I’ve been thinking about other Biblical expressions that have caused as much translation confusion as ‘agape’ has. The expression that usually has gotten translated as “the kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of heaven” has caused probably as much confusion over the centuries as any.
The major cause of confusion for us in the 21st Century is expressed with the question: how in the world could we in America find meaning in “the Kingdom of God?” To answer such a far-reaching question, the important point to tackle first is to try figuring out what Jesus meant when he used the expression. That task is not at all an easy, straight-forward one. Usually studies of “the kingdom of God” start with the messianic meaning, but that doesn’t help us deal with the meaning Jesus gave because most of the time what he said just didn’t jive with the standard messianic meaning.
The confusion with the messianic meaning starts with the popular belief about the long-hoped-for age when a messiah would be sent from God to free the Jewish people from all oppression from foreign powers. In the century after Christianity began, a man did come along who laid claim to be such a messiah. But of course, that only ended up provoking the Roman Empire to totally devastate the Holy Land, including destroying Jerusalem and the temple. Christians did not participate in that rebellion because by then they had figured out that Jesus did not talk about that popular messianic meaning.
Now, there is a sad reason behind that desperate desire felt by so many people in the century during which Jesus was preaching. We need to always remember that those were terrifying times of violence and oppression. So there was widespread longing for a messiah to put an end to such agonizing suffering. According to that longing, the expression “kingdom of God” meant the time when the New Age would begin, bringing an end to all the violence and oppression.
There are two reasons why I think Jesus couldn’t have meant that. The first is that never happened. Secondly, can anyone honestly see Jesus advocating a military meaning? So that’s not a good place to start studying what Jesus meant by “the kingdom of God.”
But if we start from a different point to look at the way Jesus used the expression, we get a different slant. For example, what happens if we start with the parables? Also we get a different slant if we start when the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, and he said, “God’s kingdom isn’t coming with signs that are easily noticed; nor will people say, ‘Look here it is’ or ‘There it is!’ Don’t you see? God’s kingdom is already among you.” (Luke 17:21-22 Common English Bible) ALREADY! Or what could he have meant in the famous Beatitude from the Sermon on the Mount when he said, “Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs”? (Mt. 5:10 Common English Bible) You see, he didn’t say that the kingdom “will be” theirs, but he said it “is” theirs.
Or what happens to the time schedule with the statement: “I assure you that some standing here won’t die before they see God’s kingdom arrive in power.”? (Mk. 9:1 Common English Bible) Does that mean that the kingdom of God came into power 2,000 years ago? And if that is the actual meaning, then with what kind of “power” did the kingdom arrive? Obviously it could not have been the materialistic power that everyone else at that time expected, because that did not happen -- not only did Jesus not kick the Romans and the Greeks out of the Holy Land; but instead, the Roman army swept through the land, burning and destroying everything in their way, including Jerusalem and the Temple. So what was that power that Jesus spoke about? If not physical power (which clearly it was not), then what?
That’s the question I’ve been trying to answer for many years. Well, I think Paul was trying to find the answer to the same question. And I think he began to find that power -- in the experience of Spirit that he started calling “agape.” Clearly, Jesus and Paul were talking about spiritual power. It is only from such an awareness that we can possibly make sense of the “kingdom parables.”
So take the parable that everyone thinks is very understandable -- about the mustard seed. “What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? … Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth, but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.” (Mk 4:30-32 Common English Bible) Okay, so what in the world did that mean? Years ago I thought it was a parable about starting a new religion, but I no longer think that Jesus wanted to start a new religion. Obviously, the image in that parable was not what most people wanted to hear about the great messianic age.
Most of the desperate, suffering people at the time of Jesus wanted God to come crashing into history with a messiah leading an army of fiery angels to quickly save them from their oppressive enemies. That’s what salvation meant to them! But they sure didn’t want a messiah who quietly, slowly, obscurely comes as a weak little baby, born out back in a stable, to a lowly carpenter’s wife from a little town of the northern region of their country. And they sure didn’t want someone who tries to compare the great kingdom of God to a lowly, little seed -- even though it may eventually (slowly) grow into a giant bush.
So if Jesus was bringing an entirely new understanding of the “kingdom of God,” then what did he mean? If we take his many comments about seeds and growing, along with the parable of leaven, and put them beside Paul’s description of God’s agape in Rom. 5:5; then we see a very good description of the spiritual life of those people who are able to pay attention to the way God wakes us up.
What do most people with a strong spiritual life say when they reflect back on the beginning of their faith journey? All of us respond with a description that sounds a lot like a seed being planted. And the influence of God’s Presence in our lives is like something that grows up from the depths of our being to slowly take over our whole perspective on Life -- and in that gradual process, completely change our whole perspective on Life.
