‘Agape’ as God’s ONLY action

One morning recently when I was praying about God’s agape, I realized that agape is God's action. At first that may not seem like much of a realization, but the more I prayed about the implications, the more I started thinking about all of the claims throughout the last 5,000 years about what else could be divine action.

Some of those claims actually resulted in formulating religions. I remembered reading about the huge variety of ideas about divine activity in ancient cultures throughout the planet. One of the most common ideas about God’s action and the impact on human individuals and groups is inspiration. None of the major claims to divine inspiration were written down by those originally inspired. So the results of the inspiration were passed along verbally, the oldest became cultural foundations for generations. That means: TRANSLATED into human cultural foundations. That’s how they were all passed down to people in the 21st Century -- through generations of translations.

But then I thought about all the trouble that has been caused by people wanting to be the only ones for whom God gave actions in special ways. Also I thought about all the people who suffered terrible disasters and then were made to suffer more by being told those disasters were the result of God’s actions. It has always seemed to me that something was wrong, cruel, and theologically misleading about such ideas about divine action. But then this thought came to me: what if …

... Agape is God’s ONLY action.

What could that mean? I was stunned by the thought. What would the implications then be for all those other theories about God’s action?

During the last two years of formulating this blog, my faith perspective has slowly but radically been transformed through my experiencing of agape. I’ve spent quite a bit of time looking back 2,000 years to try figuring out what St. Paul was working so hard to explain. At last I’m beginning to think that he was laying the groundwork for people hundreds of years later to begin understanding how agape could be God’s only action.

Paul did a lot of explaining that God’s agape not only opened us to divine Presence, but also the spiritual power of agape opened us up to awareness of profound relationship, and agape empowered and motivated humans to actions of respect and caring with those around us, and also to intense intimacy and affection. What an insight to show agape’s double power (both from divine to human and from divine to human to humans)!

Paul wrote about God giving agape to humans, first to help us find the spiritual reality of intimate, intense affection; and then to motivate us to give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. And Paul also explained how the power of God’s agape can transform a human life to perform such profound actions of respect and caring.

Paul’s efforts first started showing a little glimmer of results when, years after he wrote his letters, someone finally formulated the following words about God’s action (in 1 John 4:6-8) -- “This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Dear friends, let’s agapao each other, because agape is from God, and everyone who agapan is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t agapao does not know God, because God is agape.”    GOD IS AGAPE!

And people have been struggling ever since then to come to terms with what that means for the survival of the human race. I think it means everything! The very survival of the human race depends on coming to terms with agape as God’s only action.

‘Agape’ as a new word

When I was reading other blogs that mentioned ‘agape’ in spiritual terms, I found one that listed all the NT passages that used ‘agape.’ That blog was bebereans.blogspot.com/2011/03/exercise-in-agape-love by Ed from Newark, N. J. In it Ed showed that he was starting to realize the spiritual meaning of agape. He talked about ‘agape’ as a new word because of the way St. Paul was giving it new meaning.

But then when he gave a list of where ‘agape’ was found, he still didn’t realize fully that ‘agape’ could not be translated into English; so he tried to find the meaning of all those scripture readings by using the common English word ‘love.’ In doing that, of course, he missed the point that St. Paul was giving new meaning to ‘agape’ -- but not as some sort of a new word for love. Paul wasn’t talking about love.

When Ed tried to account for the strange use of ‘agape’ in those readings, he commented: “Whenever you introduce a new word into language it’s necessary for that word to be defined, St. Paul defines it for us in 1 Corinthians 13 beginning in verse 4.” So there was a slight recognition that there was something ‘new’ about the way ‘agape’ was used by Paul and some others in the Early Church. And Ed pointed out agape’s strictly spiritual meaning. Still, all of that loses the original meaning from Paul if we merely use the word ‘love.’ Then we are left with the strange impression that Paul was trying to explain love. But why would Paul have felt the need to do that?

But when I gave a similar list in my posting to this blog on Aug. 20, I did what I think Paul would have wanted us to do and that was leave ‘agape’ as a Greek word. I did that because I finally realized, after years of studying and praying about the meaning of agape, that what Paul was mainly doing in his writings about ‘agape’ was trying to explain what his strange word meant and what was the power behind the spiritual reality that word stood for.

So here again, our very limited English vocabulary makes it hard to find words to express a spiritual basis for intense intimacy, affection, respect and caring. We need a spiritual term for “complete acceptance, support, and commitment.” But there is no English word that can express the profound spiritual basis that links God’s action toward us that flows out from us in actions of caring, affection, respect, and intense intimacy.

Many writers, who won’t use a Greek word, have been forced to assign spiritual meaning to the strange 2-word expression, ‘unconditional love,’ -- or they try giving a spiritual meaning by using the cumbersome phrase, ‘divine love given to another person.’ But because there is no single word, a profound mistake in translation happened when ‘love’ was used when the Bible was rendered into all the English versions appearing in the last 200 years. And 400 years ago, translators came up with the new word, 'charity,' but within 100 years it had lost all spiritual meaning.

I think Paul initially had the same problem with the Greek language. When he first began traveling north, he couldn’t find a Greek word for what he was trying to tell his Greek-speaking audiences. None of the normal words in common, everyday usage carried any spiritual meaning. Also he seemed to be trying to explain that only through a profound walk with God can a person begin to truly, deeply understand what happens when God opens us up and draws us into a close experience of Presence. No ordinary word could possibly help with such an explanation.

Because the first Greek-speaking audiences Paul addressed were Jewish, he had an advantage after studying with a few of the best scholars of his region. From that study, he would have known about the 70 scholars in Alexandria who translated the Torah into Greek (called the 'Septuagint'). As far as I can track it, that translation seemed to have been the first time when the verb form of ‘agape’ was used in the important Jewish ‘Shema’ (that Jesus used for the Great Commandment). And at the time of the Septuagint translation, ‘agape’ was an unusual, archaic word. So when the teachings of Jesus were translated into Greek, that version of the Shema became the clue to use ‘agape’ (and the verb form, ‘agapao,’) throughout the Gospels. For example in Matthew’s version, Jesus added a second commandment that was “like” the first: “You shall agapao your neighbor as yourself.”

So it makes sense to me that Paul used the Greek translation of the Shema to get the idea to use that unusual, archaic word ‘agape’ as his important spiritual word. Paul used that idea to begin teaching that God’s agape not only opened us to divine Presence, but also agape opened us up to intense intimacy, affection, respect and caring with those around us.

What an insight to show agape’s double power! So by the time Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, he could express this profound insight: through giving agape to humans, God makes it possible for us to be able to find the spiritual reality of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. And Paul also explained that only the power of God’s Presence can transform a human life to perform such profound actions.

Agape opens my awareness

The last posting ended by discussing ‘agape’ as a spiritual power that opens up our awareness of what God’s Presence is doing. That description came to me while I was praying about agape, when I realized that in such a spiritually powerful moment, God’s Presence wasn’t somehow 'coming to me;' but instead, I was opening up to become aware that God was present to me -- I merely had not been open to that awareness. So l needed to be made aware.

And of course, the spiritual influence that was doing the action of opening up my awareness was agape. Or as put in biblical terms: God was pouring agape into my heart through the Holy Spirit {Romans 5:4-5}

Later, as I looked back on what happened, I came to realize that through that action of God's agape, (which came to me as a spiritual sensation that I was being ‘caringly’ and ‘lovingly’ drawn into a close, intimate relationship of divine Presence -- I was experiencing an opening up in a deeply devotional way to becoming increasingly aware of a Presence that is always ‘with me’ because there is no way that the eternal Presence is ever ‘not there.’ Any sensation of ‘not there’ is strictly my own lack of awareness, and nothing more.

And of course ‘the paradox of spirituality’ comes into play in that situation as well as what I described in my last posting. What is ‘not there’ is me.

From my very limited perspective, the awareness is what is important. If I focus only on my ego-identity as some sort of a separate entity, then I feel so cut off and alienated that I lose touch with the power of an awareness that God’s Presence is eternally with me so intimately as to be permeating my being while simultaneously ‘extending’ into vastness. But on the other hand, if I let agape spiritually help me identify with the vast Presence, then I become aware that the vastness is also within, and then I begin to form an identity with the eternal formless Essence. But I need to have my awareness opened up by the spiritual power of agape because it is not possible for a separate ego-being to truly ‘know’ that connection with divine Presence.

