given to the beloved no matter what the beloved does or is (even if that could be given to an enemy [Mt. 5:44; Lk. 6:27, 35; Rom. 12:14-13:10]) -- in other words, giving beyond human endurance. And, as Paul explained in 1 Cor. 13:4, that would require the highest degree of patience and kindness. There would need to be a depth of willingness to forgive such that the beloved could wrong you not just seven times but seventy-seven times (Mt. 18:22) -- and yet forgiveness is still granted.
So of course, the question has to be asked of “unconditional love:” is it really humanly possible? Now, just imagine what profound degree of spiritual development would be needed in order to answer such a question. Only a profound walk with God over many years can begin to truly, deeply understand that what is not possible for a human is possible for God.
Now, what if the answer is this: “unconditional love” is only a metaphor to be used in order to begin to understand God’s agape? So… through giving agape to humans, God makes it possible for us to be able to find the profound level of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. Only God could make that possible. And agape is how God does it.
Finally in just the last few weeks, the realization hit me that in the Greek version of the New Testament “love” is used as a metaphor. Of course, there are many metaphors used throughout the Bible to help people deal with profound wisdom. Metaphors need to be used because our minds cannot grasp such wisdom in any ‘straight forward’ approach. For example, we remember that a few metaphors used to try expressing what God means for human living are “light,” “air/wind/storm,” “water/rain,” “fire” and “smoke.” Of course, no one would confuse any of those with the Reality of God.
Unfortunately, some metaphors have actually brought about confusion. For example, many people were led into the mistake of imagining God in human form because of the use of metaphors such as “father” and “mother.” So we need to constantly keep in mind that they are merely metaphors and all such metaphors fall far short of the ineffable reality they are trying to reference.
But our minds seem to need to use metaphors to understand Biblical truths. This has become especially the case for agape. The reality that we try to express with the strange word ‘agape’ is so powerful, and yet so essential to a person’s growth in faith, that over the centuries people have used a couple of metaphors to try understanding it. The 2 main metaphors are “love” and “charity.” Unfortunately, most people have so completely confused the metaphor with the reality, that they made the mistake of thinking agape is ‘love.’
This is nowhere more confusing than in modern translations of the New Testament. That is similar to the confusion caused by taking Jesus’ use of ‘abba’ and translating it as ‘father.’ So it is absolutely critical to remember the difference between the metaphor and the reality to which the metaphor refers.
The normal English word ‘love’ is just not what is meant by God’s Agape. But that English word can help give us some metaphorical understanding. The use of ‘love’ as a metaphor means we form an understanding by looking at that intense, intimate way of relating. And then we use that to bring a meaningful depth and concern to life.
So what “love” helps us understand is that by giving us agape, God opens the guarded heart through intense, intimate relating in such a way that the person who responds to that will experience something like acceptance, support, caring, and even affection that is more profound than is possible in any other way.
Of course, as everyone says when commenting about using ‘love’ to understand agape, it has to be “the highest form of love.”
So what do they all mean by “the highest form?” Isn’t that merely admitting that the normal meaning of love falls very far short of the job of helping understand agape? So what does help? Well, the closest anyone seems to have gotten is the unusual modern concept of “unconditional love.” (Of course, we need to remember that “unconditional love” is not a Biblical phrase.)
What in the world could possibly be meant by “unconditional love”? That must be intimacy, affection, and caring beyond any of the conditions that humans place on relationships. So it would have to mean total, complete acceptance, support, and commitment without the beloved needing to fulfill any conditions -- and that means ANY condition at all.
So that kind of love would have to be given to the beloved no matter what the beloved does or is (even if that could be given to an enemy [Mt. 5:44; Lk. 6:27, 35; Rom. 12:14-13:10]) -- in other words, giving beyond human endurance. And, as Paul explained in 1 Cor. 13:4, that would require the highest degree of patience and kindness. There would need to be a depth of willingness to forgive such that the beloved could wrong you not just seven times but seventy-seven times (Mt. 18:22) -- and yet forgiveness is still granted.
So of course, the question has to be asked of “unconditional love:” is it really humanly possible? Now, just imagine what profound degree of spiritual development would be needed in order to answer such a question. Only a profound walk with God over many years can begin to truly, deeply understand that what is not possible for a human is possible for God.
Now, what if the answer is this: “unconditional love” is only a metaphor to be used in order to begin to understand God’s agape? So… through giving agape to humans, God makes it possible for us to be able to find the profound level of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. Only God could make that possible. And agape is how God does it.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Lighten Up, People
The last several years of political campaigns have left me so disappointed in the way various religious groups have let themselves get suckered by politicians. Such partisan maneuverings have caused such sad divisions between people of religions; and then the news media can use such stupid categories as ‘the religious right’ and ‘the religious left.’ And of course, all of this has led religious leaders to take themselves too seriously and start claiming that only certain partisan political positions are ‘religious’ and then claiming that positions they disagree with are threats to religion. All that makes me want to say, “Lighten up, people.”