That means that Jesus brought a spiritual understanding of the “kingdom of God.”
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Agape as Access to God’s Presence
Exactly a year ago, while I was praying about Paul’s use of “agape” (especially in Romans 5:5). I was inspired to understand that God gives the spiritual power of agape into our hearts as our way to open us up and have access to God’s Presence. What an exciting and inspirational 12 months have unfolded from that morning’s spiritual breakthrough. Of course, this blog was one of the results.
But these 12 months did not come about without a great deal of preparation. During the last several years of deeply opening up and realizing how God’s agape works in my life, I’ve discovered that there is spiritual power involved with agape that far surpasses anything that is meant by the word ‘love.’
One expression of that discovery was in my last posting when I explored the realization that Paul used a form of the Greek words for “love” as a metaphor to understand the spiritual power he experienced. I think he relied on a metaphor because our minds seem to need to use metaphors to understand Biblical truths. The reality that he tried to express with the strange word ‘agape’ was so powerful, and yet so essential to a his growth in faith, that he needed to help people understand it.
So Paul expressed that spiritual power with a word for an intense, intimate way of relating. In doing that he was very careful not to use the normal word for love. So I think he recognized that any of the usual words the Greeks used for love all fell very far short of the spiritual power he experienced. But he still needed a word that expressed intimacy, affection, and caring. But I think he saw that he would need to add meaning in order to express total, complete acceptance, support, and commitment -- without the beloved needing to fulfill any conditions -- and that means ANY condition at all. We remember how he explained in 1 Cor. 13:4, that would require the highest degree of patience and kindness. He was reflecting what Jesus had meant when he explained that we would need a depth of willingness to forgive such that the beloved could wrong you not just seven times but seventy-seven times (Mt. 18:22) -- and yet forgiveness is still granted.
I think also that Paul understood that a profound degree of spiritual development would be needed in order know God’s agape in our lives. Only a profound walk with God can begin to truly, deeply understand what happens when God opens us up with agape and uses agape to draw us into a close experience of Presence.
The other great insight that Paul learned from Christ’s spirit in his life involved actions toward other people. God’s agape not only opened us to divine Presence, but also agape opened us up to loving relations with those around us. What an insight into its double power! Through giving agape to humans, God makes it possible for us to be able to find the profound level of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. And Paul knew a sad lesson too well from personal experience with people -- that such a way of relating does not come from normal human living. Only the power of God’s Presence can transform a human life to perform such profound actions.
So following Paul’s advice for our lives, we desperately need God’s agape in our living.
But these 12 months did not come about without a great deal of preparation. During the last several years of deeply opening up and realizing how God’s agape works in my life, I’ve discovered that there is spiritual power involved with agape that far surpasses anything that is meant by the word ‘love.’
One expression of that discovery was in my last posting when I explored the realization that Paul used a form of the Greek words for “love” as a metaphor to understand the spiritual power he experienced. I think he relied on a metaphor because our minds seem to need to use metaphors to understand Biblical truths. The reality that he tried to express with the strange word ‘agape’ was so powerful, and yet so essential to a his growth in faith, that he needed to help people understand it.
So Paul expressed that spiritual power with a word for an intense, intimate way of relating. In doing that he was very careful not to use the normal word for love. So I think he recognized that any of the usual words the Greeks used for love all fell very far short of the spiritual power he experienced. But he still needed a word that expressed intimacy, affection, and caring. But I think he saw that he would need to add meaning in order to express total, complete acceptance, support, and commitment -- without the beloved needing to fulfill any conditions -- and that means ANY condition at all. We remember how he explained in 1 Cor. 13:4, that would require the highest degree of patience and kindness. He was reflecting what Jesus had meant when he explained that we would need a depth of willingness to forgive such that the beloved could wrong you not just seven times but seventy-seven times (Mt. 18:22) -- and yet forgiveness is still granted.
I think also that Paul understood that a profound degree of spiritual development would be needed in order know God’s agape in our lives. Only a profound walk with God can begin to truly, deeply understand what happens when God opens us up with agape and uses agape to draw us into a close experience of Presence.
The other great insight that Paul learned from Christ’s spirit in his life involved actions toward other people. God’s agape not only opened us to divine Presence, but also agape opened us up to loving relations with those around us. What an insight into its double power! Through giving agape to humans, God makes it possible for us to be able to find the profound level of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. And Paul knew a sad lesson too well from personal experience with people -- that such a way of relating does not come from normal human living. Only the power of God’s Presence can transform a human life to perform such profound actions.
