For a couple of years, I’ve been developing a form of extended prayer practice using the spiritual power of agape. The last time I reported in this blog on the “agape prayer practice” was in the 7/27/10 posting. I won’t repeat what I said then, but instead will give a brief summary of how the practice has developed since then.
Because I carefully went through all of the scripture references on 7/27/10 (and in many other postings), I won’t repeat that. Instead, I’ll draw out from those scriptures the meaning that applies to agape. This practice involves praying for people, as is recommended in scripture. Specifically, during a time of prayer, I imagine God’s agape pouring into the heart of another person and adding to that person’s well-being.
As St. Paul explained in his letters, the spiritual power of agape flows to us as a gift from God, then agape flows through us out to other people, then to the rest of Creation in patient, kind, caring, compassionate, accepting, loving, respectful, joy-filled ways. Even though we know that the flow does not originate with us, but it helps our faith development to pray that process.
I developed 7 steps with the practice, as I prayed for an expanding list of persons (a few of the steps took a long time to develop, so I didn’t move from step to step until I was fully ready). I’ll now give a general summary that makes this prayer practice available for anyone else to follow.
STEP 1 begins with RECEIVING agape from God. We need to practice becoming fully aware of what agape feels like as it opens us up spiritually and then draws us close to God’s Presence. (Most of the postings in this blog for the last 2 years have been about this step.)
STEP 2 begins the process of SENDING agape to other people. It starts with praying that the feeling experienced in Step 1 happen in the life of a person you feel close to and respect. You should choose a person you deeply want to receive God’s agape in her or his life. Prayerfully feel God's agape flowing into the life of that respected person.
STEP 3 expands the prayer practice to include one more person. You choose to pray for a person who is a dearly beloved friend. Honestly and truly pray for the well-being of that person. Feel the emotion of sharing in agape with that person. Feel the power of agape flowing into the center of that person’s being. Imagine that person being drawn close to and opening up to both the personal Presence and vastness of eternity. Desire that person to find personal well-being and deep sense of peace.
STEP 4 is choosing a neutral person. Honestly and truly pray for the well-being of agape to come into the life of a person who is merely an acquaintance of yours, but who otherwise you are not especially friends with. Follow the prayer process from Step 3 with the neutral person.
STEP 5 is the hardest; you should choose someone who has done something irritable to you, or who might feel hostile toward you (even as an enemy). Practice praying (as in Step 3) for agape for that person until you can genuinely feel the ‘soft, warm,’ comforting feeling of agape for them. Truly pray for the well-being of that person.
STEP 6 is to expand ‘the circle of agape’ out to a group of people; for example, a church or school or family or neighborhood or housing complex. Pray to experience how God sends agape to them.
STEP 7 is to expand ‘the circle of agape’ out and out to ever larger groups; to communities, even to regions of a country, then to nations, then to continents. Eventually, pray for agape to non-human creatures, and finally to all of Creation.
During the next 7 postings, each one will focus on one step.
Of course, these steps are only possible because agape is not originating with you, but is actually the way the divine Presence is made manifest to all that God creates. Obviously, this prayer practice should lead to action -- to the power of agape actually flowing through your life’s work, out to actively helping the lives of people and to the care for Creation.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Putting Agape teachings into action
This is my 50th posting to this agape blog. So it’s kind of a milestone for me. I don’t need to pause to summarize those postings because I already did that for the 2-year anniversary posting on Jan. 11.
What I want to do is pick up loose ends of what I think I may have missed or just not talked about.
First -- in my last posting I looked at the ‘agape’ passages from the Gospel According to John, to study how agape served as the basis underlying all the teachings there, but I left one loose end.
When I got to the ‘Last Supper’ section, I didn’t mention the emphasis on the ultimate sacrifice that a person living by agape must be willing to make. I decided to hold off my comments about that to this new posting.
The emphasis started when Peter wanted to show that he understood the importance of that new commandment (the agape commandment). He gave it the ultimate sacrificial meaning when he said, “I will lay down my life for you.” But Jesus answers by showing Peter that he won’t fully understand the sacrificial meaning behind agape until he is able to fully put it into action. Jesus says, “before the cock crows you will have denied me three times.” (13:34-38)
And we remember, of course, the sacrificial comment that Jesus made later when he talked about agape becoming so active among a group of friends, such that they must be willing to lay down their life for a friend. The meaning, of course, shows the sacrificial aspect of agape -- that people living by the power of agape must let agape lead them to give their all. And Jesus gave his life as the great example.
