God's Recipe For Superb Life..Daily devotional

God's Recipe For Superb Life◆◆Daily devotional
Thursday 15th, December, 2016.
Pastor Neyo
The First Fruit Is Love
English Standard Version
But the fruit of the Spirit is love.… — Galatians 5:22

When the New Testament was being written, there were four primary Greek words to describe the concept of “love”: 1) eros, 2) stergo, 3) phileo, and 4) agape. These four words conveyed four very different types of love. I want to talk to you today about these four different types of love; then I’ll tell you which of these four is the type of love the Holy Spirit wants to produce in your life.

The first word for “love” in the list given above is the Greek word eros, which is the Greek term for sexual love and where we get the word erotic. In Greek culture, this word referred to sensual, carnal impulses to satisfy or gratify the sexual desires of the flesh. It shares a common root with the word erao, which means to ask, to beg, or to demand. This confirms that eros is not a giving type of love; rather, it denotes a sexual demand. It is not a love that seeks to give or to please someone else, but a carnal love that seeks the fulfillment of its own desires.

It is very interesting that this word never appears once in the New Testament, not even in the context of sex in marriage. Even in Greek culture, the word eros represented a carnal, raw, base, low-level craving, yearning, ache, or appetite for sexual fulfillment. This type of “love” is so flesh-based and so far removed from the level of love that God expects of believers that it is never included in New Testament language.

In the New Testament, regardless of whether the context is friendship, brotherhood, or romance, all believers are urged to continually operate from the perspective of agape love, which is a love more focused on giving than it is on receiving. Because the word eros primarily describes a self-satisfying, self-gratifying, self-seeking, self-pleasing type of sexual appetite found mainly among unbelievers or those who are focused on themselves, it is not the type of love that believers should aspire to in their marital lives.

The second word for “love” mentioned in the list above is the Greek word stergo. The word stergo primarily pictures the love that exists between parents and children or the love that exists between members of a family. One scholar has noted that on occasion, the word stergo portrayed the love of a nation for its ruler or even the love of a dog for its master. Consequently, the real idea of the word stergo is that of devotion.

The third word for “love” is the Greek word phileo, which describes affection — such as the affection felt between a boyfriend and girlfriend or the affability shared between two friends. It carries the idea of two or more people who feel compatible, well-matched, well-suited, and complementary to each other. Although this word describes the attributes of friendship, it is not representative of the highest form of love, which is agape.

The fourth word for “love” is the word chiefly used in the New Testament to depict the love of God. This is the Greek word agape — and it is this word that Paul uses in Galatians 5:22 when he writes, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.…” This is what I call high-level love, for there is no higher, finer, or more excellent love than agape love.

In fact, the word agape is so filled with deep emotion and meaning that it is one of the most difficult words to translate in the New Testament. Trying to explain this word has baffled translators for centuries; nevertheless, I will now add my attempt to clarify the meaning of this powerful word.

Agape occurs when an individual sees, recognizes, understands, or appreciates the value of an object or a person, causing the viewer to behold this object or person in great esteem, awe, admiration, wonder, and sincere appreciation. Such great respect is awakened in the heart of the observer for the object or person he is beholding that he is compelled to love it. In fact, his love for that person or object is so strong that it is irresistible.

This means when God looked upon the human race, He stood in awe of mankind, even though man was lost in sin. God admired man; He wondered at man; He held mankind in the highest appreciation. Even though mankind was held captive by Satan at that moment, God looked upon the world and saw His own image in man. The human race was so precious to God and He loved man so deeply that His heart was stirred to reach out and do something to save him. In other words, God’s love drove Him to action.

You see, agape is a love that loves so profoundly that it knows no limits or boundaries in how far, wide, high, and deep it will go to show that love to its recipient. If necessary, agape love will even sacrifice itself for the sake of that object or person it so deeply cherishes. Agape is the highest form of love — a self-sacrificial type of love that moves the lover to action. In contrast:

Eros is a self-seeking love.
Stergo is limited only to one’s family.
Phileo is based on mutual satisfaction and can feel disappointed.
Agape is a love that has no strings attached. It isn’t looking for what it can get, but for what it can give. Its awe of the one who is loved is so deep that it is compelled to shower love upon that object or person regardless of the response. This is the profound love God has for the human race, for He loved man when he was still lost in sin with no ability to love Him back. God simply loved mankind without any thought or expectation of receiving love in return.

In First John 3:16, we are urged to possess agape for each other. It says, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” This plainly means that we are to love and appreciate each other just as fully and freely as God loves us.

Further explaining the role of agape in our lives, John said, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (v.18). The word “love” is again the word agape, which tells us that when agape is at work, it is a force so strong that it demonstrates itself with deeds and actions. This is not an empty love that talks but does nothing. It is a love that does something, just as God loved us and then did something to save us from our lost and sinful condition.

This is the love that Paul urged us to follow after when he wrote in First Corinthians 14:1, “Follow after charity [agape love]…” The word “follow” is the Greek word dioko, which means to hotly pursue. It was a hunting term that pictured a hunter following the tracks of an animal until he finally gets his game.
Learn to flow in God's love high level of love today. Merry Christmas in advance!

|| Prayer For Today||
Precious Lord, help me turn my attention to Your kind of high-level love and make it a part of my daily life. Forgive me for those times when I’ve fallen into low-level, “you-scratch-my-back-and-I’ll-scratch-yours” love that gets easily offended. Help me climb up to the higher realms of love that You desire to be manifested in my life. Holy Spirit, it is impossible to continually walk in this kind of love in the power of my flesh, so I turn to You to awaken this divine love inside me and to help me manifest it in my life today.I recognise your ministry in life, thank you Lord, Amen!

||Daily Faith  Proclamation||
I confess and proclaim today! that I am hotly pursuing agape love in my life.
I want to attain this high level of love and regularly walk in it, so I treat this fruit of the Spirit like it is one of the most important aims of my life today!  Because the seed of God’s Spirit and Word is sown in my own human spirit, I have the potential for this divine love within me all the time!  So right now I determine to shove the flesh aside and release the power of God from down deep inside. Because agape is the driving motivation of my life and the force behind all my relationships, I am the best, most devoted, faithful, and reliable friend anyone has ever known! Amen!

||Thoughts For Today||
◆Eros is a self-seeking love.
◆Stergo is limited only to one’s family.
◆Phileo is based on mutual satisfaction and can feel disappointed
◆Agape is a love that has no strings attached. It isn’t looking for what it can get, but for what it can give. Its awe of the one who is loved is so deep that it is compelled to shower love upon that object or person regardless of the response

■■■Further Study■■■
1 John 4:16; Ephessians 4:2;5:9;3:16-17; Colossians 3:14.

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