Anyway, deep Truth is so far beyond anything any modern partisan group could come up with that it is laughable to think they could claim spiritual insight only for themselves. Of course, it is important and commendable for political groups to keep trying to function by values that are spiritually inspired.
The word ‘light’ in the Gospels often had at least 3 different meanings. Most of the time, of course, it was a metaphor for spiritual illumination (or in other religions: enlightenment). Other times, light referred to showing the way. But sometimes it meant easy or ease up. When used in such a light-hearted way, Jesus was bringing joy into situations to try to lift people’s spirits (or lighten their load in life) so that they weren’t so negatively serious.
Too often over the last 2,000 years interpretations have missed the spiritual deep joy that Jesus brought into the world. Of course, that joy is easily missed because of the destructiveness, corruption, repressiveness, and violence of so much of history, especially the period of history into which Jesus was born. And of course, that joy has been missed also by many Christians because, unfortunately, they misguidedly allowed destruction, corruption, repression, and violence to happen in the name of religion.
When I read the words of Jesus, I like to keep clearly in mind the modern slang expression: “Lighten up, people.” When he looked out at the faces of a large audience, we can imagine Jesus seeing so many sad, suffering, disheartened, and yet expectant expressions -- the words that usually are translated “You are the light of the world,” might be translated today as “Lighten up, people.” The newly published Common English Bible translates Mt. 5:3 at “Happy are people who are downcast, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” That makes me think that Jesus was using the messianic expression “kingdom of heaven” in a completely new, joyful way -- giving it his own, radically new, interpretation. Of course, his completely new interpretation was not at all what people expected, then and in every century since then.
Isn’t that what he meant when Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.” (Mt. 11:28-30, Common English Bible) Lighten up, people!
Near the end of the Gospel of John, in the prayer of Jesus for his followers, we read: “I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” (John 17: 13, New International Version) It is that special spiritual joy that Jesus brought into the world that was included in the New Great Commandment which was meant to have agape left in its original spiritual form so that it would read: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Have [agape] for each other as I have had [agape] for you. Greater [agape] has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:11-13 New International Version)
There is no better place in the New Testament for showing the link between joy and agape than that section of John. Let God’s agape lighten you up, people!
Anyway, deep Truth is so far beyond anything any modern partisan group could come up with that it is laughable to think they could claim spiritual insight only for themselves. Of course, it is important and commendable for political groups to keep trying to function by values that are spiritually inspired.
The word ‘light’ in the Gospels often had at least 3 different meanings. Most of the time, of course, it was a metaphor for spiritual illumination (or in other religions: enlightenment). Other times, light referred to showing the way. But sometimes it meant easy or ease up. When used in such a light-hearted way, Jesus was bringing joy into situations to try to lift people’s spirits (or lighten their load in life) so that they weren’t so negatively serious.
Too often over the last 2,000 years interpretations have missed the spiritual deep joy that Jesus brought into the world. Of course, that joy is easily missed because of the destructiveness, corruption, repressiveness, and violence of so much of history, especially the period of history into which Jesus was born. And of course, that joy has been missed also by many Christians because, unfortunately, they misguidedly allowed destruction, corruption, repression, and violence to happen in the name of religion.
When I read the words of Jesus, I like to keep clearly in mind the modern slang expression: “Lighten up, people.” When he looked out at the faces of a large audience, we can imagine Jesus seeing so many sad, suffering, disheartened, and yet expectant expressions -- the words that usually are translated “You are the light of the world,” might be translated today as “Lighten up, people.” The newly published Common English Bible translates Mt. 5:3 at “Happy are people who are downcast, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” That makes me think that Jesus was using the messianic expression “kingdom of heaven” in a completely new, joyful way -- giving it his own, radically new, interpretation. Of course, his completely new interpretation was not at all what people expected, then and in every century since then.
Isn’t that what he meant when Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.” (Mt. 11:28-30, Common English Bible) Lighten up, people!
Near the end of the Gospel of John, in the prayer of Jesus for his followers, we read: “I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” (John 17: 13, New International Version) It is that special spiritual joy that Jesus brought into the world that was included in the New Great Commandment which was meant to have agape left in its original spiritual form so that it would read: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Have [agape] for each other as I have had [agape] for you. Greater [agape] has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:11-13 New International Version)
There is no better place in the New Testament for showing the link between joy and agape than that section of John. Let God’s agape lighten you up, people!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)