Will True Love Please Stand Up?

What single word would you say best summarizes the gospel of Jesus Christ?

In this chapter, Paul will introduce them to a brand new concept. It will be a word ignored entirely by the Corinthian culture, but this singular word, agape, embraced by the inspiring Holy Spirit will be the primary word that will become the vehicle to explain the gospel. One of the most important biblical concepts is wrapped up in a small, four-letter word, love. Our world is in desperate need of love, and it's the universal cry of the human heart. Jesus defined the first and second most important commandments as the command to love God and love others. And love defines the way that God responds to us. The Bible has different words that we translate love, and we're going to learn what those are today. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey.

Stephen's beginning a series called True Love, and he's entitled this lesson, Will True Love Please Stand Up? There was once a city that, if you'd lived in the first century, you would have known about. It was a fast, loud, sensual, commercial metropolis. It was devoted to culture and sports and commerce.

I have never been there, but I have read a lot about it. It could have easily been called the Vanity Fair of the ancient world. It would have been the sailor's favorite port. It would have been a policeman's nightmare. It would have been an actor's dream spot. It would have been a merchant's gold mine.

It would have been a prodigal's paradise. By the time Paul wrote to the believers in this city, it had gained the reputation of being the vice capital of ancient Greece. Corinth was its name. It was also the first city, if you can imagine this, to admit the gladiatorial games where competitors would die for the bloodlust of the spectator.

This was Las Vegas and San Francisco and the back alleys of most major cities all sort of combined. Corinth was well known for being a sinful city. In fact, if you wanted to tell a person to go to the devil in Paul's day, you would simply tell them to Corinthianize. If you wanted to refer to a woman as being loose, you called her a Corinthian girl that organized brothels with temple prostitution as part of their so-called religious service. This culture was literally bloated with lust for blood and lust for money and lusting after the flesh. In the middle of this culture, though, was something almost unbelievable.

It was almost unimaginable. It was the revolutionary work of the liberating gospel of Jesus Christ. There was a church in the middle of this city, an assembly of redeemed, liberated, forgiven, imperfect, growing, needy sinners now called by this apostle saints.

As charter members, if you want to see who they were, you'll discover a list of them in 1 Corinthians 6. These were men and women who had past lives of immorality and infidelity and homosexuality. There were former thieves. In fact, the Greek word refers to a man who steals with the use of violence. There were alcoholics. There were white-collar criminals.

Just look at the list. Do you not know, verse 9, that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, that's sexual relations outside of marriage, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, that's sexual relations with married, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God? But such were some of you.

This is the list of charter members in this assembly. Such were some of you. In other words, this is what you used to be until you were washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the spirit of our God. So you have in this church felons who are now serving as deacons. You have former thieves who are counting the offering.

Isn't that great? You have former drunkards who are now teaching children in Sunday school. They had come to find their true satisfaction and liberation and forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ.

So in the middle of the city, you have this church. Wisdom got an email from a man who was moving into town, had heard me on the radio, and he wanted to know if our church accepted same-sex couples. I wrote him back and said anyone and everyone is invited to attend our services, and we throw the doors open to the community at large. But to be accepted into our church as a member means that you have accepted the authority of the Word of God. And I told him, we take the Bible literally here, and it clearly informs us that any sexual activity outside of marriage is forbidden, whether homosexual or heterosexual. Beyond that, the Bible clearly informs us, I wrote, that homosexual relations is sinful, and I sent him to read Romans chapter 1.

I invited him, but I wanted to inform him that the gospel of Christ is both forgiving and demanding. We who believe have come under the authority of the Word of God. So Paul did not write to them, and such are some of you still. You can keep stealing, you can keep fornicating with others who aren't married, you can commit adultery with those who are, you can keep on reviling, you can keep on abusing, you can keep on swindling other people out of their money.