In other words, it's not possible to do that on my own. It's egotistically not possible.

In that sense, there is no such thing as a separate ego-being. It is nothing more than a figment of overactive imagination, but the modern world indoctrinates people to think we must form an ego-identity and to believe falsely that each person is somehow not deeply connected to All that is. But of course, each modern society is a corporate ego.

So that false belief is what I meant by the ‘non-existence’ of an ego-being. The whole point of human existence is to become fully aware of the non-existence of ego-identity. (Of course that is very threatening to the modern world, so people who fully understand that point -- and work toward accomplishing it -- are in grave danger. Which is not all that different from what happened 2,000 years ago.)

Of course, in the modern world we produce the paradox because we are taught to believe very early in childhood that we need to build an ego-identity in order to defend ourselves against the modern world. [A strange paradox, isn't it.] We are taught that we cannot survive in the modern world without a very strong ego-identity. But actually the exact opposite is the real truth: our very spiritual survival is being jeopardized by our ego-identity. It is, in fact, the false belief in the existence of our ego-identity that keeps us from believing in our connection with divine Presence.

The paradox also causes us to believe there is some kind of an existential struggle going on between our ego-identity and God. When actually all we have to do is merely stop believing in ego.

But, of course, that is much easier to say than it is to do, because over the years of our living we increasingly think we have become completely dependent on that ego-identity which we have worked so hard to develop.

2,000 years ago so many people had lost all hope in experiencing a connection with God that Paul wrote his great message of hope: God was pouring agape into our heart through the Holy Spirit {Romans 5:4-5}. So it is by means of giving us agape that God brings us the experience of being intimate with divine Presence. Our task is to accept God's gift and live by it and through it.

The paradox of spirituality

The latest analogy I’ve heard for how agape works is “God loving through you.” Now, the way I would see that analogy working is in a double way -- as agape usually works -- first with God flowing agape to you, then second with God extending the flow of agape power out from you to someone (or some creature) who needs the spiritual power of agape to help them.

Of course, there’s always a catch with analogies: they aren’t real, so if you try to push them too far, they dissolve. So for that analogy, the point of dissolving occurs with the words ‘loving’ and ‘you.’ What I mean first is that agape is spiritually far more than what most people normally mean by ‘loving.' Then the second point is what can be called the paradox of spirituality: in the spiritual flowing of agape, there is no ‘you.’

For the first point, about ‘loving,’ I mean that most people think of ‘love’ in strictly human terms; but of course, we know that God does not ‘love’ as a human being loves. So people get a wrong image, because the spiritual power of God is so far beyond what human love could ever possibly be. And of course, that’s why St. Paul started using a different Greek word than the one that meant ‘love’ to Greek-speaking people. As I’ve written so many times in this blog, that’s why Paul started using the very unusual word, ‘agape.’ To him it expressed the power of God that goes beyond the meaning of love.

The second point was expressed by Paul by using the word that gets translated into English as ‘ambassador’ when he said, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” (2 Cor. 5:20) In that sense, we are like agents, even where agape is concerned. But where even that analogy breaks down is where we think human action is.

What I called ‘the paradox of spirituality’ comes with God’s action. We perceive the action as coming from us, but it is actually God acting through us. But even such ‘action’ is so powerful that it doesn’t actually involve us -- or especially it doesn’t involve our ego identity in any way whatsoever. That refers to the identity we usually mean when we use words like ‘I,’ ‘me,’ and ‘mine.’ In the sense of those ego-identity words, I couldn’t say, “God is loving through me.” So using the wording of that analogy, agape is actually God loving God. But of course, no one would say it that way.

But the slight point of the analogy is that agape is not human-generated. It is strictly a spiritual term, and each of us needs to ‘sense’ it that way. Agape is actually opening up our awareness of what God’s Presence is doing.

Adverbs in the Great Commandment?

In my last couple of postings, I commented on new understandings that came when I studied the agape versions of NT passages. I reflected in that posting on the first of 2 ideas that came from the word “whole” in the Great Commandment. In today’s posting I want to share the 2nd idea.

I began to wonder about the shift in perspective we could get if we thought of the nouns in the Great Commandment as though they were adverbs. That may sound a little strange, but here is how it could read: “You must agapao the Lord your God wholeheartedly, soulfully, and mindfully.”

Sometimes nouns and pronouns are what get us into trouble with identity issues. In elementary school we are taught that a noun has to refer to a person, place, or thing. So it gets drilled into us in the very early stages of development, when we also are taught that we have to form a separate ego identity (not in so many words, of course). So we start thinking that a noun has to stand for ‘something.’ Eventually then, in our youthful thought processes, we think that a 'mind' is something, and an 'ego' identity is something, and even that a 'soul' must therefore be something that is solid somewhere inside us.

But when we use adverbs in the Great Commandment, we no longer think in ego-identity terms, so we don’t have think of a ‘mind’ as something that ‘exists separately,’ or a ‘soul’ as something that ‘exists separately,’ or even a ‘heart’ as something that produces emotions.

With such a shift in perspective, we can see new meaning in being commanded to “agapao the Lord your God wholeheartedly, soulfully, and mindfully.” So we no longer have to think that we somehow need to take some ‘thing’ inside us and use it to generate something toward God.

Also in my last posting, I wrote about what it means to be commanded into an agape relationship with God, and how that very relationship brings whole-ness to life. I realized that such wholeness has a profound impact on our sense of identity.

So agape works in us (as a gift from God) to get us unstuck from that strange ego identity (that people in the modern world think they have to form). Instead of identifying with some ego that we formed by thinking of all the ways that each of us is different and separated, we can think of our identity in life as formed from the relationship with God. It is through the loving power of agape that we open up to wholeheartedly, soulfully, and mindfully accept the divine Presence permeating us and simultaneously helping us identify with the vastness of divine Presence.

It is often said that such opening up is the profound awareness of being “a child of God.”

Of course, that’s not possible to experience if we try to approach God while we are locked in ego identity, because that ‘sense of selfness’ (that gets referred to as ‘ego’) is so dependent on being separate. But such an all-important sense of wholeness, which is necessary for faith development, cannot happen for a person who tries to identify mainly with that false impression of being separated from God.

But, if over the years of our personality development, we thought we had to ‘build an ego’ by defending against everything that is ‘out there,’ then we have to start over. In a sense we have to reverse the process of identifying. A person has to get beyond any type of ego identity in order to realize the wholeness in relationship with God.

The beautiful good news is that God starts the process by making agape available to each of us, and all we have to do is allow God’s agape to open us up.

Wholeness and Agape in the Great Commandment

In my last posting I talked about noticing many different understandings I started getting when I read the agape versions of NT passages. After that reflection on the “new” commandment, another example came to me when I took very seriously the word “whole” in the Great Commandment (especially in the Common English Bible translation).

I saw the word ‘whole’ as a clue that something is required that goes beyond what a separated ego identity can do.

When we are commanded to give our whole being into our agape relationship with God, that has a profound impact on our sense of identity. But all ego identities (that people in the modern world think they have to form) cannot act as whole beings. Even though people think an ego is the best defense and protection against the sheer craziness of modern society, there is something wrong with putting that much faith in production that is based on separating from the wholeness of Life. So it just cannot work for a person to “love God with an ego identity” -- because there is no wholeness there. Any ego identity is merely too fragmented. Something else is needed.

An ego identity is so dependent on being separate, that no ego identity can do anything as a whole being. Of course, that’s the main problem with all ego identities in the modern world -- the very act of trying to develop an identity in life by forming a separate entity causes a terrible fracturing in the identity, because it is a false effort. In reality we are actually all connected, not separated.

That all-important sense of wholeness, which is necessary for faith development, cannot happen for a person who tries to identify mainly with that false impression of being separated from God. A person has to get beyond any type of ego identity in order to realize the wholeness of a relationship with God.

When I read through all those verses with ‘agape’ left in its originally intended form, I was able to realize how agape brings wholeness to a person’s life. So it is from the wholeness of an agape relationship with God that a person is able to be fully and completely alive with God. A person’s true identity in life brings that spiritual sense of wholeness when it is developed from the agape relationship.

Agape as the “new” commandment?

 In my last posting I wrote out agape versions of many NT passages. After letting 15 days go by, I read through all those quotes, and that was truly inspiring. Also, all of those verses -- taken together, in the sheer magnitude that the full spread of wisdom shows -- mean clearly that something entirely new was given there. So there is no way that the old, familiar word ‘love’ can be used there anymore. Some different meaning is conveyed there.