So following Paul’s advice for our lives, we desperately need God’s agape in our living.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
How does “Love” help us understand Agape?
In a few of my blog postings I’ve mentioned praying about Paul’s use of “agape.” During the last several years of deeply seeking God’s agape for my life, I’ve discovered that the search has opened my life to amazing changes, including deepening and expanding my perspective on the religious meaning of love.
Finally in just the last few weeks, the realization hit me that in the Greek version of the New Testament “love” is used as a metaphor. Of course, there are many metaphors used throughout the Bible to help people deal with profound wisdom. Metaphors need to be used because our minds cannot grasp such wisdom in any ‘straight forward’ approach. For example, we remember that a few metaphors used to try expressing what God means for human living are “light,” “air/wind/storm,” “water/rain,” “fire” and “smoke.” Of course, no one would confuse any of those with the Reality of God.
Unfortunately, some metaphors have actually brought about confusion. For example, many people were led into the mistake of imagining God in human form because of the use of metaphors such as “father” and “mother.” So we need to constantly keep in mind that they are merely metaphors and all such metaphors fall far short of the ineffable reality they are trying to reference.
But our minds seem to need to use metaphors to understand Biblical truths. This has become especially the case for agape. The reality that we try to express with the strange word ‘agape’ is so powerful, and yet so essential to a person’s growth in faith, that over the centuries people have used a couple of metaphors to try understanding it. The 2 main metaphors are “love” and “charity.” Unfortunately, most people have so completely confused the metaphor with the reality, that they made the mistake of thinking agape is ‘love.’
This is nowhere more confusing than in modern translations of the New Testament. That is similar to the confusion caused by taking Jesus’ use of ‘abba’ and translating it as ‘father.’ So it is absolutely critical to remember the difference between the metaphor and the reality to which the metaphor refers.
The normal English word ‘love’ is just not what is meant by God’s Agape. But that English word can help give us some metaphorical understanding. The use of ‘love’ as a metaphor means we form an understanding by looking at that intense, intimate way of relating. And then we use that to bring a meaningful depth and concern to life.
So what “love” helps us understand is that by giving us agape, God opens the guarded heart through intense, intimate relating in such a way that the person who responds to that will experience something like acceptance, support, caring, and even affection that is more profound than is possible in any other way.
Of course, as everyone says when commenting about using ‘love’ to understand agape, it has to be “the highest form of love.”
So what do they all mean by “the highest form?” Isn’t that merely admitting that the normal meaning of love falls very far short of the job of helping understand agape? So what does help? Well, the closest anyone seems to have gotten is the unusual modern concept of “unconditional love.” (Of course, we need to remember that “unconditional love” is not a Biblical phrase.)
What in the world could possibly be meant by “unconditional love”? That must be intimacy, affection, and caring beyond any of the conditions that humans place on relationships. So it would have to mean total, complete acceptance, support, and commitment without the beloved needing to fulfill any conditions -- and that means ANY condition at all.
So that kind of love would have to be given to the beloved no matter what the beloved does or is (even if that could be given to an enemy [Mt. 5:44; Lk. 6:27, 35; Rom. 12:14-13:10]) -- in other words, giving beyond human endurance. And, as Paul explained in 1 Cor. 13:4, that would require the highest degree of patience and kindness. There would need to be a depth of willingness to forgive such that the beloved could wrong you not just seven times but seventy-seven times (Mt. 18:22) -- and yet forgiveness is still granted.
So of course, the question has to be asked of “unconditional love:” is it really humanly possible? Now, just imagine what profound degree of spiritual development would be needed in order to answer such a question. Only a profound walk with God over many years can begin to truly, deeply understand that what is not possible for a human is possible for God.
Now, what if the answer is this: “unconditional love” is only a metaphor to be used in order to begin to understand God’s agape? So… through giving agape to humans, God makes it possible for us to be able to find the profound level of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. Only God could make that possible. And agape is how God does it.
Finally in just the last few weeks, the realization hit me that in the Greek version of the New Testament “love” is used as a metaphor. Of course, there are many metaphors used throughout the Bible to help people deal with profound wisdom. Metaphors need to be used because our minds cannot grasp such wisdom in any ‘straight forward’ approach. For example, we remember that a few metaphors used to try expressing what God means for human living are “light,” “air/wind/storm,” “water/rain,” “fire” and “smoke.” Of course, no one would confuse any of those with the Reality of God.