No, he wrote, but such were some of you. These are Corinthians who are now rescued by the grace of God. Listen, let me add this, just because you've come to faith in Jesus Christ does not mean you know how to live for Christ. Repenting of your sins does not create an automatic awareness of how to live a holy life, and all of the past temptations are just sort of set aside, and you never wrestle over the drink or the relationship or the cheat or the stealing. When you get saved, you begin the process of becoming like Christ.

It isn't the last step. Coming to faith in Christ is the first step. Desiring to live a holy life for Christ is not the end, it is the beginning of your life. You need to understand that what the Apostle Paul is about to deliver to this congregation is not something they really will ever master, but it is something that they are supposed to practice, and they're to practice and practice and practice, not for an hour a day, not four hours a day, but every hour of every waking day, they're to practice.

And what is it they're to practice? What will revolutionize this church and any church? True, genuine, authentic lives marked by love. You already know where I'm going, so turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. This is referred to as the love chapter. Paul says, in effect, in the first few verses, listen everybody, I don't care who you are, I don't care how connected you are, I don't care how much you own or have, if you do not operate in the principle and upon the foundation and through the motivation of love, you are nothing. Verse 1, you accomplish nothing. Verse 2, you are nothing. Verse 3, you profit nothing. This is why we have to practice it, because life without love adds up to zero.

Doesn't matter who you are, rich, poor, educated, illiterate, it doesn't matter if you're married or single, young or old, life apart from love is nothing. Now the reason that we have a hard time buying that or even believing it is because we don't understand what Paul meant when he begins to talk about what love is. In this chapter, Paul will introduce them to a brand new concept. It will be a word ignored entirely by the Corinthian culture. In fact, the Greco-Roman world, but this singular word, agape, embraced by the inspiring Holy Spirit will be the primary word that will become the vehicle to explain the gospel.

It will become the vehicle wherein we as disciples live and breathe and act. It is this Greek word agape. In short, this word describes the selfless, committed love of the intellect and the will which places value upon the beloved, whether or not they are deserving or if they're even able or unable to return the same. For God so loved the world that he gave. Just how attractive was the world when he gave?

Just how able was the world to return that quality back to God? Just how deserving was the world that God would love the derivative of agape? The Corinthians, by the way, didn't understand true love. In fact, of all the words and expressions for love in the first century, agape never made the list.

One Greek scholar, Gerhard Kittel, in his Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, made the comment that there is not one clear example of agape by a Greek author outside of Scripture. Not one. It was ignored completely. It was considered too unemotional. It was considered too intellectual. There were several other words in the Greek vocabulary translated love that were highly prized.

So let me very quickly give you an overview. The first was the word storge. This was a Greek word that referred to natural love or family love. You love your uncle Henry and your grandma Ethel and all your cousins with this kind of love. You love them because, well, they're your grandma and grandpa and your uncle and aunt and your cousins. You stick up for your sister and brother with his family love, even though around the house you tell them to stay out of your room. This is love that one author said is like the law of gravitation.

It's just it's there. These people are related to you. This is the word for the love that causes a mother to naturally want to take care of her newborn child. This is the natural love that causes a man to sacrifice time and effort to provide for his his family.

What's interesting is that Paul tells us in Romans chapter one is that as society continues to grow more and more depraved, more and more perverted, more and more self-centered, that one of the obvious results would be that people would no longer evidence storge. They would no longer have natural affection, which is how it is translated. Children will be cruel to parents and leave them without care. Parents will abandon their children. They will deliver newborns and put them in the dumpster without any thought. Child abuse will arise as well as the abuse of the elderly. Husbands and wives will will kill one another for insurance money.

These are the signs that storge is on the wane. There's really nothing wrong with this word. It's a love that produces natural protection. However, what makes storge work best is when it is founded upon agape, when the foundation for natural family love is built upon the selfless, compassionate, willful servant love of agape.

Another Greek word is philia, which gives us words like Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. This is the kind of love that bound people together who like the same things, who preferred the same hobbies. This is the love of mutual attraction. This love is fondness. Kenneth Weiss says affection and liking. Leon Morris wrote that this love is built on common interest or common tastes. Philia means I love that shirt or I love that necktie.