As I thought about them, I began to notice many different understandings developing. For example, I wondered about what happens when you put side by side the verses: Mt. 22:37-40; Lev. 19:18; Jn. 13:34-35 (of course, using ‘agape’ instead of ‘love’).

Jesus replied: "You must agapao the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole being, and with your whole mind." This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "you must agapao your neighbor as you agapao yourself." All the law and the Prophets depend on these two commands. ...  Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but agapao your neighbor as yourself.  ... "I give you a new commandment: Agapao each other. Just as I have agapan you, so you also must agapao each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you agapao each other."

I began to imagine the 2 scenes: first of Jesus answering with 2 commandments when only one was called for; and then Jesus gathered with his disciples at the Last Supper, telling them to pay very close attention because he was giving them something new that they HAD to obey. I was then struck by a strange question.

If everyone would have recognized as coming from the Leviticus laws what Jesus called the “second that is like” the Great Commandment, then what did he mean when he told the Disciples that he was giving them a “new” commandment? In other words, if it was already in the ancient law, how could it be NEW? Wouldn’t ‘Doubting Thomas’ have raised his hand and asked, “What’s new about that?”

Well, of course that didn’t happen, and no one even thought it, because they all instantly recognized that it was new. So the problem rests with us. If we don’t see that it’s new, then we don’t understand what was ‘gospel’ about what Jesus was demonstrating and teaching. Now, of course, it’s much easier to begin to see the new when we leave the original word ‘agape’ there, instead of changing the whole meaning by sticking in our common English word ‘love.’

Jesus was doing something dramatically, and profoundly, new. Although, I’m not sure anyone else in the 1st Century could figure out exactly what it was all about. I think all they came to realize is that it had something to do with the spiritual phenomenon they came to call ‘agape.’

That’s about it.

And we sadly trivialize it in the 21st Century when we continue the grave mistake of using the common English word ‘love’ to try explaining it. And worse -- we suck out of it all the amazing, new power.

When we fully open ourselves to allow God’s agape to work in both our faith development and our relationships of our daily life, then we begin to understand how truly new and powerful was what Jesus brought to people’s lives and to history.

New Testament agape quotes

In several of my postings I reflected on the change in meaning when ‘agape’ and ‘agapao’ were left in the original Greek in many biblical quotes. So I will now take a sampling of those quotes and give them with everything translated into modern English except ‘agape,’ ‘agapan’ and ‘agapao.’ (This listing is a little long, but that’s because there are so many verses that contain some form of agape.)

“‘You must agapao the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole being, and with your whole mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You must agapao your neighbor as you agapao yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” (Mat. 22:37-40 Common English Bible [CEB]) {an alternate translation: “‘You shall share in the agape of the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And a second is like it. ‘You shall share agape with your neighbor as you yourself [open to it].’ On these two commandments hang all the sacred way.” (based on the New Revised Standard Version)

“But I say to you, agapao your enemies and pray for those who harass you because of your faith so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. … Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing agape to everyone, so also you must be complete.” (Mt. 5:44-48 CEB)

“I give you a new commandment: Agapao each other. Just as I have agapan you, so you also must agapao each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you have agape for each other.” (Jn. 13:34-35 CEB)

“If you agapao me, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you.” (Jn. 14:15-17 CEB)

“Whoever agapao me will keep my Logos. My Father will agapao them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (Jn. 14:23 CEB)

“As the Father agapan me, I too have agapan you. Remain in my agape. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my agape, just as I kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his agape. I have said these things to you so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete. This is my commandment: agapao each other just as I have agapan you. No one has greater agape than to give up one’s life for one’s friends. … I give you these commandments so that you can agapao each other.” (John 15:9-17 CEB)

“This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the agape of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Rom. 5:5 CEB)

“The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what the Spirit means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God. We know that by turning everything to their good, God cooperates with all those who agapao God.” (Rom. 8:26-28 The Jerusalem Bible)

“Nothing therefore can come between us and the agape of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked. … For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the agape of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:35-39 The Jerusalem Bible)

“Knowledge makes people arrogant, but agape builds people up. If anyone thinks they know something, they don’t yet know as much as they should know. But if someone agapao God, then they are known by God.” (1 Cor. 8:1-2 CEB)

“Now I shall show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31 The Anchor Yale Bible)
“If I speak in tongues of human beings and of angels but I don’t have agape, I’m a clanging gong or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries and everything else, and if I have such complete faith that I can move mountains, but I don’t have agape, I’m nothing. If I give everything that I have and hand over my body to feel good about what I’ve done but I don’t have agape, I receive no benefit whatsoever. Agape is patient, agape is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but is happy with the truth. Agape puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things. Agape never fails. … Now faith, hope, and agape remain -- these three things -- and the greatest of these is agape.” (1 Cor. 13:1-13 CEB)

“Let all your things be done with agape.” (1 Cor. 16:14 King James Version)

“Agape must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge.” (Rom. 12:9-19a New International Version)

“Serve one another in works of agape, since the whole of the Law is summarized in a single command: Agapao your neighbor as yourself.” (Gal. 5:13 The Jerusalem Bible)

“The fruit of the Spirit is agape, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal. 5:22 CEB)

“If we live by truth and in agape, we shall grow in all ways into Christ, who is the head by whom the whole body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each separate part to work according to its function. So the body grows until it has built itself up, in agape.” (Eph. 4:15-16 The Jerusalem Bible)

“No one has ever seen God. If we agapao each other, God remains in us and his agape is made perfect in us.” (1 Jn. 4:12 CEB)

“There is no fear in agape, but perfect agape drives out fear, because fear expects punishment. The person who is afraid has not been made perfect in agape. We agapao because God first agapan us. If anyone says, I agapao God, and hates a brother or sister, he is a liar, because the person who doesn’t agapao a brother or sister who can be seen can’t agapao God, who can’t be seen. This commandment we have from him: Those who claim to agapao God ought to agapao their brother and sister also. (1 Jn. 4:18-21)

“Let’s agapao each other, because agape is from God, and everyone who agapao is born from God,  and knows God. The person who doesn’t agapao does not know God, because God is agape.” (1 Jn. 4:7 CEB)

“God is agape, and those who remain in agape remain in God and God remains in them.” (1 Jn. 4:16b CEB)

Giving back Agape

Recently I’ve been focusing on the way agape has improved my prayer life over the last few years. As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, the scripture verses that speak to much of that are Rom. 5:5; 8:26-28, which link the Holy Spirit with agape, and thus show the Holy Spirit praying through us and for us.

In those verses (Rom. 5:5; 8:26-28), we find the basis for God not only giving us the agape of God through the Holy Spirit, but also we find that when we are living with the agape of God, our best prayer practice comes out of realizing that the Holy Spirit actually is returning the agape of God from us to God. In other words, when we agapao God, it is not a case where the human generates agape for God.

The reason for accepting agape as a gift from God is because of the need for accepting the way agape flows through us. If, on the other hand, we acted as though agape was merely a form of human love, then we would have the basic attitude that we generated agape. But the best prayer practice is to be in God’s agape with God. In that spiritual sense, we would be in the agape relationship with God, that God initiated -- rather than think we ourselves are ‘loving’ God with our human-generated affection and adoration. Many religious writers (such as Thomas Merton) have called such prayer, "infused contemplation."

If I try to think of the infinite vastness of God’s Presence, I find it to be dumbfounding that any human could form a relationship with God. Such actions don’t seem to be humanly possible. Our necessary humility before the vastness of God (for example, as portrayed in the last chapters of Job), leaves us realizing that our very limited reasoning ability can’t help us begin to know how to form such a relationship.

The only way such a relationship could be possible is if God initiated it. That of course was one of the key themes of Paul’s writings. One way he expressed it is Rom. 5:5 where he said that our hope lies in the agape of God being given to us through the Holy Spirit. So the more I’ve prayed about that verse for the last several years, the more I’ve come to understand that verse to mean that agape is our God-given access to a relationship with God. In the Gospel of John it is expressed, of course, in those famous verses showing how Jesus was sent to the world to teach how to live by agape and how humans can be accepted into the eternal Life relationship with God. (Jn. 3:16-36)

It is such teaching that I bring into my prayer practices, as I open up to let God’s agape draw me close to God’s Presence.

