Abide in agapan love by guarding your own positive volition towards doctrine; John 15:9Title: Abide in agapan love by guarding your own positive volition towards doctrine; John 15:9.
As we have defined agapan love: A mental attitude impersonal, unconditional love from mature virtue that recognizes the value of an object, producing a self-sacrificial preference and regard for its benefit even if hated. It is without sin and is not motivated by any affection or attraction.
John 15:9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
The Father agapao Jesus Christ and so gave Him the plan by which He could win a strategic victory in the AC and so be glorified forever.
“Just as,” refers to the exact same way.
Jesus Christ has agapao every believer and so gives each the same plan by which he my win a tactical victory in the AC and so share in Christ’s glory forever.
God the Father saw potential and value in His Son and so He gave Him something valuable. Jesus Christ saw potential and value in each CA believer and so He gave us something just as valuable.
Why can Jesus Christ love every believer by which we are all given EPEO despite the fact that some are positive and some are not?
God the Father can love every believer because He is propitiated by the work of the Son. Jesus Christ can love every believer because He sees every believer as sanctified (set apart as holy).
Propitiated = God is completely satisfied and His character is no longer compromised.
This love, therefore, becomes a command by the Lord to us.
“abide in My love” – meno[meno – aorist active imperative] with avgape[agape] = remain in the sphere of My agape love.
What does it mean to be in the sphere of?
The sphere of love is the environment of the PPOG, which is designed for the growth and prosperity of the new creature in Christ.
In 1982 there were approximately 750,000 metric tonnes of salmon produced in the world. In 2007 that number was 3.1 million metric tonnes (4 fold increase). In 1982 25 percent were farmed and in 2007 that number jumped to 69 percent. The science of farming salmon has greatly improved, but a farmed salmon will never be as good as a wild salmon. They are able to increase the percentage of omega-3 fatty acid in a farmed salmon, but they contain 10 times the contaminants (PCB’s, chlorinated pesticides, dioxins). Farm raised salmon are fed a salmon colored pink dye so they look appetizing, otherwise the flesh would be an unappetizing grey. Farm raised are fattier while wild salmon are higher in protein. Farm raised have to be treated with antibiotics and pesticides to stem the growth of harmful disease and parasites that accumulate in the pens. The excrement of tens of thousands of fish contaminates the bottom of the pen. Farm raised salmon pollute their environment to a degree. One culprit is sea lice that can contaminate wild salmon. It is reported that on the west coast of Canada wild salmon are being driven to extinction by sea lice. Some farm raised salmon escape and they interbreed with wild salmon reducing genetic diversity, disease resistance, and adaptability.
My point is that farming salmon has become big business and so has the cosmic system. But farm pens are not the natural habitat for salmon and so neither is the cosmic system for the new creature in Christ. And just like farm raised salmon infect their environment the cosmic believer harms the RFOG by on the one hand not living in his spiritual gift and on the other becoming antagonistic towards grace and doctrine.
As the wild is the environment for a prosperous salmon so the sphere of love is the environment for the prosperous believer.
Do you want to use your spiritual gift for the common good or do you want to spread sea lice? Do you want to be confident in spiritual self-esteem or do you need pink dye in order to pretend that you’re a wild salmon? Do you want your output to the be the fruit of divine good or do you want it to be the excrement at the bottom of the pool? Do you want to be free and have liberty or do you want to be contaminated with pesticides such as stress, fear, and anxiety, ego, and pride? Do you want to be lean and mean spiritually or do you want to be sluggish, lazy and fat (spiritually)?
The imperative makes this one of the many commands for the Church.
The description of agape love was best stated in 1Co 13. This mental attitude of agape love is not stated any better than in: Phil 2:1-11.
We begin with four first class conditions; if and it’s true.
Phil 2:1 If therefore there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion,
We have a nominative (subject) of the prepositional phrase where agape is the object and that word here is translated consolation. This is not a great translation for today since its meaning has changed. We think of a consolation prize, which agape love is not.
“consolation” – paramu,qion[paramuthion – para = near and muthos = speech]. The instrument used to console or comfort another. RMA of agape comforts the believer.
Phil 2:2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Phil 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself;
Phil 2:4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others [abide in My love].
Phil 2:5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
Phil 2:6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Phil 2:7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
Phil 2:8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Phil 2:9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
Phil 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,
Phil 2:11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The section ends with His strategic victory. Hopefully your epitaph will tell of your tactical victory.
Abiding in the agapao love of Christ means that we do what we can to promote tactical victories in other members of the RFOG and do nothing to hinder the same.
The Father gave to Christ, Christ gave to us, and we give to one another.
This has nothing to do with fellowship. What you give in essence in the mental attitude of this love. It might motivate you to comfort, to say something, to give something tangible, to pray, to not judge, to not gossip or slander, to give privacy, etc. The way in which this love is expressed (overtly or not) is up to the believer priest who will gain more spiritual common sense as he matures.
You have no part in the spiritual growth of another believer, but you can help and not be a hindrance.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Gal 5:24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Gal 5:26 Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.
Gal 6:1 Brethren, even if a man is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Gal 6:2 Bear[support as a burden, to pick up] one another's burdens [heaviness, weight, burden, trouble], and thus fulfill the law of Christ.
Gal 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Why is this here? If you have an ego, if you have such pride, then you will think yourself too good to be lowering yourself to the point of helping to bear another believer’s burden. There is another reason. If you help people they will tell you how wonderful you are and if you hear it enough you may actually begin to believe it and then you are of no use to anyone.
Gal 6:4 But let each one examine[dokimazo = test for approval] his own work [put to the test your own production], and then he will have reason for boasting [this word means to glory or rejoice = rejoicing] in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.
“In regard to another,” is a common principle in the Scripture which means we should have no comparisons with others. You evaluate your own fruit and if you conclude that it is divine good then you should rejoice [not brag in this context] in regard to yourself and not start comparing yourself with others. In no way are we to be comparing our production with another’s or weighing the success of what we do with another’s seeming success or lack of.
Gal 6:5 For each one shall bear his own load.
If you have help you are still bearing your own load. This implies that you will bear it alone at times and sometimes you may have help, but your load will never be fully on another believer’s shoulders.
This is the reason that I truly believe that God’s plan for the Lord was for Him to have help when His load was the greatest physically. I emphasize physically because spiritually no one could help Him, only His own PV could help Him.
Matt 27:32 And as they were coming out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon, whom they pressed into service to bear His cross.
This means no MAS and no invasion of privacy and it does mean that we approach one another in love as described in 1Co 13:4-8.
MA grace orientation, overt grace orientation, content with God’s grace, neutralized ego, others more important, behaves with honor, self-sacrificial from lack of lust, avoids being irritated, sees potential victory, does not compete, BD always the issue, will not betray confidence [used originally for covering a roof], faith rest to believe the bestno presumption, confidence in the potential victory, stands firm under pressure, and the subject retains joy, stability, and tranquility |