Agape teachings throughout John

When I re-read that listing of scriptures, I was struck by how much the ‘agape’ passages from the Gospel According to John served as the basis underlying all the teachings there.

That thought, of course, especially came to me from the place in the ‘Last Supper’ section where Jesus is giving his final instructions about the importance of agape. He told them that they would be known by how much other people saw agape coming through their actions. (I understand those verses to mean, “Share agape with each other. Just as I have shared agape with you, so you also must share agape with each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you share agape with each other.” (Jn. 13:34-35)) In other words, as I mentioned in a previous posting, their identity as a faith community is based on how alive the flowing of God’s agape is among them.

So, keeping that in mind, I went through the rest of the Gospel. What follows is what I learned.

The first time ‘agape’ is used in John is in the famous 3:16 verse. The implication is that the power of God’s agape to bring eternal Life was made possible through the work of Christ.

To me that implication is extended into the incident with the Samaritan woman at the well. So (especially where he invoked eternal Life (4:14)), I can’t help but think that Jesus was using the image of living water to refer to agape, because the whole incident is an illustration of Jesus using the influence of agape to overcome that ancient hatred that existed between Judaeans and Samaritans. The incident also illustrated Jesus overcoming the old custom of a woman not being allowed to speak alone to a man in public. So that account’s image of living water pointed to the power of agape to overcome hatreds and prejudices.

At another place I think reference is made to the eternal Life power of agape, when Jesus says, “What the Father does, the Son does. For the Father agapao the Son and shows him all his works, and will show greater yet, to fill you with wonder. … so the Son gives Life to people, as he determines.” (Jn. 5:20-21 NEB)

At another place the transformational power of agape is discussed in the difficult verses from 12:24-25, where we see that it is a misuse of agape to try clinging to the old ego-identity self. Instead, a person must turn away from the worldly definition of identity and use agape’s power of eternal Life to form a new identity.

When we get to the ‘Last Supper’ section, Jesus starts his final teachings by saying, “I give you a new commandment: share agape with one another; as I have shared agape with you, then all will know that you are my disciples.” (13:34-35)

To me it seems that Ch. 14 is an extended teaching about the meaning of agape, and when the translation correction is made -- to leave ‘agape’ intact, where it was meant to be -- then the spiritual meaning becomes clear. This is especially obvious when we take into consideration the way 14:15-17, 23-26 link agape with the Holy Spirit, and then 15:9-13 talks about agape dwelling in his followers in such a way that God’s Spirit dwells in them.

When Jesus called them to a future of remaining in his agape, he commanded them to live by agape so that they would become increasingly more aware of God’s power with them.  Today, people who want to follow the teachings of Jesus, need to see themselves as also being under that commandment. But of course, agape only becomes a fully functioning, strong influence on life when it is recognized.