The origin of ‘Agape’

As my birthday approaches, I’ve been thinking back over the year, because annually I take time on my birthday to go over the last 12 months. So that caused me to think so much about this blog that I decided to put some of those thoughts into words here.  I started this blog a year and a half ago after spending a few years puzzling about why ‘agape’ ended up getting translated into the English word ‘love.’ Finally, I tried letting my own spiritual experiences of agape inspire my understanding of what the Gospels and St. Paul were teaching by not using the common word for love.

The more I let the spiritual power of agape influence my life while I worked on this translation problem, the more I realized that a lot of confusion in modern Christian theology was caused by that problem. In fact, I saw that modern Christians would have trouble understanding the main theme of the New Testament until a change in translating happens.

Although every Christian scholar has acknowledged that translating ‘agape’ as ‘love’ caused a misunderstanding about the basic spiritual meaning of ‘agape,’ the practice continued in every translation since the 18th Century. Because St. Paul was making an important religious point by using ‘agape’ instead of any of the common Greek words for love, we do St. Paul a terrible disservice when we go against everything he was trying to do when we translate him as though he used the most common word for love, which was ‘eros.’ The same way ‘eros’ was used then is what most people today mean by the English word ‘love.’ But St. Paul never used ‘eros.’

Then I began to wonder what could have happened to allow such a blatant distortion of Christian teaching to happen. So I tried to figure out what possible reason could have allowed such a radical misunderstanding to happen in modern Christianity.

But the only reason I have been able to find is the complete lack of any adequate word in English. So ‘love’ became sort of a fall-back substitute. And yet, there must have been something similar between the meanings of the 2 words so that translators could have been willing to use ‘love’ as a substitute translation of ‘agape’ until someone could come up with a better word someday.

So lately I’ve been looking back on my spiritual experiences of agape to try sensing a similarity to love. I think I found the first similarity in the sensation of being drawn into a closeness with divine Presence. This similarity is especially clear during a spiritual, joy-filled sensation of being lovingly opened to and engulfed with Presence. After all, the only way that humans could possibly be able to have such a spiritual awakening is by God giving the means for such access. Of course, from our very limited capability to express with English, we call the feeling of such spiritual sensation of well-being, acceptance, and exhilaration -- “being loved by God.”

And next then, of course, is the extension of agape power out into relationships with other beings. One of the profound biblical insights involves the way our relationship of agape with God inspires and motivates relationships of agape with “our neighbor.” So here again, our very limited English vocabulary makes it hard to find words to express a spiritual basis for intense intimacy, affection, respect and caring. There is no word that expresses a spiritual meaning for total, complete acceptance, support, and commitment-without-the-beloved-needing-to-fulfill-any-conditions. Many writers have been forced to use the strange 2-word expression, ‘unconditional love.’ But that's really not expressing a spiritual meaning, so they try giving a spiritual meaning by using the cumbersome phrase, ‘divine love given to another person.’

I think St. Paul initially had the same problem with the Greek language. None of the normal words in common, everyday usage carried any spiritual meaning. Also he seemed to be trying to explain that only through a profound walk with God can a person begin to truly, deeply understand what happens when God opens us up and draws us into a close experience of Presence. No ordinary word could possibly help with such an explanation.

Because Paul studied with a few of the best scholars of his region, he would have known about the 70 scholars in Alexandria who translated the Torah into Greek (the Septuagint). As far as I can track it, that translation seemed to have been the first time when the verb form of ‘agape’ was used in the important Jewish ‘Shema’ (that Jesus used for the Great Commandment). And at the time of the Septuagint translation, ‘agape’ was an unusual, archaic word. So when the teachings of Jesus were translated into Greek, that version of the Shema became the clue to use ‘agape’ and the verb form, ‘agapao,’ throughout the Gospels. For example in Matthew’s version, Jesus added a second commandment that was “like” the first: “You shall agapao your neighbor as yourself.”

So I speculated that Paul used the Greek translation of the Shema to get the idea to use that unusual, archaic word ‘agape’ as a spiritual word. Paul used that idea to begin teaching that God’s agape not only opened us to divine Presence, but also agape opened us up to intense intimacy, affection, respect and caring with those around us. What an insight to show agape’s double power! So by the time Paul wrote the letter to the Romans, he could express that 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 also explained that only the power of God’s Presence can transform a human life to perform such profound actions. (After all, how many times have you heard people complain that such actions "are not humanly possible.")

As I look back over the last few years, I try to see how I’ve been slowly transformed by living my daily life in the reality of such spiritual flow. Even though I still have times when I let myself get overly tired and frustrated, I still find I have been increasing the depth, spiritually, of concern, caring, and compassion in my relationships. The only word that expresses the spiritual depth of such living is ‘agape.’

The active presence of Agape in life

In my previous posting I commented on St. Paul’s profound point that we should use agape to do everything that we do in life (1 Cor. 16:14). (And of course, that verse makes a lot more sense when we leave ‘agape’ untranslated, to carry the meaning of powerful faith, instead of weakening his point by using the common English word ‘love.’)

I’ve been trying to follow the meaning of that verse by extending my ‘agape prayer’ beyond my early morning prayer practice. I try letting my experience of the spiritual power of agape extend out in various ways so that I center the activities of my daily life around experiencing agape flowing through me. But... I’m finding it hard to remember to do that in many times during mundane activities. Usually, to see the meaning, I have to wait til the end of the day then reflect back over the times when I was able to experience momentary centering. As I do that looking back, I try finding a pattern to my day that can show me how to be more effective in centering my life with agape.

In that way I’ve been using the pattern-building process, stretched out over a few years, to realize how agape power has opened up my life from the very depths of my being and helped me over the years with my growth in faith. So my commitment is to focus on agape-flow in daily prayer exercises and then find ways throughout the day to let agape flow through me. During all this time it has been increasingly important to my faith development to continue to experience agape as a flowing spiritual power that opens me to ACCESS spiritual Presence all around me, within me, and extending infinitely.

As I look back over the last few years, I try to see how I’ve been slowly transformed by living my daily life in the reality of such spiritual flow. Even though I still have times when I let myself get overly tired and frustrated, I still find I've been increasing the depth of concern, caring, and compassion in my relationships. And I’ve always included in relationships: non-human creatures, and the rest of Creation. Then I try to experience this happening as others are drawn into this flow because of my participation in it and openness to it’s permeating all my living.

I’m confident that this process is available to everyone who is willing to prayerfully open up to find how God is pouring agape into our hearts. I’ve continued to read comments from more and more people, and it’s becoming apparent that a wide-spread change in perspective is happening as the experiencing of agape is spreading and the awareness is increasing. Of course, very few people recognize that it is agape.

As people describe their spiritual breakthroughs, they write about the exhilaration that brings a sense of freeing up of perspective on living. That change of perspective also allows people to see our period of history in a new light. More and more people are describing a greater awareness as people break free from the deadly, destructive perspectives that have held people back for too many centuries.

That’s why I describe what I’ve experienced as agape bringing “sacred freedom.” Not only does agape open people to new faith awareness, but also agape opens up relationships to new possibilities.

So I feel a similar hope to St. Paul’s when he expressed his hope in terms of the spiritual power of agape pouring into the heart of a faithful person (Rom. 5:5 -- if we leave ‘agape’ as its original Greek word). And so as more and more people are opened up spiritually to receive agape, each can experience agape’s power of patience and kindness.  So that brings us back to 1 Cor. 13 and the wise rejoicing in the truth. In that chapter (when we leave ‘agape’ untranslated) we find the basis of true, charitable, profound compassion (as a religious principle; instead of the common English word ‘love’). And so we can let the Greek word ‘agape’ help us see the implication of 1 Cor. 13:1-3 -- if we don’t live by that spiritual power God gives us, then there is the despair of futility as all the words of the world are nothing more than clanging gongs or clashing cymbals (or symbols?), and all the knowledge of philosophy and the prophecies of religion are nothing, and all charitable acts amount to nothing. Those are harsh words indeed from a man who was forced to witness the pathetic results of trying to build a religion without the spiritual basis of accepting the gift of agape from God. But of course, he also witnessed the profound hope from people being opened up to sense God’s Presence in Life.

Agape or Charity?

I’ve been trying to find out why the Latin translation of the Greek Bible translated ‘agape’ as ‘caritas.’ So far, it seems that ‘caritas’ was originally not used as a spiritual term, but merely seemed like some sort of a term of endearment. But then I guess that’s not very surprising, because at the time of the translation, Latin was not a language with spiritual words.

