Being Fully Human

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."1John:3:1-3

For Centuries many philosophers, theologians, thinkers of every sort and even common people have pondered what it means to be human. 

Many have  rightly seen  that humans beings  are more than just  highly  "evolved" animals, there is something truly unique about us which sets us apart from the other life forms which inhabit this world. 

The Holy Scriptures endorses this special place which humanity has in the economy of life upon earth. That we are no random accident of a chaotic cosmos. There is truly intent and purposes for our existence in our lives ,as brief as they maybe compered to the eons of the creation around us, yet our place here means something and we are ever searching for the answer to who? what? we are and why we are.

 In God's Image

From the beginning of recorded human history and the creation epic found in Genesis we find the very  Creator God  actually speaking of his own divine purpose for creating humanity.

"Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”  So God created mankind in his own image,in the image of God he created them;male and female he created them." Gen:1:26-27

It has been understood that being in the "image and likeness" of God is more than shape or form but speaks to capacity  and that God himself has instamped his own characteristics upon and within humanity both male and female , it also is a declaration of God's divine intent and purpose for creating us. 

This tell us that being in the "image and likeness" of God is part of being human.  God,  how ever made humanity out of the resident materials  of the Earth, not composed of spirit,  demonstrating that human beings have a definite point of beginning ,  and though in God's "image and likeness"  we are not God , but created beings in need of their Creator to give us life and "form us" into his "image and likeness"

"Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Gen:2:7

This indicates to us ,that for us, each and all of us, that for humanity to be Fully Human as God intends means that we are to be in his "image and likeness" .

Eden

 This declaration of intent to make humanity into his "image and Likeness"  was given even before humanity was even formed , telling us that it issues out of God's own eternal purpose that he inaugurated even before the the cosmos was spoken into being, that is "in the beginning" which we would comprehend as eternity past. 

God places humanities' first parents within the confines of  the  Garden of Eden with all  provisions met, this is where the Creator God intended humanity to be in his "image and likeness"  ,that is , to be "fully human". God himself was there present and accessible to give then every advantage in the life he decreed for them.

The Scripture account in Gen:2:8-26, describes the Garden as well watered and filled with every good thing , a setting in which there was abundance and peace and  beauty. In this setting of rest and repose  God brought forth Eve out of the first man Adam and  presented her as his wife who shared in the very "image and likeness"  of God with Adam. 

Together they were to "dress and keep the garden" which means that their lives where to be a restful enjoyable responsible stewardship as  opposed to arduous difficult task of  survival.

This is the environment and condition, that of rest reposes , which truly allows humanity to be "fully human",  to be in the "image and likeness of God" . This is what God had always intended to be the experience and arena for the living out being fully human for humanity, yet even with all the advantages given by God's graciousness our first parents ,who in truth , represented all of what we might think of as ideal humanity failed. Gen:3:15

Adam the progenitor of  humanity , the best of all of humanity, who , even having access to the very God who created all things , and having no physical or mental impairments  chose wrongly and reached for the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil"  allowing sin to enter into the human experience and distorting the "image and likeness" of God in which they were created, they now were less than being "fully human". 

This choice of our first parents is sometimes called  the "Felix Lapsum" which means "the Happy Fall" or can be rendered the "Fortunate Fall".  

This, "Felix Lapsum" resulted in all humanity , in the persons of our first parents, removal from the Garden and has placed us in a condition to build our lives with a distorted "image and likeness" of our Creator. Humanity would have to struggle there would be no leisurely "dressing and keeping the Garden" , rather now ,  it would be by the "sweet of the brow"  and "work the soil" amidst "thorns and thistles"  .

Felix Lapsum

The Apostle  Paul address the address the result of Adam's choice and the ensuing "fall" of humanity in his Epistle to the Roman Christians.

"Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come." Rm:5:12-14

What Paul is articulating is this, if Adam, who was created personally by God's own hand and had complete access to the Creator had been given full disclosure  of all that he need to know and was the absolute best of humanity  could not make the right choice  how can any who come after do any better. The answer is we can't and have not done better. We all have sinned. 

All human history proves and justifies the Judgment of God to cosign all of us under the choice of Adam. How then,  can we look at this situation as  the "Felix Lapsum"  the "Happy Fall" ? This would seemed to deify human logic. But this view assumes  that God is looking for opportunity to condemn us not save us. That God is "reactionary" to the our condition.

