Ahava and Agape

"How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure. That He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure. How great the pain of searing loss, the Father turns His face away as wounds which mar the Chosen One bring many sons to glory."



Love. How easily we throw the word around. It's easy, isn't it? To say you love this or that without really thinking about what "love" means.



What does love mean to you? That guy or girl you are infatuated with? The new pair of shoes you just purchased? A movie you watch over and over? A warm fuzzy?



"The true meaning of love, as defined in the Bible, has been corrupted in the common usage of our English language and society. Most often, love is confused with infatuation - that elated, "high" feeling we get when we "fall in love." This kind of "love" is something that lasts typically less than a year, and unless replaced by true love, results in broken relationships."

http://www.godandscience.org/love/biblicallove.html



Love the way we see it is conditional and can expire easily. Love the way God intended it is unconditional and neverending. The most famous chapter on this in the whole entire Bible is 1 Corinthians 13.



"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.


Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.


Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.


And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."



Love God's way is always better than any way that we could possible come up with. I really like the Hebrew word for that kind of all consuming, all encompassing, unconditional love. It's called ahava. Ahava is the choice to make a commitment. It is love you choose. Regardless of good or bad, right or wrong, difficult or easy. Ahava. You choose love no matter which way the tide turns, no matter how steep the next hill is or how deep the valley you walk through feels. No matter who hurts you or for what reason, you choose to love them anyways.



God chose that love. When He nailed His Son to a Cross, He chose the nails because of ahava. The Greek would say agape. Deep, consuming love. Unending and unshakeable.



God is ahava and agape. He chose us because He loves us. He loves us deeply, unconditionally and unfathomably. He chooses to love us. He doesn't have to. He wants to.



We choose whether or not to love. We don't have to. We GET to. We can make a conscious choice daily to love. To make a commitment to love others. To love deeply, compassionately and unconditionally.



To love...ahava and agape.