Secondly -- the full meaning (of Jesus calling them to a future of remaining in his agape) came when he commanded them to live by agape so that they would become increasingly more aware of God’s power with them.
To my understanding, the most important point that summarizes all of the teaching Jesus gave about agape was increased awareness of God’s power in our lives and in our relationships.
That’s why I interpret the main mission of Jesus as teaching about agape and trying to bring God’s agape into people’s lives in such a way that began to change the world. Then the sad fact that the Book of Acts illustrates is the difficulty people have putting the power of agape into action. Even the closest followers of Jesus did not quickly learn how to live by agape. But slowly, and haltingly, they did learn.
And so the long history of Christianity shows that not only was it not easy, but also that a lot of sacrifice happened. Not very many people learned the importance of living by the power of agape. At least the written record was left for us to read, but even at that, we miss the important point if we end up mistranslating ‘agape’ into words that don’t convey the full spiritual power that can come into our lives.
What I want to do is pick up loose ends of what I think I may have missed or just not talked about.
First -- in my last posting I looked at the ‘agape’ passages from the Gospel According to John, to study how agape served as the basis underlying all the teachings there, but I left one loose end.
When I got to the ‘Last Supper’ section, I didn’t mention the emphasis on the ultimate sacrifice that a person living by agape must be willing to make. I decided to hold off my comments about that to this new posting.
The emphasis started when Peter wanted to show that he understood the importance of that new commandment (the agape commandment). He gave it the ultimate sacrificial meaning when he said, “I will lay down my life for you.” But Jesus answers by showing Peter that he won’t fully understand the sacrificial meaning behind agape until he is able to fully put it into action. Jesus says, “before the cock crows you will have denied me three times.” (13:34-38)
And we remember, of course, the sacrificial comment that Jesus made later when he talked about agape becoming so active among a group of friends, such that they must be willing to lay down their life for a friend. The meaning, of course, shows the sacrificial aspect of agape -- that people living by the power of agape must let agape lead them to give their all. And Jesus gave his life as the great example.
Secondly -- the full meaning (of Jesus calling them to a future of remaining in his agape) came when he commanded them to live by agape so that they would become increasingly more aware of God’s power with them.
To my understanding, the most important point that summarizes all of the teaching Jesus gave about agape was increased awareness of God’s power in our lives and in our relationships.
That’s why I interpret the main mission of Jesus as teaching about agape and trying to bring God’s agape into people’s lives in such a way that began to change the world. Then the sad fact that the Book of Acts illustrates is the difficulty people have putting the power of agape into action. Even the closest followers of Jesus did not quickly learn how to live by agape. But slowly, and haltingly, they did learn.
And so the long history of Christianity shows that not only was it not easy, but also that a lot of sacrifice happened. Not very many people learned the importance of living by the power of agape. At least the written record was left for us to read, but even at that, we miss the important point if we end up mistranslating ‘agape’ into words that don’t convey the full spiritual power that can come into our lives.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
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.
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.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Agape as channel for divine permeating
Recently I read through the scripture quotes about agape that I’d included in my Aug. 20 posting. That inspired me during morning prayer to realize that agape serves for us as the channel through which divine Presence permeates our being. So serving as a spiritual channel, agape opens us to the manifesting of divine Presence in our lives.
Also, it is through agape that we are opened to the vastness of divine Presence. So agape opens us up to having a spiritual sensation of divine Presence so vast that it is eternal and formless. And yet agape allows us to participate in that vast, eternal, formless Essence. It is such a spiritual sensation of participating that shows us how we can identify with the vast, eternal, formless Essence.
That is how agape helps us completely change our sense of identity. We are able to see how to readjust our thinking about identity. Agape helps us start to build a personal identity based on being connected with and participating with divine Presence. Or as the ancient expression put it: each person sees herself or himself as a child of God.
As we let God’s agape work in our lives, it also serves as a channel for spiritual power to flow out to our relationships, and in that sense we serve as a channel for agape to flow in our world. Each of us helps to increase the influence of agape when we let it flow through our actions.
Agape helps us realize that we are participating in something so much more powerful than anything we could have developed by trying to identify as an individual personality. So agape helps us know how much more we are than we ever thought possible.
