Adding Love

The pinnacle of attributes or characteristics to be added to our faith is love. Each one of these traits is built on the preceding ones. Last time we saw that brotherly love was added to the mix. Now, built upon that we have agape love. It is an interesting study to investigate these two kinds of love – brotherly love and agape love – to see what they have in common and how they differ. (William Dicks does a good job of comparing the two on his blog here.) Vine distinguishes them by saying that phileo more nearly represents tender affection. Agape love is one that values and esteems. It is an unselfish love, ready to serve. Vine also says that agape “is not an impulse from the feelings, it does not always run with the natural inclinations.”

Paul tells us in I Corinthians 13 that we can have a lot of good attributes and do many admirable things, but if love is missing we are but a sounding brass or clanging cymbal. We may have all kinds of faith, but without love we are nothing and we are profited nothing.

Perhaps then we can see why Peter would put love at the very top of the list. Without all of these traits and love as the pinnacle, Peter says we are shortsighted, even to blindness. (2 Peter 1:9)

My question to us as faithful men then is how do we add this to all of the rest. What steps can we concretely and diligently take to develop this characteristic?

1 John 4:7 (NKJV)7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

First and foremost then is the need to be born of God. We cannot be faithful men and have this kind of love if we have not been born again through the Spirit of God.

If we are born again, then we have experienced the love of God first hand and should be able to communicate that love to others. What steps can we take to develop the kind of love we should have? We just need to practice. God gives us opportunities every day with our families and coworkers and people we meet along the way to practice loving those who may not deserve it. If Vine is correct that this love is not based upon our feelings, we should not wait until it feels right to demonstrate love. We need to just practice. Practice sacrificing your time and energy for someone else just because it is right and good to do so.

May God help us as we practice the diligence of adding this kind of love into our lives.