That means that it was left to the churches and monasteries to do what Paul did, and that is make sure the word is given spiritual meaning. If that is not done, then ‘caritas’ was not a good translation of ‘agape.’ But at least there seemed to have been one similarity: just as ‘agape’ in the Greek language was not used as a normal word for love, so ‘caritas’ was not the normal Latin word for love.

So during the centuries after Paul’s letters became part of the New Testament corpus, when churches spread throughout the Mediterranean regions and then into Europe and Asia, those churches were supposed to keep alive the original spiritual meaning of ‘the agape of God.’ But… unfortunately… somehow that meaning got lost, until finally by the 18th Century, churches no longer were aware of the main thing that was meant to form their identity.

Now, we’re faced with the daunting task of recovering what agape was meant to do for Christians and communities of faith. And in the process of fulfilling that task, churches will need to reformulate the main identity (as set forth in John 13:35 when agape is not mistranslated as 'love'). That task has been the main purpose of this blog. I hit upon 2 methodologies for doing that: (1) through direct experience of God’s agape in my prayer life; and (2) through Bible study, starting with Paul's efforts, and then following Paul’s influence on Greek-speaking Christians as they translated the teachings of Jesus into Greek.
  
In my previous posting I explored the way Paul went about explaining the spiritual meaning of agape (especially in Romans and 1 Corinthians). I began with Paul’s great hope that by receiving and living by God’s gift of agape, faithful people could find peace with God through Jesus Christ, and then through faithfully living in the power of agape people would gain access to God’s grace. Paul showed that through that power and grace, faithful people can gain endurance for troubles in such a way that their character is built up. (Rom. 5:1-5) He proclaimed that the agape of God gives such a strong binding force that nothing in the world can separate a person from God’s divine Presence when a person learns to live by the spiritual power of agape. (Rom. 8:35-39 when agape is not mistranslated as 'love')

I took to heart Paul’s advice in Rom. 12 to let the Holy Spirit use the power of agape to transform my mind to keep me from conforming to the patterns of the present age of history. In my prayer practice I try to follow Paul’s advice to open up to spiritual agape’s help in opening me to its spiritual flow, and then I try letting agape flow through the relationships of my life. Paul wrote very specifically about the way agape’s power works in our relationships, helping us work for good against evil. Of course, at first I found that to be very difficult to let happen. I have to admit that I haven’t always been able to follow Paul’s advice to be welcoming and hospitable to strangers, and bless people who harass me. But I keep trying because I’m sure that he’s right -- if I can learn to let the spiritual power of agape work in me, I will experience a more charitable and hospitable attitude develop in me, and I’ll be better able to keep frustrations from getting the best of me.

And I agree with Paul -- when we open our heart to agape and let it slowly transform our living, we find that it is patient and kind. That seems to mean that patience and kindness are of the very essence of what the spiritual power is. And that’s why he said that agape “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor. 13:3-7 when agape is not mistranslated as 'love')

Such profound understanding of the power of agape is why Paul said in Galatians that agape is the first fruit of the Holy Spirit, because its spiritual power opens us up and draws us close both to God and to other people in such a way that what comes into our being is a profound sense of joyous wellbeing. That deep spiritual sense allows us to accept other people in a life-affirming way, such that we become neither agitated with them nor attach any degree of importance to anything they may to do us. (Gal. 5:16-23) And when we hear such impossible-sounding teachings, then -- especially then -- we know that only through God’s agape working within us to transform us are we able to fulfill such teachings.

So we see that it is through the power of agape that we are able to show respect and honor toward other people. We stop acting in conceited or proud ways, but live in harmony and peace with everyone, even to the point of blessing those we disagree with or who would persecute us. He emphasized the important power agape had to help people have more empathy. (Rom. 12:15-23)

So he was showing that agape guided by the Holy Spirit can overcome that most dangerous part of human societies -- if enough people are able to open up to God’s agape, then there can be a breakdown of that old destructive worldly pattern of taking revenge against enemies -- that mistakenly tries to overcome evil with evil. Through agape, God gives the power to free minds and hearts from the old pattern of history in order to take part in the new way of living. That is ultimately what agape is all about -- bringing about a new world. But enough people need to let that happen.

Near the end of 1 Cor., Paul said that we should use agape to do everything that we do in life (1 Cor. 16:14 when agape is not mistranslated as 'love'). It is that spiritual power of agape that brings to the center of our being the peace that is the spiritual power of patience itself; the spiritual strength of kindness; the wise rejoicing in the truth; and the basis of true, profound compassion. So that brings us back to 1 Cor. 13, where the implication of that whole chapter is this: our lives will amount to nothing until we are willing to work with the all-important spiritual power of agape.

The Holy Spirit guiding Agape

In my last posting to this blog I wrote about connecting Rom. 5:5 with Rom. 12:3-23. Now I’ll take that a step more.

Early in this Letter to the Romans, Paul reported that his hope for the human race came from the spiritual power of the agape of God, that was “poured” into the hearts of faithful people (5:5). Then later he talked about the victory that was won through Christ Jesus bringing his followers agape. And Paul proclaimed that such victory gave us spiritual bonding so strong that nothing can separate us from the agape of God -- “not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.” (8:35-39 Common English Bible)

Then most of chapter 12 is a list of practical actions. He began by urging followers of Christ to let the Holy Spirit transform their minds so they do not conform to the patterns of their present age of history. Then beginning with vs. 9 he focused on the actions that spiritual agape helps us do when we let it open us to its spiritual flow in our life. He wrote about the way agape’s power, when we let it work in our relationships, helps us work for good against evil. For example -- be welcoming and hospitable to strangers, and bless people who harass you.

When describing good, healthful relationships, he gave the illustration of treating others as kind family members would treat each other — with respect, showing honor toward other people. Also he showed how agape helps faithful people not be conceited or proud, but live in harmony and peace with everyone, even to the point of blessing those you disagree with or who would persecute you. When he pointed out the strengthening aspects of agape, he described the way that spiritual energy helps with being patient in affliction (note, he didn’t insinuate that we would in any way escape affliction -- all of the great examples from the New Testament, from Jesus to the Disciples to Paul, had to go through afflictions).

When emphasizing the important power agape had with bringing empathy to people, Paul wrote: “Be happy with those who are happy, and cry with those who are crying. Consider everyone as equal, and don’t think that you’re better than anyone else. … If possible, to the best of your ability, live at peace with all people. Don’t try to take revenge. … If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom. 12:15-23 Common English Bible)

What we can so very clearly see in Romans is that when we keep agape connected with the Holy Spirit, it can transform people to be kind, compassionate, and charitable with everyone. Agape guided by the Holy Spirit can overcome that most dangerous part of human societies -- God’s agape can actually break down that old worldly pattern of taking revenge against enemies that mistakenly tries to overcome evil with evil. Paul knew how truly that was needed because of, partly, what he saw going on in towns and cities from Jerusalem through Turkey and Greece, all the way to Rome.

And so after the last several hundred years of increasing evidence throughout the globe, we can see, as Paul did, that through agape, the Holy Spirit liberates our mind from the old pattern of history in order to take part in the new way of living. Only spiritual energy is powerful enough to bring about such liberation. Thus agape works with the Holy Spirit to open us and liberate us when we tap into its spiritual flowing.


Can Agape be misused?

Recently I found yet another of those blogs claiming that 2 Timothy 4:10 proves that “agape” was used also negatively in the NT. Once again this confusion is caused by thinking that ‘agape’ was used as a word for love. But we can get a little closer to straightening this out if we leave ‘agape’ untranslated; then the verse more understandably reads: “...for Demas has deserted me, because his agape was set on this present world; he has gone to Thessalonica.”

Of course, that is such a vague verse, that not much can be “proved” from it at all. We don’t really know what the verse was referring to that Demas did. Every translation puts it differently. I based the translation I used on the New English Bible, which strangely used the word ‘heart’ for ‘agape.’ Whatever is actually meant there, the expression is very unusual (as is every use of ‘agape’).

So, because of all of that, we can only speculate about the meaning. Unfortunately, the problematic expression became clouded by its usage in churches. After that letter became part of the final rendition of the Bible, for centuries that expression “love for the world” was taken out of context from that verse and became a negative expression. (And of course, I don’t think “love for the world” was the original meaning at all -- whatever such a strange expression would mean, anyway.)