When I thought about how great that possibility is, I began remembering one of my favorite old hymns. This musical memory took me back to the days before I became aware of the problems with translating ‘agape’ as ‘divine love.’ The hymn was by Charles Wesley and was titled “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” So I got out my old hymnal and re-wrote the words as follows:
Also, it is through agape that we are opened to the vastness of divine Presence. So agape opens us up to having a spiritual sensation of divine Presence so vast that it is eternal and formless. And yet agape allows us to participate in that vast, eternal, formless Essence. It is such a spiritual sensation of participating that shows us how we can identify with the vast, eternal, formless Essence.
That is how agape helps us completely change our sense of identity. We are able to see how to readjust our thinking about identity. Agape helps us start to build a personal identity based on being connected with and participating with divine Presence. Or as the ancient expression put it: each person sees herself or himself as a child of God.
As we let God’s agape work in our lives, it also serves as a channel for spiritual power to flow out to our relationships, and in that sense we serve as a channel for agape to flow in our world. Each of us helps to increase the influence of agape when we let it flow through our actions.
Agape helps us realize that we are participating in something so much more powerful than anything we could have developed by trying to identify as an individual personality. So agape helps us know how much more we are than we ever thought possible.
When I thought about how great that possibility is, I began remembering one of my favorite old hymns. This musical memory took me back to the days before I became aware of the problems with translating ‘agape’ as ‘divine love.’ The hymn was by Charles Wesley and was titled “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.” So I got out my old hymnal and re-wrote the words as follows:
“Agape, all loves excelling. Joy of eternity come to all. / Fix in us your humble dwelling. All your wonders share for all. / Jesus, you are all compassion, pure, agape you are. / Visit us with your salvation, spread to all, near and far. / Breathe, O breathe your spiritual agape in every troubled breast. / Let us all in you inherit, Let us find your promised rest. / You we would be always blessing; Alpha and Omega be; / End of faith, as its beginning, Set our hearts at liberty. / Come, almighty to deliver, Let us all your Life receive. / Pray, and praise you without ceasing, in agape to believe. / Finish then, your new creation; Pure and spotless let us be.”
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Agape is our hope
I ended the previous posting by trying to project into the future, to a time when agape has been able to transform human living. To me that is the only way there is still a glimmer of hope for our survival.
So many times during the 2 years of this blog I quoted Romans 5:5. But today I want to focus on the way Paul approached that all important statement. He introduced the statement by writing about HOPE. And then he linked hope to agape.
During the years of my increased understanding of the power of agape, hope has taken on deeper meaning. Of course, we today have to see the hope expressed by Paul as only a small glimmer of what we are beginning to see ahead of us. And it all has to do with the transformation in human relations that is being brought about by God’s agape.
Otherwise… the human race is saddled with another method, because our long history shows that there are only 2 ways to accomplish all the ethical commandments of the Bible (or of all the religions of the world, for that matter). One way is by means of complicated systems of crime and punishment. But of course, that long history has shown (sadly) that a complex system of laws enforced by a system of punishment, doesn’t work.
So after thousands of years of trying all kinds of punishment forms, the laws keep being broken -- people still cheat and steal from each other, people still beat up on one another, people still murder, and groups, communities, and nations still make war against each other.
The other method, of course, is for agape to transform the hearts and lives of people.
So my vision of hope for relations between individuals, within groups, between groups, in communities, and even between nations -- relies on agape.
And where does such a powerful, transforming force come from? According to 1 John 4 ….
So many times during the 2 years of this blog I quoted Romans 5:5. But today I want to focus on the way Paul approached that all important statement. He introduced the statement by writing about HOPE. And then he linked hope to agape.
During the years of my increased understanding of the power of agape, hope has taken on deeper meaning. Of course, we today have to see the hope expressed by Paul as only a small glimmer of what we are beginning to see ahead of us. And it all has to do with the transformation in human relations that is being brought about by God’s agape.
Otherwise… the human race is saddled with another method, because our long history shows that there are only 2 ways to accomplish all the ethical commandments of the Bible (or of all the religions of the world, for that matter). One way is by means of complicated systems of crime and punishment. But of course, that long history has shown (sadly) that a complex system of laws enforced by a system of punishment, doesn’t work.
So after thousands of years of trying all kinds of punishment forms, the laws keep being broken -- people still cheat and steal from each other, people still beat up on one another, people still murder, and groups, communities, and nations still make war against each other.
The other method, of course, is for agape to transform the hearts and lives of people.
So my vision of hope for relations between individuals, within groups, between groups, in communities, and even between nations -- relies on agape.
And where does such a powerful, transforming force come from? According to 1 John 4 ….