But if we view God as a loving God who wants us to share in his "image and likeness" for eternity  it is in truth seen for our good, for it proves for all time and eternity that we can not save our selves , that we need someone to save us, to do what none of us could do, not even Adam who represent the best of us. This view understands that our God would have provisions for our atonement and restoration and and salvation. He himself would do it for us what none of us could ever do, he wold accomplish our salvation for us, for all humanity. This then, make it truly a "happy fall" for each and all who will but freely receive it, so that we might be "fully human" as God intended.

Thru Jesus

Paul explains this in Romans, that it is thru Jesus and his perfect obedience and  righteousness that   restoration and life is accomplished  for all , just  as,  in Adam sin and alienation and death came to all.

"But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more,so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (15-21)

That is , in Jesus God has restored the "image and Likeness" of himself to us, he  , God has made us human again , which means to be the bearers of his "image and likeness .

 Sin and alienation from God keeps us from being "fully Human" .

Jesus the Images of God

God thru his Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity,  has come in the person of Jesus Christ  and accomplished for all humanity what none of us could have accomplished. Jesus  in the incarnation , that is "God in the Flesh" , became one of us, that is human , but without any distortion to the "image and likeness" of God . Jesus was and is the human which God wants all of us to be, that we should perfectly be expressing his glory and holiness bearing his "image and likeness" .

"The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." Col:1:15

Jesus was and is the perfect expression of Who God is and his glory.

"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" 2Crth:4:4

Sharing Jesus' Sonship

Thru the message of the Gospel we come to believe and accept  Jesus' saving work for each and all us, as Paul wrote  "the Gospel is the power unto salvation". We enter into all that he as 

accomplished on our behalf, we see "the glory of Christ, who is the image of God"  .  When we see this truth that Jesus is the very Son of God,  then we are transformed becoming more like him, that is in our lives the "image and likeness" of God, which we all were intended to have is produced. This is what the ancient Church called "Deification"  it means,  becoming conformed to the image of Christ as Paul called on us to do. To become the humans being we all were meant to be from the beginning.

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." Rm:8:29

Jesus has brought us into his very Sonship and has assigned  us to share all that is his.

"In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered" Heb:2:10

As we focus on Jesus we grow up into him, becoming like him in his perfect expression of the "image and likeness" of God. 

 "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." Eph:4:13

 Jesus looks upon us as his true brethren who with him bear the "image and likeness"  of God .

"Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters." Heb:2:11

Finally Fully Human

Jesus has taken on our very humanity and joined us to himself and he to us, he lived the life we live but only without sin , and always representing the perfect "image and likeness" of the Great God  in himself never distorting that image at any time in any way. Though being fully God he condescended to our lowly estate and joined us to him and in so doing elevated our humanity.  

"Jesus is unique in that only he is, and will forever be , Fully God and Fully Human we will only be Children of God , fully human"

Jesus even joined us in death, so that we might join him in life thru the resurrection which in truth only shows us what is true that he  is the Son of God. That in his resurrection we too might share in his glorified humanity. Paul calls this the "power of his resurrection" , that in the resurrection we become truly  "Fully Human" as God had purposed from before the dawn of Creation.

That when we enter Eternity thru the resurrection, we  are then "Fully Human" from which the flesh has thus far prevented us for experiencing to it's fullest . What this means is this,  we are not even yet this side of Eternity , "Fully Human", this will occur at the coming of our Lord when we will be transformed into the gloried state that our Lord Jesus Christ is even now clothed in. 

 The aged Apostle John on the Island of Patmos encounters the Glorified Jesus seeing him as he is.

"I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance". Rev:1:12-16

What Jesus now is,  is what humanity was always meant to be. Jesus shares with us his Sonship and as his brethren we will share also in his glorified humanity. John wrote of this a few years prior  his encounter with the Gloried Jesus.

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."1John:3:1-3

 John is telling us, that,  at our entrance into Eternity we will Finally be "Fully Human" as God has always meant us to be.  In perfect expression of the very "image and likeness" of God. This is what it means to be "Fully Human" as our Lord Jesus is..Amen

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

The Fountain of Life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion
2101 Old National Pike.