My speculation focuses on the spiritual meaning of agape. That leads me to ask, “Is it possible to misuse the power of agape?” To get perspective on a possible answer, I went back to Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

Over a year ago, I posted to this blog a study of Romans 12:9-10 -- “Agape must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly affection. Honor one another above yourselves.”
It is critically important that he began those verses with agape. His point in doing that was to set the stage for the dependence of the verses that followed on agape being used sincerely and faithfully.

Most of chapter 12 is a list of practical actions that spiritual agape helps us do when we open up and let it flow in our life. But it also contained warnings about agape misuse. The main warning is that when agape is used in the wrong way, the result is doing harm.

For positive guidance, Paul talked about the action of treating others as kind family members would treat each other — with respect, showing honor toward other people. For him, such moral action came from spiritual motivation. The spiritual energy behind such action has a transformational quality that works in a person’s life to help her or him not be conceited or proud, but live in harmony and peace with everyone, even to the point of “blessing those who persecute you.” He also pointed out that the spiritual energy involved with agape helps with being patient in affliction. What he spelled out there is the ethic of extending hospitality to strangers. BUT ALL OF THAT ONLY WORKS WHEN AGAPE IS USED SINCERELY AND FAITHFULLY.

Paul used negative warnings to drive home the difficulty people have when they separate agape from God. I think when he started by saying, “Agape must be sincere” -- he was referring to keeping it in its spiritual context. As I’ve recalled so many times, he always meant “the agape of God;” as he said in Rom. 5:5 -- “the agape of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” That is agape’s true and only source. So there is tremendous danger caused by thinking that agape has any other source or any other function than the Holy Spirit.

We must let the Holy Spirit use agape to be transformational in our living. For example, Paul warned about what happens when people try to repay evil for evil, and take revenge. If people resist the proper functioning of the Holy Spirit and are not willing to make the huge effort involved with living by the Holy Spirit’s directing agape, then their minds stay enslaved to the old pattern of the selfish, egotistical, violent era of history. So what I think was meant in 2 Tim. 4:10 is the misdirection of agape. People can get terribly lost if they go out into the world thinking that agape is nothing more than human-generated love.
 
Paul wrote: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom. 12:20) But very few people in the 1st Century understood the importance of living that way. They thought it was not humanly possible, so they resisted. Of course, it is the action of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible. That’s what was reflected in 2 Tim. 4:10.

And of course, we are still seeing examples all around us today of very few people understanding the importance of living that way. That lack of understanding can also lead to people misusing the power of agape.

But I think we are seeing a slow change, because fortunately we can see so clearly, by all the evidence of the last 2,000 years, that the old historical pattern (selfish, egotistical, power-hungry, violent) produces so much destruction that it must be ended. That destructiveness cannot be stopped if people continue ignoring the realization that agape comes from God -- as God’s gift to us -- to use to create a new way of living.

When we keep agape connected with the Holy Spirit, it has a transformational quality that helps people be kind, compassionate, and charitable with everyone. Agape guided by the Holy Spirit can break down the pattern of taking revenge against enemies that mistakenly tries to overcome evil with evil.

Living that way requires a strong, lasting decision. We have to decide to let the Holy Spirit liberate our mind from the old pattern of history in order to take part in the new way of living. Only spiritual energy is powerful enough to bring about such liberation. Agape is spiritual power that opens us and liberates us when we tap into its spiritual flowing.


Known by Agape

In my last two postings I mentioned that in the teaching about agape in the Gospel of John, we are told that everyone will know the followers of Jesus by agape. That is the great challenge from our Master -- that using the power of agape is the way everyone will know who are the followers of Jesus Christ (John 13:35). 

So today, when we continue following in that tradition established by Jesus and spread abroad by Paul, we take to heart that prediction. But what does that mean -- for people to know the followers of the Christ by the actions of living by the power of spiritual agape, and then sharing agape with each other and also allowing the Holy Spirit to extend agape through concrete actions out to others?

In order for us to be true Christians, agape must be seen through our actions. That’s the whole story today. Agape can become like a radiating energy, spreading out from Christian groups to the world around them. And that’s our challenge -- from the very beginning. So the Christian influence to change the world is known through the evidence of agape. That’s it! That’s what changes the world, because that’s how the power of God works.

And yet… and yet…

...most Christians don’t know what agape is. Those few aware Christians, who have at least heard the word, think it has something to do with love, but they know it can’t be what they normally think love is. But they’re not sure what else agape can be. Even they just don’t know what agape is.

So we have this strange condition in the 21st Century: what the world is supposed to know Christians by is unknown to almost all Christians. How pathetic is that?

We have the ancient challenge from Jesus Christ. And it was meant to be the very thing that defines the mission of our whole enterprise. And yet …

...how can we even begin to know how to start to meet that challenge and proceed with our mission …

… if we don’t even know what the main word is that defines our mission?

So the most important investigation we must complete in order to move forward in the 21st Century is to rediscover what agape is. And we have been held back in our prime investigation by weak translations for 600 years. We can no longer rely on translations of the New Testament. It is of utmost importance that, as quickly as possible, we have to discover through deep prayer -- opening up to the power of God -- what God is giving us in agape.

Then of course, we are challenged by Christ to let that spiritual power of agape work through us.

Agape in John 13-17

In my last posting I went back to the Gospel of John and looked anew at the teachings of Jesus about agape in chapters 13-17. After all these years of reading those verses, this time when I left “agape” where it was meant to be (not translated into the non-spiritual English word “love”), I could more clearly understand that Jesus actually was teaching about agape.

He was demonstrating to his closest followers what that spiritual power could do in human life and in relationships. That’s why he could make the great identity proclamation that using the power of agape is the way everyone will know the followers of Jesus Christ (John 13:35). 

Now I have been able to see that those chapters contained an important connection between the two Greek concepts: “agape” and “Paraclete.” Jesus promised to send to his followers, after his resurrection, a special new spiritual power (that was Paraclete, that usually gets weakly translated into English as ‘Counselor’ or ‘Advocate’ or ‘Helper’ or ‘Companion’). That promise followed directly after he commanded his followers to share agape.

I found it to be better, when translating, to just leave Paraclete as ‘spiritual power’ and to leave ‘agape’ untranslated, as in the following: “If you share my agape, you will keep my commandments. I will ask the Father, and he will send spiritual power, to be with you forever. This spiritual power is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him because he lives with you and will be with you.” (14:15-17)

Again, of course, this shows connection with Romans 5:5 -- “The agape of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Common English Bible -- with “agape” untranslated) That was Paul’s way of showing that same connection as in John between agape and the Holy Spirit. Paul seemed to be saying that the spiritual power sent by Jesus continued to pour agape into the hearts of his followers and into the heart of the community of followers. Of course, Paul’s additional point had to do with the need to live by agape in order for it to truly be effective for growth in faith. So those people who do not put agape into action in the relationships of their lives, they remain stunted in a childishly selfish form of faith. (1 Cor. 13:11)

The sad realization, about the increasingly violent world, is that not enough of those claiming to be Christians actually do learn to live by agape. When Christians don’t put agape into action, then the potential influence of Christian compassion and kindness doesn’t get realized strongly enough to produce the desperately needed reduction in violence.

So today, when we continue following in that tradition established by Jesus and spread abroad by Paul, we take to heart that prediction (from John 13:35) that what identifies the followers of Jesus is living by the power of spiritual agape, and then sharing agape with each other and also allowing the Holy Spirit to extend agape through our actions out to others. It must be done through our actions. Agape becomes like a radiating energy, spreading out from Christian groups to the world around them. So the Christian influence to change the world is known through the evidence of agape.

Agape helps us get beyond ego-centric behavior

In previous postings when I explored 1 Corinthians and Romans, I discovered that Paul was saying that agape is not only a gift from God to help us, but it is also a witness. Agape witnesses that true spiritual power is on the side of patience, kindness, justice and truth -- and that it helps people overcome envy, conceit, self-righteousness, judgmentalness, and all other results of ego-centric behavior.

So when we put those two together, we see that the spiritual gift of agape is God’s way of helping us turn away from selfish, ego-centric actions. Paul was showing a new way for Christians to develop spiritually. When we read how Paul explained agape in 1 Corinthians 13, then we know we are dealing with the basis for a new faith discipline that motivates us to look for a spiritual training that will help us live fully through the power of God.