Unfortunately, some metaphors have actually brought about confusion. For example, many people were led into the mistake of imagining God in human form because of the use of metaphors such as “father” and “mother.” So we need to constantly keep in mind that they are merely metaphors and all such metaphors fall far short of the ineffable reality they are trying to reference.
But our minds seem to need to use metaphors to understand Biblical truths. This has become especially the case for agape. The reality that we try to express with the strange word ‘agape’ is so powerful, and yet so essential to a person’s growth in faith, that over the centuries people have used a couple of metaphors to try understanding it. The 2 main metaphors are “love” and “charity.” Unfortunately, most people have so completely confused the metaphor with the reality, that they made the mistake of thinking agape is ‘love.’
This is nowhere more confusing than in modern translations of the New Testament. That is similar to the confusion caused by taking Jesus’ use of ‘abba’ and translating it as ‘father.’ So it is absolutely critical to remember the difference between the metaphor and the reality to which the metaphor refers.
The normal English word ‘love’ is just not what is meant by God’s Agape. But that English word can help give us some metaphorical understanding. The use of ‘love’ as a metaphor means we form an understanding by looking at that intense, intimate way of relating. And then we use that to bring a meaningful depth and concern to life.
So what “love” helps us understand is that by giving us agape, God opens the guarded heart through intense, intimate relating in such a way that the person who responds to that will experience something like acceptance, support, caring, and even affection that is more profound than is possible in any other way.
Of course, as everyone says when commenting about using ‘love’ to understand agape, it has to be “the highest form of love.”
So what do they all mean by “the highest form?” Isn’t that merely admitting that the normal meaning of love falls very far short of the job of helping understand agape? So what does help? Well, the closest anyone seems to have gotten is the unusual modern concept of “unconditional love.” (Of course, we need to remember that “unconditional love” is not a Biblical phrase.)
What in the world could possibly be meant by “unconditional love”? That must be intimacy, affection, and caring beyond any of the conditions that humans place on relationships. So it would have to mean total, complete acceptance, support, and commitment without the beloved needing to fulfill any conditions -- and that means ANY condition at all.
So that kind of love would have to be given to the beloved no matter what the beloved does or is (even if that could be given to an enemy [Mt. 5:44; Lk. 6:27, 35; Rom. 12:14-13:10]) -- in other words, giving beyond human endurance. And, as Paul explained in 1 Cor. 13:4, that would require the highest degree of patience and kindness. There would need to be a depth of willingness to forgive such that the beloved could wrong you not just seven times but seventy-seven times (Mt. 18:22) -- and yet forgiveness is still granted.
So of course, the question has to be asked of “unconditional love:” is it really humanly possible? Now, just imagine what profound degree of spiritual development would be needed in order to answer such a question. Only a profound walk with God over many years can begin to truly, deeply understand that what is not possible for a human is possible for God.
Now, what if the answer is this: “unconditional love” is only a metaphor to be used in order to begin to understand God’s agape? So… through giving agape to humans, God makes it possible for us to be able to find the profound level of intimate, intense affection such that we can give full acceptance and mutual respect to everyone around us. Only God could make that possible. And agape is how God does it.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Lighten Up, People
The last several years of political campaigns have left me so disappointed in the way various religious groups have let themselves get suckered by politicians. Such partisan maneuverings have caused such sad divisions between people of religions; and then the news media can use such stupid categories as ‘the religious right’ and ‘the religious left.’ And of course, all of this has led religious leaders to take themselves too seriously and start claiming that only certain partisan political positions are ‘religious’ and then claiming that positions they disagree with are threats to religion. All that makes me want to say, “Lighten up, people.”
Anyway, deep Truth is so far beyond anything any modern partisan group could come up with that it is laughable to think they could claim spiritual insight only for themselves. Of course, it is important and commendable for political groups to keep trying to function by values that are spiritually inspired.
The word ‘light’ in the Gospels often had at least 3 different meanings. Most of the time, of course, it was a metaphor for spiritual illumination (or in other religions: enlightenment). Other times, light referred to showing the way. But sometimes it meant easy or ease up. When used in such a light-hearted way, Jesus was bringing joy into situations to try to lift people’s spirits (or lighten their load in life) so that they weren’t so negatively serious.
Too often over the last 2,000 years interpretations have missed the spiritual deep joy that Jesus brought into the world. Of course, that joy is easily missed because of the destructiveness, corruption, repressiveness, and violence of so much of history, especially the period of history into which Jesus was born. And of course, that joy has been missed also by many Christians because, unfortunately, they misguidedly allowed destruction, corruption, repression, and violence to happen in the name of religion.