…. “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. … 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. … There is no fear in agape, but perfect agape drives out fear, because fear expects punishment.” (1 Jn 4: 7-8; 16-18a)
Monday, January 23, 2012
What is God’s action?
As I continue considering the vast implications of agape as God’s only action, I find myself wondering: how do people personally experience the power of Creation? For my own spiritual awareness, the power of Creation manifests to me as agape. That’s how I see agape personalizing divine Presence. Of course, the power of agape is very subtle; and yet -- is that not how we ‘sense’ divine Presence? Even though I've read about the 'crashing, overwhelming, flash' type of spiritual encounter (for example, Paul on the road to Damascus), I've never met anyone who it happen to them.
I mentioned in my previous posting that I’ve come back several times to that section of the New Testament that we call 1 John. When I started re-reading it by leaving ‘agape’ in its original form (as we were meant to read it), I began to see much deeper meaning opening up to me. Slowly, over the last couple of years, my perspective was transformed as I realized that 1 John used ‘agape’ in a way to convey God's action as it is manifested to people.
So what follows is my reading of the most compelling verses:
As I showed in last April 18’s posting, the very identity of the followers of Jesus is defined by 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. (John 13:34-35) Jesus was demonstrating to his closest followers what that spiritual power could do in human life and in relationships. Also in that Last Supper section of John, Jesus promised, “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.” (14:15-17) So for the Gospel of John, Christian = agape.
I see Paul confirming that with Romans 5:5 -- “The agape of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Paul seemed to be saying that the spiritual power sent by Jesus continued to pour God's agape into the hearts of his followers and into the heart of the community of followers.
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 divine influence (spread through Christian compassion and kindness) doesn’t get realized strongly enough to produce the desperately needed reduction in violence. And yet... God has specifically called us to that work of reducing violence.
I’ve always thought of those verses in 1 Jn. as starting a major new perspective on theology. So now, after 2,000 years, we can begin to see those verses showing that agape is the main action of God.
To me that leaves people throughout the world with the immediate work to come to terms with what that means for the survival of the human race. So it is through agape transforming human living, that we can see there is still a glimmer of hope for our very survival. Such transformation has vast implications for relations between individuals, within groups, between groups, in communities, and even between nations. Otherwise the fearfulness and destructive tendencies of humans will lead us to ruin our communities and our environment, thus jeopardizing the quality of living on the surface of this planet.
I mentioned in my previous posting that I’ve come back several times to that section of the New Testament that we call 1 John. When I started re-reading it by leaving ‘agape’ in its original form (as we were meant to read it), I began to see much deeper meaning opening up to me. Slowly, over the last couple of years, my perspective was transformed as I realized that 1 John used ‘agape’ in a way to convey God's action as it is manifested to people.
So what follows is my reading of the most compelling verses:
“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. … 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. … There is no fear in agape, but perfect agape drives out fear.” (1 Jn 4: 7-8; 16-18a)When I read those verses that way (with 'agape' inserted in its spiritual power meaning), I'm able to see a whole new realm of meaning.
As I showed in last April 18’s posting, the very identity of the followers of Jesus is defined by 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. (John 13:34-35) Jesus was demonstrating to his closest followers what that spiritual power could do in human life and in relationships. Also in that Last Supper section of John, Jesus promised, “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.” (14:15-17) So for the Gospel of John, Christian = agape.
I see Paul confirming that with Romans 5:5 -- “The agape of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Paul seemed to be saying that the spiritual power sent by Jesus continued to pour God's agape into the hearts of his followers and into the heart of the community of followers.
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 divine influence (spread through Christian compassion and kindness) doesn’t get realized strongly enough to produce the desperately needed reduction in violence. And yet... God has specifically called us to that work of reducing violence.
I’ve always thought of those verses in 1 Jn. as starting a major new perspective on theology. So now, after 2,000 years, we can begin to see those verses showing that agape is the main action of God.
To me that leaves people throughout the world with the immediate work to come to terms with what that means for the survival of the human race. So it is through agape transforming human living, that we can see there is still a glimmer of hope for our very survival. Such transformation has vast implications for relations between individuals, within groups, between groups, in communities, and even between nations. Otherwise the fearfulness and destructive tendencies of humans will lead us to ruin our communities and our environment, thus jeopardizing the quality of living on the surface of this planet.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Two years blogging about agape
Two years ago I started this blog about agape. I started by struggling with what St. Paul was working so hard to explain about 'agape.' I wondered why everyone seemed to think Paul would need to work that hard to explain love, and yet he never used any of the commonly used Greek words for 'love.' Obviously something was wrong with the usual interpretation.