Washington, Pennsylvania.   www.gcfountainoflife.org

The Fountain of Life is heard  on the RKP Radio Network 1710 and 1670 AM in Washington and North Franklin ,and 1790 AM  in the Arden Fair Grounds area of Washington Pennsylvania, and on 1710 AM in Bentleyville and Monongahela, Pennsylvania. And online around the world at www.rkpradio.com

You can follow the Fountain of Life on Face Book - Click on our Face Book link under our Helpful Links

Pentecost: A New Life

 

"not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”2Crth:3:6

  

Fifty days after  the Lord God brought Israel out of Egypt, God , thru Moses  led them to the foot of Mount Sinai,  and there on the Feast of First Fruits , which was part of the Holy Days enjoined under the Old Covenant, what the Church calls  Pentecost

And there at the foot of the Holy Mount shrouded in fire and dark clouds , the Law the Ten Commandments, the very focal point of the Old Covenant were given, the Ten Commandments, which the Scripture tells us, was the very Covenant between God and Israel

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments.”Ex: 34:27-28

Yet it was at the giving of the Commandments, the very heart of the Sacred Covenant came the death of 3000 of the people of Israel

Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died”Ex: 32:27-28

This demonstrates what we find in Paul referring to the Old Covenant as the ministry of death

“Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone,”2Crth:3:6-7a

None Could Live up to It

Yet the Law, given from the atop of Sinai as Glorious as it was brought only death and condemnation. Regardless as to how hard as anyone struggled to keep it no matter how much “will” they attempted to put forth, they would inevitably fail and the Law would claim their lives brought them only the realization that they were inadequate and would ultimately demand punishment.

Unable to perform up to the Holy standard that is set in the Law – they found themselves under constant condemnation.

This Holy perfect law would evoke within humanity and empower the very object that it so starkly defines and exposes.  Sin!

The Apostle Paul address this very paradox in his letter to the Christian Church at Corinth 2000 years ago , but Paul speaks to all believers in every age who have found themselves sincerely trying to keep the Law of God yet failing miserably and coming under  nagging condemnation . What is more, the harder these believers try so much stronger the grip of sin becomes and they succumb to it again and again.

There appears to them that the more effort they expend the greater the power sin is exerted over their lives.

Paul wrote of this Law sin relationship to the Corinth Christians.

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”1Crth:15:56

The Law it’s self is the strength of sin, that is why when we struggle against sin  the Law itself  in complete Holy perfection  demonstrates our complete imperfectness to live up to the Holy standard  which gives sin the power to defeat us and we fail.

But our loving God who is merciful and has thru his very Son Jesus Christ provided the means for each and all who will but freely receive it to be victorious over that which would claim  our lives.

"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ". (57)

God in His grace had planned and provided a greater way, a more Glorious way through His Son Jesus.Jesus has done what no Law could ever do, Jesus has brought us life and union with him.

 The Day of Pentecost inaugurated and now commemorates of that New way in the lives of humanity, for any who will freely receive what Jesus has accomplished for each and all.

This New way which brings life and freedom and healing of the Soul of humanity to  any who will enter into participation with this a New way , a way which is so far above the old .

“Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”2Crth:3:1-18

the New way and Covenant in and thru Jesus Christ is far more Glorious in the Spirit;  for as Paul wrote of the very Spirit and essence  of that new way – the Lord Is that Spirit –that is Jesus is the focal point and foundation of the new way of living.

That is , the Holy Spirit is Christ with us , and the evidence of Christ presence with the Apostolic Church was made manifest on that day of Pentecost 2000 years ago there is the streets of Jerusalem.

 

Christ With Us

Jesus spoke of his coming to them after his death and resurrection thru the agency of the Holy Spirit the third person of the Holy Trinity to be with believers conveying the very presences of Jesus in our lives to be the “Comforter”, expressing Jesus’ being them and assuring them of the love of the Father to and for them.

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—he Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 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.”Jhn:14:15-21

In the Sending of the “Comforter” , in the Greek the “Paraklatouios”, Jesus Himself is “come”, that is, Jesus is  manifest in the lives those who come to believe in him.

Pentecost commemorates , the present assurance of Jesus  Christ with us.

The Holy Spirit manifested among the believers, there 2000 years ago and continues to do so throughout  history that is Jesus Himself  among us, that we are joined in union with the Holy Trinity by and in Jesus.

This is what God has intended from eternity past, that He and we should be joined together in union and living the Spiritual life in relationship.

On Pentecost in the streets of Jerusalem 3000 were saved, that is they entered the accomplished salvation which Christ has provided, and Jesus’ was there among and in them.That Pentecost the Apostolic church was rejoicing in the Spirit, not celebrating the Law  given centuries earlier at Sinai with its' the focus on the Law of Commandments.