When I read the words of Jesus, I like to keep clearly in mind the modern slang expression: “Lighten up, people.” When he looked out at the faces of a large audience, we can imagine Jesus seeing so many sad, suffering, disheartened, and yet expectant expressions -- the words that usually are translated “You are the light of the world,” might be translated today as “Lighten up, people.” The newly published Common English Bible translates Mt. 5:3 at “Happy are people who are downcast, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” That makes me think that Jesus was using the messianic expression “kingdom of heaven” in a completely new, joyful way -- giving it his own, radically new, interpretation. Of course, his completely new interpretation was not at all what people expected, then and in every century since then.
Isn’t that what he meant when Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.” (Mt. 11:28-30, Common English Bible) Lighten up, people!
Near the end of the Gospel of John, in the prayer of Jesus for his followers, we read: “I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” (John 17: 13, New International Version) It is that special spiritual joy that Jesus brought into the world that was included in the New Great Commandment which was meant to have agape left in its original spiritual form so that it would read: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Have [agape] for each other as I have had [agape] for you. Greater [agape] has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:11-13 New International Version)
There is no better place in the New Testament for showing the link between joy and agape than that section of John. Let God’s agape lighten you up, people!
Anyway, deep Truth is so far beyond anything any modern partisan group could come up with that it is laughable to think they could claim spiritual insight only for themselves. Of course, it is important and commendable for political groups to keep trying to function by values that are spiritually inspired.
The word ‘light’ in the Gospels often had at least 3 different meanings. Most of the time, of course, it was a metaphor for spiritual illumination (or in other religions: enlightenment). Other times, light referred to showing the way. But sometimes it meant easy or ease up. When used in such a light-hearted way, Jesus was bringing joy into situations to try to lift people’s spirits (or lighten their load in life) so that they weren’t so negatively serious.
Too often over the last 2,000 years interpretations have missed the spiritual deep joy that Jesus brought into the world. Of course, that joy is easily missed because of the destructiveness, corruption, repressiveness, and violence of so much of history, especially the period of history into which Jesus was born. And of course, that joy has been missed also by many Christians because, unfortunately, they misguidedly allowed destruction, corruption, repression, and violence to happen in the name of religion.
When I read the words of Jesus, I like to keep clearly in mind the modern slang expression: “Lighten up, people.” When he looked out at the faces of a large audience, we can imagine Jesus seeing so many sad, suffering, disheartened, and yet expectant expressions -- the words that usually are translated “You are the light of the world,” might be translated today as “Lighten up, people.” The newly published Common English Bible translates Mt. 5:3 at “Happy are people who are downcast, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” That makes me think that Jesus was using the messianic expression “kingdom of heaven” in a completely new, joyful way -- giving it his own, radically new, interpretation. Of course, his completely new interpretation was not at all what people expected, then and in every century since then.
Isn’t that what he meant when Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.” (Mt. 11:28-30, Common English Bible) Lighten up, people!
Near the end of the Gospel of John, in the prayer of Jesus for his followers, we read: “I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” (John 17: 13, New International Version) It is that special spiritual joy that Jesus brought into the world that was included in the New Great Commandment which was meant to have agape left in its original spiritual form so that it would read: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Have [agape] for each other as I have had [agape] for you. Greater [agape] has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:11-13 New International Version)
There is no better place in the New Testament for showing the link between joy and agape than that section of John. Let God’s agape lighten you up, people!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Centering on Agape
Every morning I’ve been doing a practice near the beginning of my morning prayers when I pray to become ‘centered’ on agape. This practice began as I used Romans 5:5 to start. I pray: May “God’s agape pour into the center of my being thru the Holy Spirit.” That prayer helps me let God’s agape open me to access God’s Presence.
What such a prayer practice means to me is
[1st] accepting agape-flow into 'the center of my being' (in ancient Greek, ‘the heart’);
[2nd] meditating on the way agape opens me to the Presence of the Holy Spirit over me, under me, around me, and thru me -- as I open to both the intimacy and the vastness of Presence.
I’ve found this to be very helpful for my spiritual development. Thru that practice I’ve slowly been able to ‘sense’ Presence permeating my being and in the next moment I ‘sense’ a deep, vast silence. As I wait upon that ‘deep, vast silence’ I gain a sense of divine Presence throughout that ‘silence’ -- in that way it’s not silence in the normal meaning of that word -- in the same way this practice has led me to realize that agape is not love in the normal meaning of that word. Then as God's agape opens me to the vastness of silent Presence, I 'sense' the spiritual connection that agape gives me with God.