I think Paul was comparing selfish, ego-centric behavior with childishness. That's what he meant when he said, “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, reason like a child, think like a child. But now that I have become a man, I’ve put an end to childish things.” (1 Cor. 13:11 Common English Bible) So in our struggle to get beyond being controlled by our egos, we need agape to help us become fully mature in our faith development; otherwise, we remain childishly stunted in our growth in faith. That’s why I concluded my last posting by realizing that a follower of Jesus needs to stop identifying with her or his ego; and instead, we need to do as Jesus did by building our identity from the eternal essence we find within.

If we don’t do that, then we are challenged by Paul’s warning that we remain childishly stunted. So the first step in faith growth is to admit that we have to get beyond all forms of envy, conceit, self-righteousness and behavior that is judgmental toward all other people. Otherwise, we get stuck in a faith that is childishly stunted as long as we wrongly think that it's good to feel self-righteous and judgmental toward anyone. That’s why the attitudes that Jesus criticized the most were self-righteousness and judgmentalness.

Of course, those attitudes persist as such a major problem among people claiming to be Christian because it's so easy to deny being self-righteous and judgmental. It's so easy to fall into the trap of thinking religion is suppose to make people feel self-righteous and give them the right to be judgmental. We fool ourselves when we suffer under the illusion that our opinions have to be right and anyone who disagrees with us has to be completely wrong (maybe even evil). That's the great temptation that Jesus was trying to get people to overcome.

But unfortunately, we see that happening all over America during these sad days when Christianity is so strongly divided. So as long as Christians keep thinking they have to protect Christianity by struggling against Christians with different opinions, then we will continue to function with childishly stunted faith. Especially when these struggles get dragged into politics, all of that is terribly destructive.

Paul’s point was faith development must help us be patient, kind, just, and truthful. That is why we need to let agape open us up and work in our life. He was also pointing out that the reverse is just as true: people prove they are not open to agape working in their life -- if they remain so controlled by ego identity as to be self-righteous, judgmental, mean-spirited, and bigoted.  

That realization is why I went back to the Gospel of John and looked anew at the teachings of Jesus about agape in chapters 13-17. There I found Jesus instructing his disciples to share the power of agape with each other, just as he had showed them what that spiritual power could do in human life and in relationships. To give the strongest meaning possible to this sharing, he told them that everyone will know they are his disciples because they live by the power of agape (John 13:35). That is why he even put it in the form of a new commandment (13:34). He identified so strongly with the spiritual presence of agape that he could refer to it as “my agape” -- as when he said, “Remain in my agape. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my agape, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his agape. … No one has greater agape than to give up one’s life for one’s friends.” (15:9-13)

(The meaning is so much clearer when “agape” is not translated into some weak English word, but is left “agape” in the original Greek, as it was meant to be.) Then we see that Jesus was talking about a special spiritual power that he was making sure they could receive as a gift from God to help them.

Jesus as the Logos

In my last posting I worked out what it would mean for the whole Gospel of John to be about the Logos of God. I came to that by asking: what if the gospel identified Jesus with the Logos so that an important explanation could be made about the Logos? In that sense, it's as John was saying “To show an example of what is possible” the Logos became flesh in Jesus.

So when I read John from that perspective, I started to see that what was expressed with that strange Greek term “logos” was “the formless, eternal essence” that is the basis of Creation. That way Jesus stands out as the one who was able to shed any identifying with the ego by finding his identity with the formless, eternal essence.
So in the very first chapter, vss. 3-4 express the eternal creative power by showing that through the Logos all things came into being. Then came the great connection between Logos, life, and light by expressing that what was created through the power of Logos had life and this life was the light of all people.

The Gospel then goes on to show Jesus identifying with the formless eternal essence of the Logos. That identifying then becomes the main theme of the entire Gospel. The portrayal shows Jesus being so far beyond any ego-identity that when he speaks “I” in a spiritual sense, he means his identity as the Logos, the creative power of God -- the life-giving power -- the light-bestowing power. In my last posting when I listed the famous “I am …” and “I will …” statements, it became obvious how he identified more with the formless eternal creative essence (the Logos) than identify with the mere non-eternal form of “Jesus.” So those “I” statements weren’t referring to the material Jesus but to the unlimited eternal essence.

Of course, this new realization changed my understanding of the statement that has caused a great deal of trouble over the centuries with Christianity’s relation with other religions. It seems to me that the trouble could be dealt with by seeing the statement from an open perspective rather than from an exclusivist perspective.

So we could understand that statement to mean “The formless, eternal essence is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through the formless, eternal essence.” That way the statement from Jesus becomes a universal statement rather than the previously thought of exclusive statement. So it’s not as though Jesus claimed that people can come to the way, the truth, and the life only by dedication to the material form of Jesus Christ; but instead, he was calling people to do what he did and identify ourselves with the formless, eternal essence.

He was calling people to get beyond any identification with ego as a controlling function, and he was making it possible for people to find their identity through their connection with the formless, eternal essence within.

Next when we read in Chapters 14-17 also the verses where Jesus gives agape to the disciples, we see him commanding that they share agape with one another. This was his way of showing how the spiritual power of agape is a Helper in the process of identifying with the formless, eternal essence that each person finds as their connection with God. There he was showing that a main spiritual purpose to the Logo’s work through Jesus was to bring God’s spiritual power of agape to people, and he made sure that it was working in the lives of his disciples.

By accepting that all those quotes refer to Jesus finding his identity more with the unlimited eternal essence than with any materially limited ego-identity -- then those “I” statements weren’t referring to the material Jesus but instead to the unlimited eternal essence. And I believe his will was for us to consider our identity with the formless, eternal essence, and not with any form of ego.

A New Look at John 1:1-14

During the last year, most of these blog postings have been about leaving “agape” untranslated. Lately, I’ve been thinking about other words from the original Greek New Testament that cannot be translated because modern English is such a spiritually weak language. Another obvious word is “Logos” from John 1:1-14.

I’ve always been bothered by the question: why did the author of that Gospel begin with a poem about that very strange Greek word “Logos”? After seeking the answer for a few decades, I’ve started to think that a possible reason is he wanted to make the point that his whole Gospel was about the Logos.

I’ve never been satisfied by all the regular explanations, speculating that the Logos poem was a little prelude that was put there to identify Jesus with the Logos; then the rest of the gospel was about Jesus. So recently, I started wondering: what if it was the other way around? What if John identified Jesus with the Logos so that an important explanation could be made about the Logos?

I reread the poem from that perspective, understanding that the point was to say, “This whole Gospel is about the Logos.” What was expressed there was the formless, eternal essence that is the basis of Creation. And so how in the world could we ever expect such a meaning of “the Logos” to fit into the translation of our common, everyday English “word.” That means the translators make a terrible mistake when they strip all the meaning of spiritual power from the Logos when they translate it as “word.” Of course, all interpreters have assumed that what was meant was the “Word of God.” But nowhere is that stated in the Greek; instead, if we leave it untranslated, we get the great faith statement: “The Logos was God.”

The opening of the Gospel of John takes us back to the very beginning of the Bible. “In the beginning was the Logos; the Logos was in God’s presence, and the Logos was God.” (the Anchor Bible) Of course, that reminded me of the great agape statement in 1 John: “We have known and have believed the agape that God has for us. God is agape, and those who remain in agape remain in God and God remains in them.” (1 Jn 4:16 Common English Bible) Of course, the statement would never have been made: “Agape is God.” That would have changed the meaning. But in John 1:1 we do have the statement, though, “The Logos was God.”

(The New Revised Standard Version translated the opening of the Bible not as “In the beginning was God;” but instead, they found that the ancient Hebrew expressed that more like, “In the beginning when God created ….”)

Vss. 3-4 express the eternal creative power by showing that through the Logos all things came into being. Then came the great connection between Logos, life, and light by expressing that what Logos created had life and this life was the light of all people.

And then came the identifying of the eternal creative power, the Logos, with Jesus. But the identifying was done in such a way that we see how Jesus had his identity with the formless eternal essence of the Logos. That then becomes the main theme of the entire Gospel. So that when Jesus speaks “I” in a spiritual sense he means his identity as the Logos, the creative power of God -- the life-giving power -- the light-bestowing power. That is how Jesus, as the Logos, was able to empower people to become God’s children, “begotten not by blood, nor by carnal desire, nor by man’s desire, but by God.” (vss. 12-13 Common English Bible)

In the famous “I am …” and “I will …” statements, Jesus was displaying that he identified more with the formless eternal creative essence (the Logos) than identify with the mere non-eternal form of “Jesus.” The first example came right after he sent the money changers out of the temple -- then when the religious authorities challenged him, he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I with raise it up.” (Jn. 2:19) Obviously, he wasn’t saying that the physical body of Jesus would rebuild the physical temple in 3 days. Instead, he was demonstrating his identity with the eternal creative power. And as such he was proclaiming the New Creation of a New Form of Temple.