In the Spirit not Under the Law

Pentecost is the entering into experiencing this new life in Christ, being a part of what God has accomplished in His Son Jesus – it is a release from the oppression of the performance Based religiosity of the Law to the Glorious liberty of the Grace based life of the Spirit

It is the life of freedom,  the new life in the Spirit It is the life of knowing that our Lord and Savior is with us and that we have a new life now and into Eternity ..Amen

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor 

The Fountain of Life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion
2101 Old National Pike.

Washington, Pennsylvania.   www.gcfountainoflife.org

The Fountain of Life is heard  on the RKP Radio Network 1710 and 1670 AM in Washington and North Franklin ,and 1790 AM  in the Arden Fair Grounds area of Washington Pennsylvania, and on 1710 AM in Bentleyville and Monongahela, Pennsylvania. And online around the world at www.rkpradio.com

You can follow the Fountain of Life on Face Book - Click on our Face Book link under our Helpful Links

BURNING COALS : A MORE EXCELLENT WAY

If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything

(Motto of the Fountain of Life)

Scripture:  Romans 12:20:  If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire upon his head. 

SPS:  The purpose of this message is to explore a deeper understanding of love and to seek that same love in the burning coals of Romans 12:20.

Guiding Principle:   

 

Our guiding principle is that “God is love” 1 John 4:8.  We must use this as a guiding principle in whatever interpretation we give to any scripture.  All interpretation must have as its foundation the fact that God is love.   Let’s say this more plainly.  We recognize that God’s grace and mercy are products of His love.  We understand James 1:17 to mean that every good and perfect gift comes from God and, therefore; is a product of His love.  That is easy enough to understand.  But equally true is that God’s judgements, wrath and anger are also products of His love.  This may be harder to understand, nevertheless it is the same love*.  For emphasis let us restate that God’s judgement, wrath and anger are products of His perfect love for you, brethren, and for me. 

[*Malachi 3:6, “I change not.”  Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.”]

A DIFFICULTY

In light of the fact that God is love, Romans 12:20 presents a difficulty for us.  What does burning coals mean?  The “Interpreter’s One-Volume Commentary” gives this interesting comment.  “Burning coals has never been fully explained.”  Brethren, Romans 12:20 seems to be a simple cause and effect statement.  First:  Feed your hungry enemy.  That is the cause.  Second:  You heap burning coals upon his head.  That is the effect.  Feeding your enemy is a classic example of love.  Yet, here we see the effect of love as very unlovely.  How do we resolve this with Jesus’ own words?  In Matthew 5:43-44 He says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and shalt hate thy enemy.’  But I say to you, love your enemies; do good to those who hate you.”  In light of Jesus’ own words, let us return to our guiding principle.  How should we interpret burning coals in the light of God’s love”?

Feeding your enemy is a product of love just as surely as is forgiveness.  Whatever value scripture assigns to forgiveness certainly applies to feeding your enemy.  What does scripture have to say about forgiveness?  Peter asked Jesus about forgiveness in Matthew 18:21:  Peter was well aware that the Scribes and Pharisees taught that a good Jewish man would forgive; an excellent Jewish man would forgive up to three times.  Peter asks how often to forgive?  Peter, to his great credit, recognizes that Christ is good, in fact he recognizes that Christ is excellent.  Therefore in his question of how often to forgive, he includes what he considered a very special figure.  The special figure for forgiveness which Peter chooses is seven times.   Consider what extra special value Peter placed upon forgiveness.  He took the accepted tradition of excellence as three times, he doubles excellence and adds 1.  Seven times forgiveness was surely far and above anything that the Jews saw as excellent and as righteous. 

Now consider Christ answers of, “seven times seventy.”  Christ, speaking in the idiom of the day, removes all limits of finite numbers from granting forgiveness; showing that the most excellent efforts of man are at best infinitely inferior to the way of God.  Paul, in fact, pointed out in 1 Cor. 12:31 that the path of love is a much more excellent way.   Brethren, is heaping burning coals upon our enemy’s head a more excellent way?  Let’s explore Romans 12:20 in a roundabout way by returning to Paul at Corinth and look more closely at that city and at love.