Now, of course that is just the beginning of the wonder that agape brings to me. Thru that practice I have found deeper insight into Paul's conclusion that agape brings patience and kindness [1 Cor. 13: 4]. Of course, I call it “just the beginning” because I have become more sensitive to how very far I am from fully accepting agape’s patience and kindness into the everyday actions of my daily life.
I guess the most common example of my lack of progress is the way I lose patience with my grandson when he gets on my nerves and frustrates me. The need to keep working on gaining patience to handle such frustrations is one of the reasons why I talk about centering my life on agape.
It is not enough to center on agape in the moment of deep prayer, accepting God’s agape pouring into the center of one’s being; but also it’s necessary to center one’s life in God’s agape. That's needed in order for agape to work in the daily relationships and the daily times of need and struggle. That’s how we find the strength, patience, kindness, and joy of God’s agape flowing into action in our living.
But it is exactly in finding such effectiveness of agape’s help that we find our closeness to God’s Presence.
What such a prayer practice means to me is
[1st] accepting agape-flow into 'the center of my being' (in ancient Greek, ‘the heart’);
[2nd] meditating on the way agape opens me to the Presence of the Holy Spirit over me, under me, around me, and thru me -- as I open to both the intimacy and the vastness of Presence.
I’ve found this to be very helpful for my spiritual development. Thru that practice I’ve slowly been able to ‘sense’ Presence permeating my being and in the next moment I ‘sense’ a deep, vast silence. As I wait upon that ‘deep, vast silence’ I gain a sense of divine Presence throughout that ‘silence’ -- in that way it’s not silence in the normal meaning of that word -- in the same way this practice has led me to realize that agape is not love in the normal meaning of that word. Then as God's agape opens me to the vastness of silent Presence, I 'sense' the spiritual connection that agape gives me with God.
Now, of course that is just the beginning of the wonder that agape brings to me. Thru that practice I have found deeper insight into Paul's conclusion that agape brings patience and kindness [1 Cor. 13: 4]. Of course, I call it “just the beginning” because I have become more sensitive to how very far I am from fully accepting agape’s patience and kindness into the everyday actions of my daily life.
I guess the most common example of my lack of progress is the way I lose patience with my grandson when he gets on my nerves and frustrates me. The need to keep working on gaining patience to handle such frustrations is one of the reasons why I talk about centering my life on agape.
It is not enough to center on agape in the moment of deep prayer, accepting God’s agape pouring into the center of one’s being; but also it’s necessary to center one’s life in God’s agape. That's needed in order for agape to work in the daily relationships and the daily times of need and struggle. That’s how we find the strength, patience, kindness, and joy of God’s agape flowing into action in our living.
But it is exactly in finding such effectiveness of agape’s help that we find our closeness to God’s Presence.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
The Mistake of calling AGAPE ‘Love’
There are two major problems with translating spiritual ‘agape’ with the ordinary English word ‘love.’ So far in this blog I’ve only focused on the first -- that is, because Paul purposely chose not to use the ordinary Greek word for love, his meaning is corrupted if we translate what he wrote with our ordinary word for love.
Of course, a few centuries ago, translators tried using words like ‘charity’ and ‘loving-kindness.’ But neither of those words carries the spiritual meaning that Paul gave to agape when he referred to 'God's agape.' We can never begin to see what Paul was meaning without the sense of spiritual.
The second major problem is much, much worse. It happens when ‘love’ gets wrongly used to imagine God in our image. That happens when we think that God loves just like humans love.
And that is the problem with applying our ordinary word for love to divine action. All kinds of wrongful thinking comes from doing that. For example, in popularized religious groups, God is expected to love us in the ordinary way that humans love each other. That pushes them to fall into the mistake of pseudo-religious thinking that God is somehow a "super-powerful Man-in-the-clouds" who has to always protect us when we strictly follow a bunch of rules and regulations.
Such a mistaken image of God pictures this Being-up-in-the-clouds showering down love into us like rain. That’s why popularized pseudo-religion has set up a false system of rewards and punishments. Of course, that has led to the unfortunate state of affairs causing untold numbers of people to ‘lose their faith’ -- because life just doesn't work that way.
But of course, that is not at all what Jesus meant. In the Greek translation we see that clearly when a spiritual form of agape is used instead of ever using the Greek word for love (eros, philia, storge) applied to God.
Of course, where that truth stands out so starkly is when we finally get to 1 John 4:8. No First-Century Christian would have ever said, “God is eros;” or “God is philia.” That would have been turning God into human love. Something very different was meant when that verse proclaimed that "God is agape." But in the modern world that tragic error can be made when ‘agape’ is translated as ‘love.’
