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Viewpoint from Dave Weeks 18/02/2022
David Weeks
Pastor, Hope Church (retired)
This week we had Valentines Day, a day when certain people make a point of expressing their love to one another. In the English language we only have one word for love. In the Greek (the language of the Bible) there are more. There are Eros, Storge, and Philia, meaning romantic love, family love, and brotherly or human love respectively. The Bible says God is love, which is true, but He is also the One who defines it. Often what we call true love is not how God sees it. When the writers of the New Testament wanted to describe God’s love they introduced the word agape, meaning a love much purer and greater than any human love. Jesus, being God, demonstrated agape love
 He fully demonstrated His agape love to mankind by willingly leaving heaven and living among many who reviled and persecuted Him, and ultimately dying on a cross, perhaps the most horrific of executions devised by man. On that cross He took our sin and the punishment that we deserve for our sin. His treatment at the hand of the Roman soldiers was so brutal that the Bible describes it as... “His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness”
On one occasion Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment? His reply was “The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and the second is like it, you should love your neighbour as yourself”. However, later on, Jesus gave a new commandment when he said “You must love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”!
It is not very easy to love your neighbour as yourself, especially if you don’t like yourself very much! But to love someone as He loves us, i.e. with agape love, is much more difficult! So how do we?
Jesus tells us that if we turn from our sin, give our lives to Him and make Him our Lord and Saviour, He will forgive us our sins and give us a place in heaven with Him. He will also come and live within us by His Holy Spirit. That means we will have and experience His agape love in our hearts, which is the most wonderful thing. We can then show His true love to those around us
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