CORINTH – SIN CITY

Corinth was an unconverted gentile city and it was the gentiles who received Paul.  What were those Corinthians like?  They were like any city of unconverted carnal humans.  The Corinthians were the same as carnal Galatians.  Galatians 5:19 – 21 shows the carnal works of the flesh as immorality, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, witchcraft, enmities, contentious, jealousies, anger, quarrels, factions, parties, envies, murders, drunkenness, carousing, and suchlike.   Of course, all carnal humans are motivated by self-preservation and self-love, but the point we make here is that as bad as the carnal Galatians were, the Corinthians were worse.  In a carnal world of immorality and corruption Corinth managed to gain a reputation above the others for immorality and corruption.     

Corinth was a reigning vice capital of her world.  By the third century B.C. Corinth had modified an ancient Greek theater to host gladiatorial contests and mock naval battles.  That fed their blood lust.  A common way of telling someone to go to the devil was to say, “Go and corinthinize.”  The term “Corinthian Girl” was slang for a woman of loose morals. 

Those carnal gentiles are the people who became the Church at Corinth.  It is to those people that Paul speaks.  To those people he says serving is more excellent than ruling; giving is more excellent than getting.  To those who were ruled by their senses Paul is training their senses to be ruled by Christ; training their senses to discern good and evil.  To those who knew nothing about godly virtue Paul teaches the more excellent way of agape love.  Agape is something they did not know; now, agape becomes something they and we, are taught to practice. 

BIBLICAL WORDS FOR LOVE

Storge:  Storge says that I love you because you belong to my family.  This is natural love – family love.  It is our aunts and uncles, brothers, sisters and cousins.  We love them because they are family, even if we don’t like them.  Storge is like a law of nature, it is just there, in us.  We have all experienced it and we know that it is there.  It causes a mother to naturally care for her babies.  It causes a man to naturally devote his time and effort to provide for his family.  It causes a big brother, who does not like his little brother, to naturally defend him from the playground bully.  It is worthy of note that as society gets worse people would no longer have storge or natural affection.   

Look to Timothy 3:1-5 for verification.  ^“But know this that in the last days perilous times will come:  For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money [but]…unloving or without natural affection, without storge… lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”  Look to your newspapers for verification.  Children will be cruel to parents and abandon the elderly without care.  Parents will abuse children, brothers and sisters will kill each other for insurance money.  Lacking storge is bad.  Having storge is good, but nonetheless without agape, a danger exists that it may corrupt itself into fueling a Hatfield McCoy generational feud based upon their natural love of and loyalty to their family.

Philia:  Philadelphia is our city of brotherly love.  Philia binds together people who love same things.  It is mutual attraction, affection and liking.  It is built on common interests and tastes.  It says I am seeking people who love mom, apple pie and Chevrolet as much as I do.  It has a drawback.  It is not unconditional.  Lovers may be replaced as quickly as rusted-out pick-up trucks because our needs and likes change.  Some social commentators advise us to plan for three spouses during our lives.  The first for childrearing needs, another to help with our social advancement needs, and one to fill our retirement needs.  Another drawback of philia is its self-focus.  It is my love which is all about me.  It is about somebody meeting my needs and caring for me.  Philia can be a virtue as long as our needs, likes and desires never change.  Philia says, “I love you because you are like me and you meet my needs.”  Philia is good, but without agape, a danger exists that it may corrupt a stadium of angry sports fans into a deadly riot, based upon their shared “love” for “their” team. 

Eros:  This is erotic, sensual, sexual love.  Eros is not ignored by God.  Read “The Song of Solomon” to verify this.  Erotic love is real, it is physical and sensual.  It is actually a gift of God in marriage for affection and pleasure when undergirded with agape, but the gentile world of Paul’s day did not know agape.  They knew spiritually corrupt Eros and it was the most commonly used word for love.  Unshackled, Free Eros* is what they craved. 

Eros is not used once in the New Testament.  What the world craves and lusts after is not glorified in the New Testament.  The Greeks viewed it as intoxication in which the senses are in a frenzy.  Selfish love produces this intoxicated feeling.  Eros will discard your partner for a newer model, when your needs or desires change, or when your partner becomes boring.  Eros is attractive; it seeks the current fashion; it is preoccupied with eternal beauty; Eros is vain. Eros knows nothing of emergency rooms, house payments, or stomach aches.  It says I love you because you meet my needs, and make my heart throb.  Eros is good, but without agape the danger exists that it will corrupt people into self-centered, possessive lusts based upon their love for sensual gratification which will use them, abandon them and never satisfy them.  [* Free Love of the 1960s, if you will, as a comparison.]