Next, was with the Samaritan woman at the well, to whom he said, “Whoever drinks from the water I will give will never be thirsty again. The water I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that bubbles into eternal life.” (4:14) So he was identifying with the eternal creative essence (in other words, the Logos), and as such the Logos would bring a spiritual ‘water’ that leads any person who identifies with it to eternal life.

Then when the disciples asked him why he didn’t eat, he told them, “I am fed by doing the will of the One who sent me and by completing his work.” (4:34) Again, at that place, he wasn’t referring to the material body of “Jesus” but the eternal essence he identified with.

When he was challenged about working on the sabbath, he replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.” (5:17) And then to show the spiritual depth of the identity he was expressing, he said, “I don’t seek my own will but the will of the One who sent me.” (5:30)

In the remaining, famous “I am …” statements, I think he was demonstrating his identity with the formless eternal creative essence, and not with the material form of Jesus. But when he used the words “my own” or “my own will,” then he meant the material form of Jesus. Here is the list. “I am the bread of life.” (6:35) “I am the light of the world.” (8:12) “You are from below; I am from above. You are from this world; I am not from this world.” (8:23) “I haven’t come on my own; God sent me.” (8:42) “Before Abraham was, I Am.” (8:58) “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” (10:9) “I am the good shepherd.” (10:11) “This is why the Father loves me: I give up my life so that I may take it up again.” (10:17) “I give them eternal life. … I and the Father are one.” (10:28 & 30) “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” (11:25-26) “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father.” (14:6-7) “The Father who dwells in me does his works. Trust me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (14:10-11) “I will ask the Father, and he will send another Companion, who will be with you forever. This Companion is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world can’t receive because it neither sees him nor recognizes him. You know him, because he lives with you and will be with you.” (14:16-17)(14:19-20) “Because I live, you will live too. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, you are in me, and I am in you.” “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vineyard keeper. … Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches.” (15:1-5) “When Jesus finished saying these things, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son can glorify you. You gave him authority over everyone so that he could give eternal life to everyone you gave him. … I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one. I am in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one.” (17:1-2, 21-23)

Thus we can see that he was identifying with the formless, eternal essence (and not with the form of Jesus) when he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father.” So the “I” and the “me” referred to the Logos, not to Jesus. That’s why we should understand that statement to mean “The formless, eternal essence is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through the formless, eternal essence.”

Chapters 14-17 also contain the verses about the giving of agape to the disciples and about his commanding that they share agape with one another. For example, he prayed, “I’ve made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your agape for me will be in them, and I will be in them.” (17:26) There he was showing that a main spiritual purpose to the Logo’s work through Jesus was to bring God’s spiritual power of agape to people, and he made sure that it was working in the lives of his disciples.

By accepting that all those quotes refer to Jesus finding his identity more with the unlimited eternal essence than with any materially limited ego-identity -- then those “I” statements weren’t referring to the material Jesus but to the unlimited eternal essence. And I believe his will was for us to consider our identity with the formless, eternal essence, and not with any form of ego.

A New Look at 1 Corinthians 13

About a year ago (1/22, 23, and 28) I posted a study of 1 Corinthians 13. Since then my work with agape power has led me to even deeper insights into the radical message that Paul gave there. After all, the purpose of that chapter is Paul’s explanation of the strange new spiritual gift he called “agape.” (The chapter could not be about what is commonly meant as love, because he did not use any of the Greek common words for “love.” And anyway, he had no reason to explain love.)

We remember that Paul had just finished, in chapter 12, a list of spiritual gifts. So then he warned his readers that what he was going to show them next was unusual -- by saying, “Now I shall show you a still more excellent way.” (1 Corinthians 12:31 The Anchor Yale Bible, p. 474, 2008 Vol. 32) So what was this unusual religious innovation that he thought was so important he described it as a “more excellent way”?

Whenever approaching the shocking 13th chapt., I keep in mind Paul’s view of agape expressed in Rom. 5:5 -- “The agape of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” That helps us understand why he began the 13th chapt. by showing that he considered “agape” to be the greatest of all spiritual gifts that anyone can receive. He was using a spiritual explanation in those unusual verses. (Because I quoted extensively in the Jan., 2010, postings, I won’t repeat those Biblical quotes. And I don’t need to repeat my carefully explained evidence for leaving “agape” untranslated.)

First, he explained that other spiritual gifts were nothing without agape. He even explained that charity is most effective when done through the power of agape. After those comparisons, that would have upset the Corinthians, Paul was ready to lay out the details showing what agape power could do. But in an even more unusual method, he didn’t start by talking about what the transforming power of agape can do to us. Instead, he talked directly about what agape itself is.

He started that description by pointing out that agape is patient and kind. WHAT? So whatever that strange spiritual power is, patience and kindness are of the very essence of what it is. He seems to be saying this: the way agape's spiritual power works in a person and between persons in a faith community, it is patient and kind. What does that mean?

The King James Version uses the expression “suffereth long” instead of “patient.” That adds a new depth of meaning for all those people who wrongly want religion to guard them against suffering. So agape is the spiritual power found in suffering. That’s why Paul said that agape “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (vss. 4-7) What an amazing spiritual power!

So we have to look to what spiritually is the foundation of patience and kindness. In Galatians, when Paul concluded, “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25 Common English Bible) -- he was referring to what followers of Jesus Christ must do to 'crucify' the influence of any ego-identity.

Several verses later he said, “be guided by the Spirit and you won’t carry out your selfish desires." That’s when he gave the list: "The fruit of the Spirit is agape, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” (Gal. 16-23) Those “spiritual fruits” all go together. Of course, agape comes first, because its spiritual power opens us up to both God and to other people in such a way that what comes into our being is a profound sense of joyous well-being.

That deep spiritual sense allows us to accept other people in a life-affirming way that we become neither agitated with them nor attach any degree of importance to anything they may to do us. That's how we're able to live in a forgiving, merciful way. Even though we might think that is not humanly possible, with agape, all is possible.

Paul then explained more about agape when he then said that it helps us move beyond any ego-centric behavior. He seems to be saying that agape is our very witness that true spiritual power is on the side of patience, kindness, justice and truth -- and that it is against envy, conceit, judgementalness, self-righteousness, and all other results of ego-identity behavior.

Then he concluded that all the other spiritual gifts will eventually fail in their effectiveness, but agape will never fail. (vs. 8 Common English Bible) So, he then said he understood that we need agape in order to become fully mature in our spiritual development; otherwise, we remain childishly stunted in our growth in faith. And finally, even though we know that faith, hope, and agape abide to sustain us spiritually -- “the greatest of these is agape.” (vs. 13) Greater that faith and hope?!

Those statements would have bothered Greeks when they were read in the First Century. Those words show a new way for Christians to develop spiritually. (So, again, we lose that shocking, new, powerful quality if we just translate “agape” with our English word “love.” But by leaving the word as Paul wanted it, we are better able to see what he was showing us.)

When we hear the way Paul explained agape in that chapter, then we know we are dealing with the basis for a new faith discipline that motivates us to look for a spiritual training that will help us live fully through the power of God. Paul was telling his generation, and all generations since then, to expect that when we open ourselves to the power of agape, we will find it to be patient, kind, non-judgmental, and not ego-inflating.

That seems to mean to me that God will not force agape on us, so each of has to be completely willing to open our heart -- but also that agape will eternally be there for us. Even though agape is the most important power that God has for us, we have to freely accept the gift and use it or else it will mean nothing to us -- and our lives will amount to nothing until we are willing to work with that all-important spiritual power.

Later on, near the end of that epistle, Paul said, “Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong. Everything should be done in agape.” (16:14 Common English Bible) That’s how he thought of the total influence of agape -- that we should use agape to do everything that we do in life.

It is that spiritual power of agape that brings to the center of our being the peace that is the spiritual power of patience itself; the spiritual strength of kindness; the wise rejoicing in the truth; and the basis of such a profound compassion that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”