Bob, that's a sharp necktie. I like that. He likes that too. So we like the same thing. That's like saying I love I love apple pie. I love I love Krispy Kreme. I really love that's agape, actually.

I'm committed to that. I love Beethoven and you find people that love the same kinds of things. This is just sort of mutual attraction. This is the common expression used today for love. Basically, what somebody is saying, though, when it's used outside of agape is I love you because you are like me. We like the same stuff.

Philia is that kind of pursuit. It's the common love of the Corinthian culture and the American culture. It basically says I love you because you love everything I love. Now it is a love drawn together by the strings of common affection, and it's not all bad. In fact, it's used forty five times in the New Testament to speak of community love, to speak of friendly love, to speak of affection for someone that is the outgoing of one's heart in delight to see them happy.

That's where you, as a husband or wife, choose to like things that your spouse likes because you do have love for them. The trouble comes when the other person doesn't return happiness. The trouble comes when they don't make Philia worthwhile, when they are unworthy. This is why the love of our culture, which is primarily Storge and Philia, at best runs out of steam and lovers are replaced as quickly as used automobiles. See, we grew apart.

We don't like the things we used to like together anymore. So it runs out of gas. The world can only wonder why they run out of steam. Love that is Philia only is why one actress I read about recently was being interviewed. She said her relationships are really great for about three months and they're over.

She said the fireworks are gone. This is why the excitement and thrill of love disappears at the site of an overflowing diaper pail. That's a romantic thought for you. This is how a book can actually be written and purchased by people enough so that it makes the best selling list, where they are suggesting that what you really need is to plan for three spouses over the course of your lifetime. You have one spouse for child rearing years. You have another for the middle years of busyness and contracts and social climb. And then you have your third spouse in later years when you're ready for the sailboat and the golf course and rocking chair.

Why? Because love is all about you. It's all about somebody meeting your needs and making you feel happy. What they're really saying with this word is when they say I love you, they're saying I love me and I want you because you make me feel better. Just read the lyrics of the most popular songs on the subject of love. It's been reduced to a search for that never ending warm and fuzzy state, right? I'm hooked on a feeling and I can't stop loving you. She loves you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, I'm stuck in the 70s, I know, but you remember this one? Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?

Just like me, they want to be close to you. That's sad, let me tell you. But that was the 60s and the 70s, you know, now we're sophisticated and now we got it together.

Really? Well, now you can look up lyrics on the Internet, which I spent about 30 minutes doing, and the best selling songs still define love in terms of filia alone. Here's a song I came across on an album called Big Dog Daddy. Now one of my all-time favorites, I can assure you. It's a song about a guy who is a custodian and the girl he loves is beautiful and self-centered and he sings his lament about his sad state.

She won't look my way, but buddy, what would you expect? I'm just the fix-it-up boy at the apartment complex. He says, I'm just sitting around waiting on a telephone call after a water pipe exploded in the living room wall. If your washer and dryer need a repair, you know your handyman's waiting and it'll be right there.

Then he sings his problem. Here it is. She's my baby doll, my beauty queen, she's my movie star, best I've ever seen.

I ain't asked her out yet because I don't know if I can. See, it's just a high-maintenance woman. Don't want no maintenance man. Poor guy. But it's so descriptive. It is so descriptive of the wrong side of Felia. I mean, a love that loves only the lovely, only the attractive, only somebody who's going to advance the reputation and self-image, only the popular.

So we're attracted in this society which is far from classless, it's prejudiced, it's self-centered, it measures people by what they own and have and how they look. Friendship like this can make good men better and bad men worse. Now, the good side of Felia is the natural affection between friends who bond with mutual likes and dislikes, but it has to challenge each other to grow in greater and deeper, agape love for Christ and his church, one another. One final word that is perhaps the most unlike agape and yet the most well-loved by the world is the Greek word eros. It gives us our word erotic.