Agape:  It is the word translated as love in the gospels.  It is used over 300 times.  It is selfless committed love from the intellect and the will which places value on the beloved, unconditionally.  Agape rarely, if ever, appears in literature outside the New Testament.  It was considered to unemotional, not intellectual enough.  Agape is saying “I love you even though you are not like me.  I love you and am going to treat you as if you were a member of my family.  I love you without condition and commit my heart to meeting your needs.”  It is saying, “I love you not for what you do, I love you just because you’re you.”   Agape is good!  All the time.

NO LOVE HERE

Agape is divinely inspired love.   It is not a part of us without a commitment to Christ.  When Paul wrote to Corinth, they had fallen in “love” with the spectacular, the miraculous; the visible manifestations of the Holy Spirit.  They were seduced into wanting spiritual gifts for the chance to be at “center stage”; they were clamoring for the public recognition of their sensational gifts.  They were resurrecting their carnal old man and allowing him to have sway in the Church. 

In 1 Corinthians Paul writes to stop this incorrect display and use of spiritual gifts.  Paul is going to show them a better way.  It is love, agape.  Paul counsels them in 1 Cor. 13:1-3 that, “If I speak with the tongues of angels and speak without love, I am nothing.  If I have prophecy without love, I am nothing.”  He enumerates seven powerful gifts and says that without agape these most powerful displays of the power of the Holy Spirit are as clanging symbols; are nothing.  Taken alone or taken together without agape they are nothing.

 

In 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter, the examples do not describe what love is.  They describe what love does.  I deceive myself if I say to the hungry be warm and filled and go in peace, yet I do nothing to feed them.  These examples in 1 Corinthians 13 are the result of a relationship of love through the Holy Spirit.

They are the results of surrender to God.  We don’t read Paul and just work up this behavior.  We surrender to the Spirit of God and these things seep into our character.  With that backdrop of love as something we do let us reconsider Romans 12:20

Romans 12:20:  If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire upon his head.  Matthew Henry wrote this.  He said that feeding you enemy is like smelting him as an ingot of metal so that he melts into conversion.  That sounds very violent.  Am I doing agape when I throw my enemy into a smelting fire?  Perhaps!  But frankly, I do not see the connection between feeding and smelting.  An honest question is this.  Would the first century world focus on metallurgy and its possible good effect upon your enemy?  Or would it focus upon something else and upon a definite good effect on you?  Rather than a cause and effect statement, is Romans 12:20 a comparison statement linking an unheard of act of kindness, feeding an enemy, to a well-known act of practical kindness, heaping burning coals upon a friend?

Perhaps Paul here is describing a deed from his culture to which they could easily relate and which we in the 21^st Century could easily misunderstand.  Their kitchens maintained a hearth which contained burning coals.  They had no matches.  When coals turn to dust; they have no fire.  With no fire; they are desperate.  I recall Jack London’s short story of the Alaskan wilderness, “To Build a Fire.”  The lack of fire had tragic results.  In the cold of Alaska or the warmth of Palestine, the lack of a fire had consequences upon every one, friend and foe alike.  You must go to a neighbor with your basin/basket on your head.  If a neighbor gives only a handful of embers and if you live at a distance, by the time you got home those embers would die; your journey wasted and your situation unchanged.   But if your neighbor were kind to you, he would heap coals of fire in your basin, into your basket, on your head.  He would load your basin so thoroughly that by the time you got home, you had so many hot coals your fire starts easily.  Whereby you immediately cook and eat and warm your family.  This is something good for a friend to do for a friend.  But, what if your neighbor is your enemy and comes to you for the gift of fire?  Here, heaping coals of fire on his head, feeding him is doing agape in an act of outrageous selfless consideration that everyone could understand as very special, as a more excellent way.  It is the way of treating your enemy as your family.

Beloved, how do we demonstrate agape love toward someone one we don’t really like?  Demonstrate kindness to them.  My mom always said, “Kill them with kindness.”  Paul says “feed them.”

Brethren, let us thank God our Father and His Son our Lord Jesus for their agape toward us, and pray that their agape would overflow from us outward into the world. 

  Rev. George Relic, Assistant Pastor (724-583-9217)

Fountain of Life Church

2021 Old National Pike, Washington, Pa 15301

A congregation of Grace Communion International

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