LifeTrac with Chuck Swindoll is a presentation of Insight for Living Canada.
Jesus says, “love one another.” He uses a word that he . . . here again has become a household
word in many Christian vocabularies, “agape.” There is a movement called the Agape movement.
There are halfway houses called Agape houses.
There are little signs with fish around them that says “agape” on the backs of cars and
on Bibles--agape, agape, agape. What is that? Well, in the days of John, , he had available to
him about four words he could have used. Three were well known to the world. One was the word
sterge, and it spoke of patriotic love. That’s what made the chills go up the back of a Greek
when he . . . when he thought of his forefathers that had paved the way of freedom and had marched
out and planted in the minds of the world that the Greek will win out. It was a patriotism,
a love for country. It’s not the word he used. There’s another word, eros. We get our term
“erotic” from it. That tips our hand. You know what it means. It’s a sensual love,
even at times of perverted or sexual perverted love. And it ran its gamut among the Greeks.
That’s not the word, obviously. Then there’s philos love. We get
the word “Philadelphia” from it. Kind of a bad analogy, but this word “Philadelph” . . . I
mean philos, means “affection.” Nothing wrong with that. We all need that
more than most of us even want to admit, but that’s not the highest form of love.
The highest form is agape. And, you know, it is so unique, the world hardly even knew it existed.
That’s great, isn’t it? God dreamed it up and deposited it into the minds of some writers
of Scripture and they in turn used it in the Testament we have today as the new covenant,
the New Testament. And it became the catalyst among the Christians. It was a altogether
Christian term. Never had it been contaminated, and it can’t be. It’s either there or it’s not.
Agape is deliberate refusal to respond negatively. Agape is a conquest of the will.
It is a love of the mind that says, “I accept, and therefore love that person as he is,
as she is. I’m not blinded to the flaws. I see them. But that doesn’t affect my love.”
Love is the hi . . . is the expression of the highest good for the other person, whatever
it may be--an encouragement, a reproof, a word of . . . of instruction, financial assistance,
help in the physical areas of life. It just keeps coming back, just keeps coming back.
I’m sure you’ve all seen this little toy that children have in their homes. It’s an inflatable
toy that stands about, oh, four-feet high, and it comes in all different forms. You’ve seen it.
Has a big weight in the bottom. And a child can back off and just (smacks fist into hand) punch
that thing and it goes (boiinnnggggg). Comes right back up again. Child can take it and strangle it
(ueemmmmghhhh), or can swing it around (like my boy did when he had one),
swing it around and let it go, and it goes out in the front yard (mouinnngggg), right back up again.
You can’t keep it down! It just keeps coming back. It just keeps coming back. It has staying power.
That’s the word.
The highest form of love is “agape.” Agape love is the deliberate refusal to
respond negatively . . . despite mistreatment. It seeks the highest good of others . . . and
accepts people as they are. It’s unconditional.
This is Steve Johnson of Insight for Living Canada.
Listen to more of Chuck Swindoll’s LifeTrac messages at lifetrac dot C A.
LifeTrac. Where Life and Truth Meet The preceding LifeTrac presentation
was brought to you by Insight for Living Canada. The original message
"Agape...Authentic Love" was copyrighted in 1975 and this LifeTrac sound
recording was copyrighted in 2014 by Charles R. Swindoll Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide