May 17, 2006
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Today’s Woman’s Bible study (Beth Moore’s Breaking Free) was a tough one for me, but I am beginning to see how much God has changed me. The subject was God’s agape love – and then some questions about how much we love God back.
Beth covered the fact that we love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19)
Then she talked about how love motivates obedience (we trust Him when He directs us, even when it doesn’t make sense to us), it motivates perseverance, and safety. We need to know how much God loves us, then we can love others.
There are some common strongholds that prevent us from believing God’s agape love.
One is that we sometimes believe a lie. Satan’s scheme is to convince us that God doesn’t love us (that His love is conditional and we are so sinful, bad, dirty, ugly, etc. that God couldn’t love us if He wanted to). And also satan wants to convince us that we love God when we don’t love Him the way we think we do. We think we wholeheartedly love God, but we phileo (brotherly love) not agape (unconditional love) Him.
We talked about John 21:15-25 (Context, the disciples were fishing, and Jesus appeared to them, and had a conversation with Simon Peter – who had denied Christ three times, so Jesus will ask the same question three times. Note that the word “Love” is used in the text, and I am going to substitute the Greek word used so you can see something important.”
“So when thy had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you AGAPE Me more than these? He said to Him, “Yes Lord: You know that I PHILEO You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.” He (Jesus) said to him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you AGAPE Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord: You know that I PHILEO You.” He (Jesus) said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He (Jesus) said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you PHILEO me? Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you PHILEO me?” And He said to Him, Lord you know all things, You know that I PHILEO You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.”
Note, Jesus wanted Peter to AGAPE him, but Peter was not fully committed, he could only PHILEO Jesus. AGAPE means to esteem, reverence, direct will, choose and be determined to love God, finding one’s joy in something or someone, love with the best interest of the other in mind. Phileo is brotherly love, love because of common interests.
It is interesting that in 1 Peter, he finally can say that he AGAPE’s Jesus, so His love grew as He walked in obedience to Jesus, 1 John 4:7
It was pointed out that often we think we love God, but sometimes we do not really Agape God. And we were given a little quiz to grade ourselves. The answers were often, sometimes and rarely. I ended up drawing tick marks to show where in the continuum I was located, for sometimes I was not often, but more than sometimes, etc.
Here is the quiz:
1. Does He (God) regularly circulate into my thoughts? (Ps 63:6)
2. Am I often drawn to spend time with Him?
3. Does my life demonstrate a love for God? (Romans 5:8)
4. Do I often enjoy God? (Ps. 16:11)
5. Do I find relief or satisfaction in the obedient life? (Ps. 51:8; John 14:21).
This test was meant to locate our areas of strength and weakness in our relationship with God, not to condemn. And I suspect on one day some questions would score higher than on other days.
She then said that since she was 20, Beth has prayed a simple prayer that goes something like this: “Make me have a heart that loves you with all my heart. God, I can’t make my feet move, but I am willing for you to drag me, nothing’s worth being out of the will of God.”
I so want a heart that loves God without reservation, but there are still pockets of resistance, but I pray, and I know that one day these pockets will be removed.
Have a blessed day.
Heather
Comments (25)
hey! my name is Brittany! i have a blogring named “abortion another name for murder” i would love for you to join it! thanks
I really like the quiz section. Very helpful in meditation and introspection.
By the by, I finally answered the question you asked on my blog.
BE blessed!
Steve
I’d love to fill in the gap on Neb and Mom.. I’m about to go to bed now (I just read the message)..so I’ll probably not get to writing again until tomorrow night!!!!
What a wonderful post this is.. I have always loved the different words for love. I enjoyed how you substituted them in the verse. Thank you for this reminder in a day when my answers to many of the questions were sometimes or rarely.
Those are great questions!
Larry
Thanks for your post, and for your comment on my xanga. For sure, we’re all in process. Thanks for your honesty. Blessings.
“but we phileo (brotherly love) not agape (unconditional love)”
i think u gave too much credit to phileo love
it is more of in sense “love out of emotional affection” not really necessarily binded by an means of association. i call it more of a worldly love, because that’s the only love the world knows, emotions emotions emotions…
likewise, the opposite of phileo (yes, i believe it’s the opposite, not a related word, but opposite) is agape, which more directly translate as “to love out of will and action, to delight in, sincere appreciation” i hesistate to call it “unconditional” because unconditional is a word that can be misleading –> since it insinuate it is not a choice, choice is conditional (which is actually the biggest difference between phileo and agape –> love that is without choice, but hopelessly bounded to emotions vs love that is out of genuine choice.agape is a love beyond emotions, as described “out of will and action in sincere appreciation.” this love is what true love is.
i wonder why Peter at this point still cannot love God in agape, it does explain why he plunged into the water and swam to shore, an emotional act. hmmmm
“love motivates obedience”…that’s really at the heart of it, isn’t it?
Power’s on…thanks for your kind words.
blessings…Jim
I am honored that you would take the time to read through some of the highs and not so many lows in the life of wisdomfromme… Bless you!
I love Beth Moore…such great insight!
Have a blessed day!
Michele
There was a song we sang at church that I can’t of the title but mentioned how he loved us first. It dawned to me, that before my existance, God loved me first. He took first place, in loving me. He thought of me, First. How wonderful is that, to know that I’m His first love and He is mine, before anyone or anything that is or was to come? We are special
. God bless you Heather. -E
thanks for sharing that, it was a lot like what I’ve been dealing with.
Very, very good post today! I wonder how many of us REALLY can say we AGAPE God?!
The only way we can agape God is through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Just like it’s the faith of Jesus that we need to have, it’s His love, too, that we must have inside us. I don’t think humans are even capable of agape love, apart from God’s Spirit. Just like Paul said somewhere, ‘it’s the spirit in me…” that does good. Even Jesus said it was the Father in Him that did the work, we have to be tuned in, completely connected, for us to be able to say the same thing. And even then, we love God as a response, not as a start, “For we love God because He first loved us.” I think it’s very likely Peter had agape love after Pentecost. He just couldn’t have anything but phileo without the Holy Spirit. Thank you for sharing that, Heather! in Him, Gerrie
Breaking Free is indeed an excellent study. I’ve been through it 3 times and The Lord teaches me more about Him, and myself, every time.
Good questions there to keep ourselves in check. Thanks so much for your continued prayer for my parents. I deeply appreciate that, Heather.
I pray that you have a great week in the Lord Jesus..
Kenneth =)
Wow… but I don’t understand… why would Peter answer with a different word on purpose? Hrm.
Beth Moore is really good. I don’t have that bible study, but I have her book about breaking spiritual strongholds. It’s powerful.
Isn’t it interesting how the prince of lies will manipulate our minds into believing in a finite love of God? God’s love is infinite, and we must go to God any time we doubt ourselves and God’s love for us and say, “MOVE ME!”
Oh, wow… Beth Moore is amazing. She’s my favorite.
Hi Heather,
Sounds like a wonderful Bible study. I have fallen into Satan’s lies about how could God possibly love me when I start feeling like this I can see that I’m not very effective in any area of my life. I glad that God has such a great love for his children. Thanks for sharing.
Love ya, Darlena
Dear Lord, thank you for Your deep, unconditional AGAPE love, teach us to do the same,…In Jesus’ name, amen.
God Bless all,
Robert
I loved your reply……Thank You. Many, many times I have written letters to you but did not mail them, however now I will. I am preparing to depart with my 6 and 10 year old sons in two weeks from today. Every time I think I am in control of something the big guy throws some visitors at me and I realize what a Prince is.
But I do look forward to answering you and sharing some of our thoughts together.
Thank You for being justyou and I will reply when our guests leave.
justmarty
Wow,
sometimes xanga has this thing where it says some kind of error and you lost everything
Anyways,
When I first learned about hte Agape thing in John Capter 21, I was so moved…
It was really convicting of how much love Christ has deomonstrated days before on the Cross,
and here, Peter, struggling with loving (AGAPE) him
WOW, great post. Now if only I could write so nice… guess not… must be a girl thing… lol rex
remember to pray ALL ways…
Thank you for sharing your insights on this Bible study. I just finished it myself and I loved it. I want that heart that she has for God too. Keep up the good work!
Good quiz. Really makes me think about things.
Tim