I ended my Agape Prayer book with the following statement:
“The basis of the spiritual meaning of agape comes down to the powerful conclusion in the First Letter of John. “No one has ever seen God. If we share agape with each other, God remains in us and God’s agape is made perfect in us.” (1 Jn. 4:12 CEB) “Let’s share agape with each other, because agape is from God, and everyone who shares agape is born from God, and knows God. The person who doesn’t share agape 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)
“And when we look back 2000 years, we see that so many people had lost all hope in experiencing a connection with God that Paul wrote his great message of hope that God poured agape into our heart through the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 5:5) So it is by means of giving us agape that we experience being intimate with divine Presence. In a similar way, as I look at the period of massive change of our age, and as I see so many people struggling to find hope, I agree with Paul that there is hope in the spreading of spiritual agape. That spread helps reduce the violence and destructiveness we hear about around the world. And so a new era of history is dawning.”
One of the main conclusions I came to through all my work with agape has to do with its universal human commonality. That allowed me to take another, deeper look at the writings of Paul. I began to see that even though his work resulted in people coming together to support one another, I don’t think he saw his work as starting a new religion. Instead, I think he believed he was opening up the teachings of Christ to all people. It was the social conditions of generations after his time that forced the organizing of protectionist exclusivism.
Paul came to the great realization of agape being poured into people’s hearts as part of his hope for all people. So I have come to see agape as of the essence of the created being. The profound awareness that comes when agape is allowed to work in a person’s life leads to the realization that it is found everywhere, in the heart-center of all people.
So agape is not confined to Christians. I think that Christians would make a terrible mistake if we get to thinking that somehow agape is only for Christians. Even though the Christians of the First Century arrived at a historical breakthrough in recognizing agape, that was not just for Christians. It was only in later centuries that some people began to try controlling agape power so that only certain people could have access to it.
