2 Thess 1:3, The Selfless, Noble Hero.

Thursday June 8, 2023

Theme: Agape love is the ability for a believer to lay down their lives for the benefit of others while maintaining their holy virtue and integrity.

1. Agape is primarily God’s love. Whether we love God or people, agape is God’s love.
   1. God has gifted every believer with His life and agape is part of that life – agape is a gift to all who believe, Rom 5:5.
   2. Agape is not for lifting us up or promoting us. It is not for us. It is for others, (Mat 19:27  "Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?")
   3. The life of God has taken possession of every believer’s innermost being, 2Co 5:14-15.
   4. The life of God in the believer is led by the Holy Spirit, Rom 8:14-15.
   5. Therefore, love’s nature in us is such that it cannot be dammed up, but makes its way out to its neighbor. It does not seek itself.
2. 1Co 13: 4-7 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
   1. Love does not act unbecomingly – it does not behave with ill-mannered impropriety.
      1. It behaves in the proper way towards all people in all circumstances, 1Co 8:1-2. This is the law of love.
   2. Love does not seek its own – is not preoccupied with the interests of self. 1Co 6:12-13; 10:23-24; Rom 15:3.
   3. Love is greater than knowledge. Love is eternal. Knowledge will cease, 1Co 13:8-13.
3. Application: Do not consider knowledge more important than love. You need knowledge for God’s love to mature in you, but knowledge will make one arrogant without agape love for others.