But we can gain better insight by quoting 1 John 4:7-12 -- leaving in agape, agapeo, and agapan where they were meant to be -- “Dear friends, let’s agapeo each other, because agape is from God, and everyone who agapeo is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t agapeo does not know God, because God is agape. This is how the agape of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. This is agape: it is not that we agapeo God but that God agapan us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins. Dear friends, if God agapan us this way, we also ought to agapeo each other. No one has ever seen God. If we have agape for each other, God remains in us and God’s agape is made perfect in us.” (Common English Bible)
So we can see, that during the developing process of spiritual understanding in the Early Church in the first century, Christians had transformed agape into a deeply spiritual term. Of course, we today lose all that important spiritual transformation when we make the mistake of reversing that critical religious process by translating ‘agape’ as ‘love.’ Those verses in 1 John 4:7-12 have so much deeper meaning when the forms of ‘agape’ are left in -- where they were meant to be originally.
Of course, a few centuries ago, translators tried using words like ‘charity’ and ‘loving-kindness.’ But neither of those words carries the spiritual meaning that Paul gave to agape when he referred to 'God's agape.' We can never begin to see what Paul was meaning without the sense of spiritual.
The second major problem is much, much worse. It happens when ‘love’ gets wrongly used to imagine God in our image. That happens when we think that God loves just like humans love.
And that is the problem with applying our ordinary word for love to divine action. All kinds of wrongful thinking comes from doing that. For example, in popularized religious groups, God is expected to love us in the ordinary way that humans love each other. That pushes them to fall into the mistake of pseudo-religious thinking that God is somehow a "super-powerful Man-in-the-clouds" who has to always protect us when we strictly follow a bunch of rules and regulations.
Such a mistaken image of God pictures this Being-up-in-the-clouds showering down love into us like rain. That’s why popularized pseudo-religion has set up a false system of rewards and punishments. Of course, that has led to the unfortunate state of affairs causing untold numbers of people to ‘lose their faith’ -- because life just doesn't work that way.
But of course, that is not at all what Jesus meant. In the Greek translation we see that clearly when a spiritual form of agape is used instead of ever using the Greek word for love (eros, philia, storge) applied to God.
Of course, where that truth stands out so starkly is when we finally get to 1 John 4:8. No First-Century Christian would have ever said, “God is eros;” or “God is philia.” That would have been turning God into human love. Something very different was meant when that verse proclaimed that "God is agape." But in the modern world that tragic error can be made when ‘agape’ is translated as ‘love.’
But we can gain better insight by quoting 1 John 4:7-12 -- leaving in agape, agapeo, and agapan where they were meant to be -- “Dear friends, let’s agapeo each other, because agape is from God, and everyone who agapeo is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t agapeo does not know God, because God is agape. This is how the agape of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. This is agape: it is not that we agapeo God but that God agapan us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins. Dear friends, if God agapan us this way, we also ought to agapeo each other. No one has ever seen God. If we have agape for each other, God remains in us and God’s agape is made perfect in us.” (Common English Bible)
So we can see, that during the developing process of spiritual understanding in the Early Church in the first century, Christians had transformed agape into a deeply spiritual term. Of course, we today lose all that important spiritual transformation when we make the mistake of reversing that critical religious process by translating ‘agape’ as ‘love.’ Those verses in 1 John 4:7-12 have so much deeper meaning when the forms of ‘agape’ are left in -- where they were meant to be originally.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Agape and Kindness
In my May 16 posting I compared the most important scripture passages that gave spiritual meaning to agape. Starting with Paul’s teaching about agape in Rom. 5:5, 8:35-39, and 12:9-21; I compared them with 1 Cor. 13 and Gal. 5:14; and then with the 2 Great Commandments in Mat. 22:36-40 and the extension from that in Mat. 5:44-45; and the conclusion in 1 Jn. 4:9-12.
Not only was that spiritual teaching, but it was also practical advice. In Romans 12:2-21 Paul gave practical results from letting God’s agape fill our daily living. He said it can help us “be patient in affliction, be faithful in prayer.” The next verse may be what led the earliest French translators to use “charity” to translate “agape” -- “Share with God’s people; extend hospitality to strangers.” Then he talked about not being conceited or proud, but living in harmony and peace with everyone, even to the point of blessing those who persecute you.
To show that a complete transformation happens when living by God’s agape, Paul ended by talking about not repaying evil for evil, and not taking revenge. Of course, he learned what a radical change in human perspective happens because God then makes it possible to show agape even to enemies. Paul wrote: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.” He circled back to the beginning of this section by saying: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
All of this unusual teaching is what has led modern writers to conclude by defining God’s agape with words similar to Rollo May’s when he defined it as “the concern for the other’s welfare beyond any gain that one can get out of it” or as “selfless giving.” [Love and Will, p. 319] Obviously, such action does not come about by just blindly following along where society tells us we must go.