This is sensual, sexual love. Contained within marriage, it is the gift of God for affection and pleasure. What's interesting is that this word was the most commonly used word for love in Paul's day and yet, follow this, the Holy Spirit did not select this word in any passage of love in the New Testament, not even once. So what the world and the flesh clamor for, the New Testament descriptions ignore.

So we have to find out what eros means by going outside of the New Testament. Now, that doesn't mean that the word is inherently evil. Romantic, sexual or sensual love is at best with agape and commitment and marriage, wonderful, pure and lofty. In fact, the Song of Solomon doesn't use the word, but it describes eros. It is considered a virtue.

But the fact that the New Testament never selects this word ought to tell us that the world and even the church, have you noticed the church now is focused on one aspect of love that is actually secondary and not foundational. Without agape, eros is self-seeking, self-centered, abusive, possessive of love. But combined with a will to serve and commit, eros makes a man swim an ocean.

It makes you climb a mountain, cross a desert to win that husband or wife. Without agape, eros only lusts to own, to have, to conquer, and then it will discard you for some newer model. Eros knows nothing of emergency rooms, house payments and braces. Eros has no time for homework or late hours, broken down cars and used furniture.

Eros is bored with arthritis. Eros colors gray hair and sells steroids, tummy tucks, and Rolexes. Eros is fashion and beauty. It is for the attractive and the well-connected. But eros eventually makes everyone lose what they'd hoped to have.

Let me review. Storge says, I love you because you belong to my family. Agape says, I love you and I'm going to treat you as if you are a member of my family. Felia says, I love you because you are like me. Agape says, I love you even though you are unlike me. Eros says, I love you because you meet my needs and make my heart beat fast. Agape says, I love you and I commit my heart to meeting your needs. Agape is true love. I found the lyrics to another song familiar to most of us. This one written by a Christian artist who understood a little better what agape in a relationship looked like.

It goes like this. Tomorrow morning, if you wake up and the sun does not appear, I will be here. If in the dark we lose sight of love, hold my hand and have no fear because I will be here. I will be here when you feel like being quiet. When you need to speak your mind, I will listen. And I will be here when the laughter turns to crying. Through the winning, losing and trying, we'll be together. I will be here. Tomorrow morning, if you wake up and the future is unclear, I will be here. Just as sure as seasons were made for change, our lifetimes were made for these years, so I will be here. I will be here and you can cry on my shoulder. When the mirror tells us we're older, I will hold you and I will be here to watch you grow in beauty, tell you all the things you are to me, I will be here. I will be true to the promises I have made to you and to the one who gave you to me. Tomorrow morning, if you wake up and the sun does not appear, I will be here.

I will be here. Ladies and gentlemen, the world can only long to find love like that. That's why back in Corinth and here in Cary, the Christian who comes out of his culture and into a church must learn and must practice how to love like that. And that's why God will so clearly spell it out for us in this great chapter on Agape, where Paul will deliver to us a radical description, God's description of genuine, authentic, true love. There's much more for us to learn about genuine, authentic, true love. In fact, we're going to spend the next seven lessons exploring biblical love and how we can live it out. You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. This series is called True Love, and the lesson you just heard is entitled, Will True Love Please Stand Up? If you joined us late, you can go to our website and listen to the entire message again. You'll find that at wisdomonline.org.

Then, in the days ahead, please plan to listen to this entire series. It's important. In addition to being our daily Bible teacher, Stephen pastors the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina. He's also the president of Shepherd's Theological Seminary, also located in Cary. Here at Wisdom International, we publish a monthly magazine that we send as a gift to all of our Wisdom partners. If you don't receive it, we'd like to send you the next three issues as our gift to you. Just call and request three months of Heart to Heart magazine, and we'll send it your way. Sign up online or call us at 866-482-4253, and join us tomorrow for more wisdom for the heart. God bless you.