Phileo love and agapao love within the body of Christ. Part 3 John 13:34; 1Jo 2:1-6

John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

 

We have noted that “A new commandment,” is the use of the adjective kainoj[kainos] means new in contrast to old. This adjective means also new in species.

 

It is new in contrast to anything ever given before.

 

This command can only be fulfilled by the new creature in Christ. It is a part of the new things that have come. Every believer at the moment of salvation is made a brand new creature.

 

/2 Cor 5:17

Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things [new plan/instructions/commands] have come. \

 

The same Greek word kainos is used here referring to something brand new that never existed before.

 

We have also noted that the verb to give, didomai, confers a gracious gift by our Lord and therefore something wonderful. That which is wonderful is the command. In the present tense the command is always in effect for every believer.

 

/ “command” - entolh[entole] = command, order, prescription, or charge.\

 

/Commandments can give knowledge of sin and the sovereignty of the OSN over human life, Rom 7.\

 

ROM 7:5 For while we were in the flesh [in context married to the first husband and still an unbeliever], the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.

 

ROM 7:6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound [OSN], so that we serve in newness [kainotes - brand new] of the Spirit [new marriage counselor] and not in oldness of the letter [the Law was the old marriage counselor].

 

The new marriage counselor, God the Holy Spirit, through the word of God, reveals the love of Christ. This is the newness, the brand newness of the Spirit’s ministry to every believer.

 

ROM 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

The new commandment of loving one another as Christ has loved us stands in great contrast to the old commandments from the Mosaic Law.

 

/The purpose of the Mosaic Law was to be the marriage counselor between the unbeliever and the OSN in showing us that we were sinners and we should be divorced and remarried to Christ.\

 

In the client nation, the Ten Commandments were in every school and courthouse. There was an expectancy of morality that no one really lived up to and this all revealed a person’s control by the OSN. If you have noticed recent trends, the TC’s have been taken out of every courtroom and school under a unique interpretation of separation of church and state. The TC’s were never meant for the church but for all citizens of a nation.

 

/All of the genius of the unbeliever cannot discover the old sin nature with its trends toward sin, good, and evil. Only the revelation from God provides the information. \

 

And revelation from God in God’s Word, specifically the Mosaic Law, reveals the old sin nature as the sovereign of human life ruling through spiritual death. Satan is the sovereign of this world but the old sin nature is the sovereign of human life.

 

Mankind is blind to the status quo of the first marriage apart from the function of and ministry of the Mosaic Law. Specifically, then, the Mosaic Law is the marriage counsellor indicating a bad first marriage and presenting the solution related to the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

An unbeliever does not have to come to a knowledge of the whole Law or the OSN. He only has to understand that he cannot deliver himself from death and therefore as a sinner. Then comes the Gospel, under the common grace ministry of God the HS it is confirmed that he is in need of a Savior for salvation and that One such Savior exists in the person of Jesus Christ.

 

/ROM 7:7What shall we say then?[“Therefore to what conclusion are we forced?” Doctrinal teaching forces conclusions, leads to correct inference, and there is always the danger of distorting the correct inference. ] \

 

ROM 7:7What shall we say then? Is the Law sin?[false conclusion] May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin [the pattern of sin]except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting [lust or desire for something that is forbidden] if the Law had not said, "You shall not covet." [10^th commandment]

 

 

 

/The tenth commandment as literally translated from Exodus 20:17. “You shall not lust for your neighbour’s house; you shall not lust for your neighbour’s wife, or his male servant, or his female slave, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbour.” \

 

The tenth commandment not only deals with the subject of lust but it emphasises the importance of human freedom in terms of property, privacy, and way of life. In other words, you have a right to your privacy, your property, to a way of life that suits you.

 

/The command to not lust reveals the pattern of the OSN that has always been there, and thus you are shown to be a sinner.\

 

The new commandment of John 13:34 is in contrast to this. The new command is an expression of your new marriage to Christ.

 

/Since the love of Christ is an absence of mental attitude sins as well as arrogant skills it completely excludes OSN function. The new husband replaces the old in your separatist priority #1.\

 

The genetically formed old sin nature constantly has desires which are inordinate. The old sin nature throws out impulses. Some of them are directed toward good, some toward evil, some toward sin.

 

The old sin nature desires what belongs to others, whether people, property, possessions, authority, power, recognition, or approbation.

And although an unbeliever can orient himself to the laws of divine establishment and not act on his desires, the believer in Christ through doctrine and the filling of the HS completely replaces these desires with the love of Christ so that he actually lays down his life for others.

 

OSN desires what belongs to others, unbelievers without LDE will act on that desire, unbelievers with LDE will not act on those desires, weak, carnal believers will have those desires and even act on them, maturing believers with the love of Christ has replaced those desires and will lay down his life for others.

 

/Matt 10:38-39

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. "He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it. \

 

ROM 7:8But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead [unknown].

 

The OSN lusted, then the command came to not lust, then the OSN took the opportunity to flaunt its power of you and said, “You will lust regardless.”

 

Apart from the Law, you would have not known it was lurking there within you all the time.

 

ROM 7:9And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin [OSN] became alive [invigorated], and I died [recognized spiritual depravity or death];

 

Perceiving laws does not stop sin, but invigorates the OSN to take a command position in the soul.

 

So what does the commands of the OT do? Reveal your spiritual death, the sovereignty of the OSN, and your need for a Savior.

 

/Believers are newly commanded to have Christ’s love. This commandment is only possible for the new creature who is divorced from the OSN and married to Christ.\

 

Concentration, separatism, isolation become key in our love relationship to Christ and it excludes our old relationship to our OSN.

 

Understand you are forgiven, come to know Him, come to love Him, and then you will keep [guard] His new commands/instructions/grace procedures, and walk in a manner worthy of your election.

 

/GAL 5:16

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. \

 

Obviously, if we are commanded to love with the love of Christ, then we must be given the power and provisions to fulfil the command. The advantages from our union with Christ, unique to the CA, are the grace gifts that are those provisions.

 

The commandment graciously given is to love one another with the agape love of Christ.

 

The New Testament vocabulary for love only contains two words. The Koine Greek of the NT presents two words in both their verb form and noun form.

 

/a)gapaw, the verb form. The cognate is a)gaph. By definition this is a specialised love related to the mentality of the soul that has virtue from years of doctrine. \

 

/Agapao always depends on the mentality of the soul of the subject, the one loving, and therefore it is commanded.\

 

It never depends on the response of the object. This is why Jesus loved His own, even to the end. And in the end they were bickering with one another concerning their personal greatness, they lived in fear, they scattered from Jesus rather than sticking by His side, and one of them was an unbelieving traitor.

 

/Christ’s love is agapao and it will operate in the believer who has developed virtue and it will not depend on the response of the object.\

 

When used in connection with God it has a broader expanse, it means that God loves us in spite of the fact that He knew ahead of time what we were like. So it is related to the omniscience of God.

 

/The agapao love of God towards the believer does not depend on his spiritual status, but on the omniscience of God in knowing that we will be sons of glory.\

 

I quote from Col. Thieme’s book “The Unfailing Love of God” in the introduction.

 

“1John 4:19, We love because He first loved us. The unfailing love of God is the key to our motivation in the spiritual life! When we discover God’s love for us in eternity past, that He knew about us and graciously provided for us long before we ever existed, long before Jesus Christ created the universe, we will stand in awe. Our response to this overarching love of God becomes our love for God. This is the true motivation that must accompany the inculcation of Bible doctrine to advance to the high ground of spiritual maturity.”