For those people today who are not sure how to know if God’s agape is truly active in their lives, I refer to what Paul described in Romans. So if you are not living the way he described -- by being kind, compassionate, and charitable with everyone around you, but instead you want to take revenge against enemies and overcome evil with evil (such as using warfare to try solving problems, either in your community or around the world) -- then you can know that God’s agape is not transforming you as should be happening. And of course, both Jesus and Paul warned that it is not easy to live by God’s agape. The pressure to conform to the pattern of the world is very strong.
That's why people in every civilization on the planet are falsely indoctrinated to think there is nothing evil about taking revenge against enemies. That has been the sad state of affairs for thousands of years. But Jesus came to bring us the power to change all that. If we don’t put the spiritual power of agape to work, then Jesus died in vain. It is up to each of us.
That’s what I found when I started with the first place ‘agape’ appears in Romans (5:5), then followed Paul’s thinking right on through to the way God’s agape fulfills our lives -- God’s agape as a spiritual power that flows into us and through us when we open up to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our relationships with others. Paul implies that such is the way God’s agape makes us “be aglow with the Spirit” and “be joyful in hope” as we “serve the Lord” through LIVING by God’s agape. By truly living this way, the Holy Spirit uses agape to transform us through the renewal of our minds. That transformation brings us the ability to keep from being conformed to the selfish, egotistical, violent pattern of the human world.
It is God's agape that gives us the strength to be able to be transformed to live the non-violent lifestyle that Paul pointed out was basic to being Christian. And we can take heart because God’s spiritual power in our lives is stronger than the pressure of the world. That is the hope talked about by Paul (Romans 5:4-5). That is the hope upon which the whole future of the human race hinges.
Not only was that spiritual teaching, but it was also practical advice. In Romans 12:2-21 Paul gave practical results from letting God’s agape fill our daily living. He said it can help us “be patient in affliction, be faithful in prayer.” The next verse may be what led the earliest French translators to use “charity” to translate “agape” -- “Share with God’s people; extend hospitality to strangers.” Then he talked about not being conceited or proud, but living in harmony and peace with everyone, even to the point of blessing those who persecute you.
To show that a complete transformation happens when living by God’s agape, Paul ended by talking about not repaying evil for evil, and not taking revenge. Of course, he learned what a radical change in human perspective happens because God then makes it possible to show agape even to enemies. Paul wrote: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.” He circled back to the beginning of this section by saying: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
All of this unusual teaching is what has led modern writers to conclude by defining God’s agape with words similar to Rollo May’s when he defined it as “the concern for the other’s welfare beyond any gain that one can get out of it” or as “selfless giving.” [Love and Will, p. 319] Obviously, such action does not come about by just blindly following along where society tells us we must go.
For those people today who are not sure how to know if God’s agape is truly active in their lives, I refer to what Paul described in Romans. So if you are not living the way he described -- by being kind, compassionate, and charitable with everyone around you, but instead you want to take revenge against enemies and overcome evil with evil (such as using warfare to try solving problems, either in your community or around the world) -- then you can know that God’s agape is not transforming you as should be happening. And of course, both Jesus and Paul warned that it is not easy to live by God’s agape. The pressure to conform to the pattern of the world is very strong.
That's why people in every civilization on the planet are falsely indoctrinated to think there is nothing evil about taking revenge against enemies. That has been the sad state of affairs for thousands of years. But Jesus came to bring us the power to change all that. If we don’t put the spiritual power of agape to work, then Jesus died in vain. It is up to each of us.
That’s what I found when I started with the first place ‘agape’ appears in Romans (5:5), then followed Paul’s thinking right on through to the way God’s agape fulfills our lives -- God’s agape as a spiritual power that flows into us and through us when we open up to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our relationships with others. Paul implies that such is the way God’s agape makes us “be aglow with the Spirit” and “be joyful in hope” as we “serve the Lord” through LIVING by God’s agape. By truly living this way, the Holy Spirit uses agape to transform us through the renewal of our minds. That transformation brings us the ability to keep from being conformed to the selfish, egotistical, violent pattern of the human world.
It is God's agape that gives us the strength to be able to be transformed to live the non-violent lifestyle that Paul pointed out was basic to being Christian. And we can take heart because God’s spiritual power in our lives is stronger than the pressure of the world. That is the hope talked about by Paul (Romans 5:4-5). That is the hope upon which the whole future of the human race hinges.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)