Agape Love: The Foundation of Christian Life

"We're looking now at the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian, and in our last session we looked at the -- we began to consider that foundational power and principal gift and fruit by which all of the Christian life is empowered, and that is the indwelling presence of agape, which accompanies the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit." [00:00:06]

"Father, we know that we have the capacity to love as we do only because You have first loved us and because You have shed abroad in our hearts the love that is born of Thy Holy Spirit. Give us a deeper understanding and appreciation for the concept of love that is that most precious gift to Your people." [00:00:51]

"So, let's move on from there to the fourth indicator of the presence of agape, and that is that love, as a gift and as a fruit inclines the heart to desire justice toward our neighbors. You see what love is doing here is that it is empowering us and changing us to make us want to embrace the very heart of our destiny to glorify God by keeping the great commandment to love God with all of our heart -- see how love is interjected there in the great commandment -- with all of our mind and all of our soul and all of our strength -- that is an intensity and a passion of love -- and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves." [00:02:17]

"And so if love is present, what love does within us is to move us in the direction not to condemn our neighbors or to defraud our neighbors or to cheat our neighbors, but to have a sensitive concern that justice be done, and not only justice but a justice that is tempered with mercy. It minimizes and quenches the heart's natural, fallen, and corrupt tendency towards fraud and jealousy and slander and gossip." [00:03:09]

"Love edifies. Love builds up. It is not destructive towards one's neighbor. The fifth indicator -- and this is an interesting one, coming from Jonathan Edwards -- that love disposes us toward contentment in whatever situation we find ourselves, not in some kind of passive acquiescent, stoic imperturbability -- you know -- not an apathy." [00:05:17]

"There's a difference between apathy and contentment, but, as the Apostle Paul in his own maturity and his own growth in the Spirit said, 'I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.' How difficult that is to achieve in this world because as Blaise Pascal said, 'The great paradox of man, the thing that makes man the creature of the highest grandeur and at the same time the lowest misery, is that we can always contemplate a better life than we presently are able to enjoy.'" [00:05:56]

"But the Spirit of God, when He indwells you in the power of love, disposes your soul toward a state of contentment -- and this is particularly true vocationally, as we begin to understand what a vocation is -- a calling -- and that our principle employer is God Himself. How many times does the New Testament enjoin us that 'Whatever we do, do,' you know, 'with all of our might, and do it as unto the Lord'; and what is contrasted with that?" [00:07:02]

"There's nobody that has that 100 percent, but what love does is it moves you and inclines you to see your very labor as unto the Lord, and that brings contentment that, makes it possible for a Christian to withstand the trials and the tribulation that so often attend your vocational duties. That's why Paul could say, you know, 'Slaves, obey your masters' -- not because he was endorsing slavery, but he was saying, 'Whatever place you find yourself in, you do your work unto Christ because who, who is regenerate, would refuse to be a slave to Christ?'" [00:08:28]

"Alright, the next point that I want to mention in passing is that the presence of love restrains the power, the disease, the infection that perhaps is one of the most of all destructive powers to human personality. I'm speaking of bitterness, and it's this point that, rather than summarize Edwards' insights, I would like to take you to the text of Edwards himself." [00:09:33]

"This is something I rarely do in lecture, to take time out to read passages from books because I know that that tends to be very boring or distracting and difficult to follow when somebody's sitting in a classroom. I promise it'll be brief, and I ask you this time that, you know, to concentrate just for a minute and to drink the bitter medicine if you have to." [00:10:06]

"Now, one other way in practical terms that I like to define what the judgment of charity -- the practice of love in human relationships is -- is the difference between what we call 'best-case analysis' and 'worst-case analysis.' When an event takes place, when a deed is done, a word is spoken, we know that God is concerned not only with the external action that is taken place, but God also reads the heart, and God is very much concerned about motive, about the intention of the heart." [00:19:47]

"Now, I grant that there are people in this world who lie in bed at night thinking up all the more devious ways by which they can torment you or me, but even in a society of reprobate, unregenerate pagans, people with that kind of malicious forethought and devious intent -- thanks be to the common grace and restraining power of God -- are in a minority, and a very small minority. It's very unlikely when somebody hurts you that they meant to hurt you as badly as they did." [00:22:03]