Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The Bible does not say that agapeis one aspect of the character of God: it says that "God IS agape" (1 John 4:8).
How happy He is when He sees that agapebecomes the character of His children on earth! There are 144,000 of them scattered around the earth in every language and culture and nation--not a literal number (I hope!) but a symbolic number of people who have chosen to "follow the Lamb wherever He goes" (Rev. 14:1-5).
They listen for His "voice" to tell them what to do and where to go and what to say. That listening takes time, more than the minute or two that many of us spend "in prayer" after which we jump up and go forth to do our own bidding. These people all around the world do more than tell the Lord "I love You!" They are inspired by His love, to love their neighbor as themselves, with agape. They keep themselves conscious of that agapeof Christ:
When He died for us on His cross, it wasn't a mere going to sleep for a weekend. (Any human who suffers the physical agony of crucifixion would love to go to sleep for a weekend! Doubtless that's what the two thieves crucified with Him did.)
No, the divine Son of God suffered the hiding of His Father's face so that He truly felt in His deepest soul that the Father had "forsaken" Him. There is no pain or horror in the universe as great as that!
Such love (agape) never goes without a response from the ones who are so loved; either (1) they despise it and thus crucify Christ "afresh" (Heb. 6:6), or (2) they let that agapemotivate them, propel them, move them, "constrain" them to live "henceforth" only "unto Him which died for them" (2 Cor. 5:14, 15, King James Version).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 25, 2008.
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