Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The "love chapter," 1 Corinthians 13, does not make a lot of sense unless that word that Paul used--agape--is understood. Jesus also used it in Matthew 24:9-14, where He described the moral rot that pervades society worldwide, today: "Because iniquity shall abound, the agape of many shall wax cold."
The word "many" in the original is "the many," meaning the masses, that is, almost everybody. But there are a few exceptions, for He adds immediately, "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." That is, those who hold on to their agape, not letting it get cold. Agape has to be warm, or it is gone. There we see the difference: it's warm-heartedness or cold-heartedness. One leads to eternal perishing, the other to eternal living.
What must wake us up is the fact that if we are exposed unrelentingly to the iniquity that is in the world, our agapewill grow cold. The word for iniquity in the original is anomia, which means heart-animosity against the law of God. The way to avoid contamination with that iniquity is not to bury yourself in a lonely cabin in the woods, even if you spend all your time reading the Bible, or joining a commune of super-spiritual people who isolate themselves. Jesus wouldn't do that.
There was iniquity everywhere in His day, too; but He mingled with people. The word agape describes a love that comes only from heaven; it is shed abroad in the heart of the believer by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5); because its source is the cross of Christ, its warmth never dies out of the heart of the believer; and no matter how chilling is the immoral atmosphere all around the believer, its built-in warmth is such a glowing fire that all of Satan's temptations are powerless to freeze it. A flame will burn even in the coldest atmosphere! The glow in your heart is lit by the flame of love revealed in God's gift of His Son. Don't take your eyes off that cross!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: March 3, 1998.
Copyright © 2013 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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