What the World Needs Now

"I was thinking about how we need to operate in agape love. Love covers!"

People are hurting. Times are not just tough, they are tumultuous. There is fear on every side. Terrors on the outside with divisions on the inside. If you have been following the news or the social media stream you know exactly what I am talking about.

People all over the world read this blog from every walk of life. You are concerned and feel the pain of what is going on firsthand. In our nation we are experiencing things we never would have dreamed of. Some of you are mourning the loss of a friend or the loss of an ideal you have lived by because of the actions of others.

I titled this post "What the World Needs Now" with the old song in mind. We need love. But not just any love. We need agape love. If you aren't familiar with what agape love is let me tell you about it.

Agape is a Greek word for love. It is different than our English word from love in the sense that agape is a very specific type of love. In fact the Greeks had several words they used to describe love. We in our language would say "I love my friends," "I love my spouse," "I love my dog," and "I love nachos" all in the same day. Obviously we do not love nachos the way we love our spouse. Nor do we love our friends like we love our dog. (For some they love their dog more than their friends!)

In the Greek language they had separate words for the different kinds of love. They would use phileo for the friendship type of love. Eros was used for the sensual and romantic type of love. But agape is different. We find that it is entirely a word that was used mostly by the Bible and was used for the love that we as Christians are supposed to have. It is a unique type of love that flows from God the Father.

It was the agape love of the Father that motivated Him to send Jesus to live and die for our sin and salvation. It is the agape love that Jesus lived in that caused Him to touch the unclean and heal them, to stop with a half breed outcast woman by a well and save her soul, and to weep at the death of His friend and raise him from the dead. Jesus is love incarnate because 1 John tells us that "God is love."

God is agape love. It defines Who He is and how He operates. It is this agape love that we are to operate in. It is this agape love from the Father, working through His children, that the world needs. Without it the same problems will keep going on. Division and separation, prejudice and murder will continue without agape love.

When we, God's children, the church of Jesus Christ, come together in love and spread the love of the Father it will tear down the walls of separation. The love of God will show the world that we are His disciples. Our love will be shown in our obedience to the commandments of God and people will see the difference in our lives. This love will compel us to reach out with the Word and power of God. This love will motivate and fuel our prayers for the world and cause us to pray for our enemies and bless those that spitefully use and persecute us.

Agape love is what the world needs now. Love never fails.

Day 320 - Prejudice

"At the back door an older black man came and told me he got the the CD because he wanted to listen to it again. He shared that he had grown up in the South going to black churches all his young life in the 1960's. He said that this was the first time he had gone to a white church. I responded that we don't view ourselves as a white church but that we are multicultural. He said yeah but me being a white preacher was a big deal for him. I told him that we are brothers bound by blood, the blood of Jesus. He said that it had been hard for him because he had seen the abuses in the name of the blood of Jesus and he was overcoming them now."

I had a very different life growing up than this man. Being from Southern California all I have ever known from a young age was a mixture of cultures. Diversity wasn't something we worked at, we lived it. Many of my closest friends to this day do not look like me. In fact I get a little nervous when I am surrounded by a bunch of people who are all the same color. It isn't natural for me. 

I had seen a limited amount of prejudice growing up. It wasn't just in white people either. There is plenty of prejudice in other races and cultures and I have been on the receiving end of it. Nothing like what this man I met last year experienced to be sure. When I ventured out for Bible College to the Midwest it became even more stark. My wife was working at the return desk of a store and when a mixed race couple walked in one of her coworkers gave some rude comments about how that shouldn't be. 

The wonderful thing about being a Christian is that all of that prejudice and hate has been nailed to the cross. The Bible is clear that in the Kingdom of God there is no longer class and race but now we are all one in Christ Jesus. There isn't even the distinction of male and female in the Kingdom of God. We all have a level playing field. We are on the same team, we are all working together. We are family. It is now one race, the human race. We are one blood, the blood of Jesus. 

As we crucify the flesh and renew our minds to the Word of God we will find the prejudice and the hate washed away. All are welcome at the table of the Lord. Jesus died for every person of every tribe, every tongue and every nation. No matter what color a person's skin is their lives matter because the one who matters most, Jesus, died for them. 

What are some good examples of people loving one another and overcoming prejudice? What scriptures deal with this issue?