The Gospel of Agapé

I’ve based this whole blog on my belief that the Greek word “agapé” was very important for the beginning of Christianity. But then something went wrong. Finally, after being mistakenly downplayed for several centuries, its importance was rediscovered in the late 19th Century.
The spiritual power represented by that word was crucial to both St. Paul and the Gospel According to John. Even though when those parts of the New Testament were first translated into English and became the origin of the new word ‘charity,’ for almost 2 centuries subsequent English versions mistranslated ‘agapé’ as ‘love.’ When this mistake began to be recognized in the 20th Century, its true spiritual power began to be realized. Finally, the breakthrough came when ‘agape’ was left untranslated in English versions — then the meaning of John’s Gospel gained greater power.

When I look back into the Gospel According to John, I’m struck by the way it’s organized by circles of themes. It becomes possible to open to any place in the gospel and find that the theme being presented there will eventually circle through other themes and come back.

So I began to wonder if there was one of those many themes that served as a center about which all the other themes circled. Over the decades that I’ve looked into that gospel, I’ve begun to think that all the themes were built from key Greek words (remembering, of course, that the Gospel of John was originally written in Greek).

So it’s not surprising that I think the central theme for that gospel is agapé. That theme then stands out as so important that I think it is the central organizing theme about which all the other themes circle. The central presentation of that theme came in the Last Supper scene in chapters 13-17. Those chapters contain the final teachings that Jesus was giving his disciples. I can’t help but think he was telling them to listen to his summing up of his whole ministry. So, of course, the theme there is the importance of agapé to all that he had been doing the whole time they were with him.

Ch. 13 starts with a demonstration of a change that agapé brings to society’s view of relationships. That demonstration was washing his disciples’ feet. It shocked the disciples! He was showing how society’s view of relationships needed to be turned upside down. And the power of agapé would do just that. And Jesus tells them they are to do for each other what he has done for them both in that demonstration and throughout his whole ministry.

Then the chapter moves to Judas going out to betray his master. After Jesus reflects on what that betrayal means to his great work, Jesus says, “Now I will give you a new commandment.” By leaving ‘agapé’ untranslated into English, so as not to diminish its spiritual meaning with the word ‘love,’ we have the new commandment in these words, “Share agapé with each other as I have shared agapé with you. So you must share agapé with each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you show agapé with each other.”

He was telling them — that’s what it’s all about! That’s the central theme of everything Jesus did. So agapé is the basis of their identity as his disciples. (Then in Ch. 14 there is a statement that doesn’t translate very well into English, and so people have not understand the full spiritual impact of it.) Vs. 15 expresses the way the spiritual power of agapé actually helps human beings live by that new commandment.

Many years earlier in my life, before I understood that the English word ‘love’ was not the right translation of ‘agapé,’ I couldn’t understand what Jesus meant by calling that a NEW commandment. What was new about it? Wasn’t it just the ancient commandment from the Book of Leviticus that got translated into English as “Love your neighbor as yourself”? But of course, the “new” aspect only becomes clear when we use the Greek word ‘agapé.’ And that gains its full meaning when we understand agapé as a spiritual power. That’s why Paul could say that its divine power had been poured into our heart by the Holy Spirit.

And so the very next verse (Jn. 14:16) talks about God sending more spiritual power as the disciples continue to live by agapé. (A few verses later he concludes with another statement that is a little clumsy when we try to translate it into English.) Vs. 21 could be a little clearer when agapé is left untranslated: “Whoever continues in my agapé will receive agapé from my Father, and I will continue showing agapé to them and reveal myself to them.” I think he meant increased agapé from the Father — the more agapé is shared, the more it’s increased in people’s living, the more its divine power is received.

Another awkward phrasing is in 15:9-12: “As the Father has shared agapé with me, so I have shared agapé with you. Remain on in my agapé. And you will remain in my agapé if you keep my commandments, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in His agapé. I have said this to you that my joy may be yours and your joy may be fulfilled. This is my commandment: share agapé with one another as I have shared agapé with you.”

Those verses also show the connection between true joy and agapé. For it is the spiritual power of agapé that brings a person into deep joy as a person lives by the power of agapé. 

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.