When Paul found himself being asked by non-Jewish Greeks to explain the teachings of Jesus Christ, he seemed to have realized that some of the words used by Greek-speaking Jews were not familiar to the average Greek. The main one of these words was ‘agape.’ So he spent a lot of time explaining what ‘agape’ meant.
When we read those passages from his letters, it helps our understanding if we start with the basic assumption that he was talking about a spiritual power (and definitely he was not talking about what the average Greek thought of as love).
I came to that conclusion many years ago, when I first started finding out that English translations of the Bible did not bring out the full meaning of the original text. Eventually I found out that the English word ‘love’ did not capture the spiritual meaning that Paul was expressing with the word ‘agape.’ Of course, everything that the average American means by our word ‘love’ was expressed by the words that the average Greek used (such as, 'eros,' 'philia,' and 'storge'). And none of those Greek words for love were what Paul was trying to convey with the word ‘agape.’ That's why he didn't use those words. So I concluded that the reason Paul did not use any of the usual Greek words for love was because he was not talking about love.
During these 2 years of writing, I’ve come back several times to that section of the New Testament that we call 1 John. The more I continue studying those parts of 1 John that deal with agape, the more I see why we lose most of the meaning when we translate ‘agape’ with our common English word ‘love.’ 1 John used ‘agape’ in a way to convey God's action as it is manifested to people. I finally realize that the author's deep awareness of God's action through agape is what led to the great acclamation: “God is agape.”
It is through that understanding that these 2 years of writing culminated on Dec. 19 with the thought coming to me: Agape is God’s ONLY action. During the weeks since then, I’ve been struggling to understand what such a conclusion of spiritual awareness could mean. What would the implications then be for all those other thousands of years of theories about God’s action?
I think such a thought conveys the full meaning that God’s supreme act to any human being comes through not only agape opening a person to divine Presence, but also agape motivating and empowering humans to actions of respect and caring with those around us. That’s how human sensibility becomes aware of agape’s double power!
And so I concluded that 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 it is the power of God’s Presence that can transform a human life to perform such profound actions.
And so I was finally able to say on Dec. 27: the very survival of the human race depends on coming to terms with agape as God’s only action.
When Paul found himself being asked by non-Jewish Greeks to explain the teachings of Jesus Christ, he seemed to have realized that some of the words used by Greek-speaking Jews were not familiar to the average Greek. The main one of these words was ‘agape.’ So he spent a lot of time explaining what ‘agape’ meant.
When we read those passages from his letters, it helps our understanding if we start with the basic assumption that he was talking about a spiritual power (and definitely he was not talking about what the average Greek thought of as love).
I came to that conclusion many years ago, when I first started finding out that English translations of the Bible did not bring out the full meaning of the original text. Eventually I found out that the English word ‘love’ did not capture the spiritual meaning that Paul was expressing with the word ‘agape.’ Of course, everything that the average American means by our word ‘love’ was expressed by the words that the average Greek used (such as, 'eros,' 'philia,' and 'storge'). And none of those Greek words for love were what Paul was trying to convey with the word ‘agape.’ That's why he didn't use those words. So I concluded that the reason Paul did not use any of the usual Greek words for love was because he was not talking about love.
During these 2 years of writing, I’ve come back several times to that section of the New Testament that we call 1 John. The more I continue studying those parts of 1 John that deal with agape, the more I see why we lose most of the meaning when we translate ‘agape’ with our common English word ‘love.’ 1 John used ‘agape’ in a way to convey God's action as it is manifested to people. I finally realize that the author's deep awareness of God's action through agape is what led to the great acclamation: “God is agape.”
It is through that understanding that these 2 years of writing culminated on Dec. 19 with the thought coming to me: Agape is God’s ONLY action. During the weeks since then, I’ve been struggling to understand what such a conclusion of spiritual awareness could mean. What would the implications then be for all those other thousands of years of theories about God’s action?
I think such a thought conveys the full meaning that God’s supreme act to any human being comes through not only agape opening a person to divine Presence, but also agape motivating and empowering humans to actions of respect and caring with those around us. That’s how human sensibility becomes aware of agape’s double power!
And so I concluded that 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 it is the power of God’s Presence that can transform a human life to perform such profound actions.
And so I was finally able to say on Dec. 27: the very survival of the human race depends on coming to terms with agape as God’s only action.
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