TRUE LOVE REQUEIRS THE SUPENATURAL
LOVE is one of the MOST POWERFUL EMOTIONS we can experience, More that an emotion.
Humans CRAVE love from the moment of existence.
“To live is to love, and to love is to live”
WHAT IS LOVE?
• Key fundamental principle of the Kingdom of God • Feeling, a passing, emotion • Warm feelings, physical attraction and sexual activity (sensuality) • Get a different answer if you ask different people • The English langue does make it difficult. Love my wife, Ice cream • Our outlook on love has become a MISCONCEPTION….
Not only did GOD CREATED love as the central foundation stone of human experience,
>> BUT GOD IS LOVE 1Jhn 4:8,16
Love each other as I have loved you Jhn 15:12 – COMMAND GOD Does Love…
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Love is not primarily an emotion, but an ATTITUDE OF HEART. >>> Key Principle
>> LOVE is the true TEST of GENUINE FAITH.
THE ONLY WAY TO LOVE truly is to be Connected to HIM
>> TRUE LOVE RQUERS THE SUPERNATIRAL
We are not cable of true love in our own capacity, only through God’s GRACE & DIVINENESS
Apostle Paul uses the analogy of marriage; 2 people coming together and becoming 1
• PROFOUND MYSTERY • the relationship between "Christ and the church” >> ALL PEOPLE ARE ONE IN CHRIST
God established MARRIAGE as the first and most fundamental elements of human society
• M is the foundation of the family, the relationship which God plans to BUILD SOCIETY
• GLOBAL ATTACK ON MARRIAGES, Attack on the Society itself, attack on God >> Satan knows if he can destroy marriages can destroy families;
• if you can destroying families he can destroy Society > Humanity.
Marriage is also the foundation upon which the Church the community of believers and God’s special society rests.
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>>> Rob Bell DVD help explain the true meaning and depth of LOVE, its full intensity and different facets just like a flame that become a fire.
GREEK LOVE WORDS
Eros Greek word for SENSUAL or ROMANTIC love, sexual desire, physical attraction, and physical love,
Embraces SEXUAL LONGING, CRAVING - desire with no respect for sanctity; sensual ecstasy that leaves moderation and proportion far behind.
Within the BOUNDARY of marriage, eros love is to be celebrated:
• Used for emotional and spiritual bonding and reproduction.
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Eros love in the Bible affirms sexuality as a part of the human existence.
WE ARE SEXUAL BEINGS, CALLED TO HONOR GOD WITH OUR BODIES:
Storge (stor-JAY) This Greek word describes family love, the TENDER AFFECTION bond that develops naturally between parents and children, and brothers and sisters.
Opposite -Astorgos (A stor gos) means "without love, without affection to kindred, hard-hearted, unfeeling," HEARTLESS
When we become followers of Jesus Christ, we enter into the family of God.
Our lives are bound together by something stronger than physical ties—the bonds of the Spirit.
We are RELATED by something more powerful than human blood—the blood of Jesus Christ.
4 >> God calls his family to love one another with the deep affection of storge love.
Phileo (FILL-ee-uh) • powerful emotional bond seen in deep FRIENDSHIPS. • love on the level of FRIENDSHIP, affection we have for someone we are familiar with.
Philia is the most general type of love in Scripture, encompassing love for fellow humans, care, respect, and compassion for people in need
We ought to have a WARM AND DEVOTED LOVE for one another that CATCHES THE INTEREST AND ATTENTION OF THE NON-BELIEVERS.
This close union of love among Christians is only seen in other people as members of a natural family.
Believers are family not in the conventional sense, but in a way that is DISTINGUISHED BY A LOVE THAT IS NOT SEEN ELSEWHERE.
This UNIQUE EXPRESSION OF LOVE ought to be so ATTRACTIVE that it draws others into the family of God
Jesus asked the apostle Peter if he loved him (agape). Peter replied three times that he did, but the word he used was phileo or brotherly love. Peter had not yet received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; he was incapable of agape love. John 21:15 ‘Feed my Sheep’
• As members of the body of Christ, we are family in a special sense
Agape (Uh-GAH-pay) Is the DIVINE LOVE, the love God has for his people.
UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. As well as the love we give back towards God.
* Jesus asked the apostle Peter if he loved him (agape). Peter replied three times that he did, but the word he used was phileo or brotherly love. Peter had not yet received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; he was incapable of agape love. John 21:15 ‘Feed my Sheep’
5 AGAPE perfectly describes the kind of love JESUS has for his Father and for his followers.
Is UNMOTIVATED in the sense that it is not contingent on any value or worth in the object of love.
It is spontaneous and heedless, for it does not determine beforehand whether love will be effective or appropriate in any particular case."
• The HIGHEST of the four types of love in the Bible.
• God's IMMEASURABLE, INCOMPARABLE love for humankind.
• DIVINE LOVE THAT COMES FROM GOD.
• Agape love is perfect, unconditional, sacrificial, and pure; Self-giving, Selfless
• Is Christ
• Other-conscious – continually looking for opportunity to give
• Take responsibility – Does not wait for other to act 1st - Self-initiating
• Proactive – Acts even if there is no response
• EXTENDS BEYOND EMOTIONS. It's much more than a feeling or sentiment.
• Agape love is ACTIVE. It demonstrates love through actions
• A choice – not an emotion but a decision
• Never changes - No discrimination, is always consistent.
• Oneness – God became 1 with us, 1 in sprit and in heart
JOHN 3:16 ESV
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
• Jesus and the Father are so "at one" that according to Jesus, whoever who loves him will be loved by the Father and by Jesus, too. • The idea is that any believer who initiates this relationship of love by showing obedience, Jesus and the Father simply respond. The oneness between Jesus and his followers is a mirror of the oneness between Jesus and his heavenly Father:
6 JOHN 14:21 NIV
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
LOVE IS NOT MERELY AN ATTRIBUTE OF GOD, LOVE IS HIS ESSENCE.
God is fundamentally love. He alone loves in the completeness and perfection of love:
1 JOHN 4:8 ESV Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
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