Dr Paul Allen

Serving is not, of course, uniquely Christian. Indeed, the language of service has popped up everywhere in our society. To access the Internet, for example, we must have a network service provider . In business, there is a service sector. We get bills for professional services rendered. In our stores, there is customer service. When the gas gets low in our cars, we head for a service station. In our nation, we have the armed services. Wealthy households pay for domestic service . The rest of us wonder if we can afford lawn service. So, does any of this help us to understand Christian service? The short answer is “no.” Christian service is unique for three reasons. First, it is unique in its source. That source is our redemption in Christ . Second, it is unique in its objective, which is to model, as far as is possible, Christ’s kind of servanthood. Third, it is unique in its character, for it is motivated by God ’s holy-love. Although these are each important, it is on the third ...

Agape feast 04 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “… Showing forbearance to one another in love.” EPHESIANS 4:2 In order to walk worthy, we must forgive our enemies and love them. The term forbearance is not often used today and is therefore unfamiliar to many of us. The Greek word translated “showing forbearance” means “suppressing with silence.” It carries the idea of throwing a blanket over sin. First Peter 4:8 says, “Love covers a multitude of sins,” and Proverbs 10:12 declares, “ Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.” A forbearing person doesn’t trumpet other people’s sins but rather forgives them. Forbearance has room for the failures of others. A forbearing person also loves people in spite of the wrongs they might have done to him. Agape , the word used for “love” in this verse, is the love that gives but never takes. It’s the kind of love that seeks the highest good for another, no matter what the cost. God showed His agape by giving us His onl...

"I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God , which is in Christ Jesus our Lord ." ( Romans 8:38-39 ) Charles Wesley wove into his lyrics the very words and thoughts of Scripture. Such it is with the deeply moving hymn "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." Jesus lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high. Hide me O my Savior hide, Till the storm of life is past, Safe into thy harbor guide, oh receive my soul at last. "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved" ( John 13:23 ). How often do we lean on Jesus' bosom, and partake of that intimate agape love ? There we find safety both in this life and the life to come, for Jesus Himself "is in the bosom of the Father ...

Philip the Apostle. The text (in Old Church Slavonic) in the book is: "15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love..." (First Epistle of John). Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos (1774) at Kondopoga. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “And in your godliness, brotherly kindness …” 2 PETER 1:7 Real Christian discipleship will include practical brotherly love. A genuine love for God will invariably lead to a love for others. That’s what Jesus said of the two great commandments ( Matt. 22:36–40) that summarize the Ten Commandments . The apostle John also related love for God and love for others: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” ( 1 John 4:20). The kind of love that’s called “brotherly kindness” in today’s verse is ...

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - The Flagellation of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1880) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “… And in your brotherly kindness, Christian love .”  2 PETER 1:7 Sacrificial love proves genuine faith. Classical Greek had three common terms for love. As we saw yesterday, phileo (philadelphia) is the love of give and take, best expressed in friendship. Eros is the love that takes—one loves another strictly for what he or she can get out of that person. It is typical of the world’s sexual and lustful desires, which are always bent toward self–gratification. Agape is the love that gives. It is completely unselfish, with no taking involved. This is the highest form of love, which all the other virtues in 2 Peter 1 ultimately lead to. It seeks another’s supreme good, no matter what the cost. Agape was exemplified perfectly by Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. But what does this highest type of love look like? A brief survey of the one anothers in the New Testam...

Jesus is considered by scholars such as Weber to be an example of a charismatic religious leader. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Can a person truly be a member of God’s family and yet not be characterized by a love for Christ ? Or to put it more directly, Can you be a Christian and not love Jesus ? The Free Grace advocate, in order to be consistent with the non-lordship system, must answer “yes” to this question. Thus, in his book Absolutely Free!, Zane Hodges vehemently rejects the assertion “that no true Christian fails to love God” (p. 130), accusing those who hold this belief as teaching a form of works-salvation. In the words of Hodges, “The scriptural revelation knows nothing of a doctrine in which Christian love for God is guaranteed by the mere fact that one is a Christian” (p. 131). In other words, according to Free Grace, you can be a Christian and not love Jesus. The Free Grace position is perhaps best illustrated by an example given by Zane Hodges. This quote comes from...

English: Damian. "Jesus Christ and St. John the Apostle". A detail of the Last Supper fresco from Ubisi, Georgia (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." ( John 1:3-5 ) The apostle John , designated as "the other disciple, whom Jesus loved" ( John 20:2 ), used the concept of agape love more than any other New Testament writer, even teaching that " God is love" ( 1 John 4:8 ). Likewise, John tells us that "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" ( 1 John 1:5 ), and he uses the concept of light (phos) more than any other writer. In just the same way he uses the primary word for life (zoe) more than any other writer and discusses "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which w...

Early Christians celebrating Communion at an Agape Feast, from the Catacomb of Ss. Peter and Marcellinus. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit , whom He has given us (Rom. 5:5). The fruit of the Spirit : Paul lists the fruit in Galatians 5:22–23. Love is listed first as the preeminent fruit of the Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 13 , Paul magnifies love over faith, hope, and spiritual gifts . God sometimes gives spiritual gifts to those who are not truly His, as we see in the case of Balaam ’s prophecies in Numbers 22–24 and in the case of the healings wrought by Judas when he was sent out by Jesus with the other disciples. Unless these gifts and talents are accompanied by love of God and love for God, they are ultimately of no value to the gifted person, though they may be used by God to help others. Love, in the sense spoken of by Paul, is uniquely Christian. The Greek word for it is...

Image via Wikipedia "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels , and have not charity , I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." ( 1 Corinthians 13:1 )   It is well known that this word "charity" (Greek  agape ) is translated as "love" in most modern translations of the Bible . In fact, even in the King James Version , it is translated "love" more than three times as often as it is rendered by "charity."  One wonders why these scholarly translators of the seventeenth century did not translate agape  by the word "love" here in this very familiar "love chapter," as it has been called. They certainly knew the word did not mean giving to the poor, for they translated verse 3 thus: "And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, . . . and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." How could anyone exhibit greater charity than to give everything he owns to the poor?   They evide...