Widely Publicized yet Little Known

I learned something interesting this morning during prayer. I finally got a good definition for the Greek word “agape,” and, like all revelation from God, it was simple and obvious even though it took me a long time to get it.

Agape is tossed around a lot by Christians, and my feeling is that they use it to manipulate and discourage believers. They say it’s an incredible form of love human beings can’t really understand. If you have it, you will do absolutely anything for others. You will give away everything you have. You will kiss people’s feet while they beat you. You will do whatever other people tell you to do and give them anything they ask for. It sounds more like spinelessness and neediness than love, to tell you the truth.

If you buy into the weird teachings about agape, you’ll naturally feel that you could never have it. You’ll probably want nothing to do with it. It sounds like a person with agape would have a horrible life.

Catholics, in particular, make Christianity sound terrible. They have a strange obsession with “saints” who were tortured to death or who mutilated themselves or voluntarily lived in misery and poverty. St. Lucy, for example, supposedly cut her own eyes out to discourage a persistent suitor. St. Lawrence was supposedly roasted on a grill. You can go Google the others.

It’s not helpful to exaggerate the suffering of Christians. Kids hear that kind of thing, and of course, it turns them off. Life is hard enough without making up fables about torture and so on.

Many clergymen are more interested in telling people they’re too dirty and weak to succeed than in telling them how to become God’s successful, powerful children. It’s a bizarre quirk of human nature. We should be building each other, but instead, we tell others Christianity is a demanding, painful ordeal they clearly can’t endure.

Agape doesn’t mean you give up all your dignity and basically become a human spittoon. God loves his children, and although he permits persecution, we are supposed to live in victory and abundance. Mindless submission to cruel, wicked people who will never come around and repent is not agape. It’s probably a manifestation of an unhealthy guilt complex. It can also be pride. “Look how I suffer for God. God is impressed with me because I’m better than you but I let you abuse me.” I’ll bet everyone reading this is familiar with that act.

Jesus said his yoke was easy and his burden was light, and I have no problem with that. I have no problem with being pampered and sheltered. Bring it on. I can’t get enough of it. This world is awful. I want all the help I can get, and I prefer not to earn it. Earning is for the wicked, as in, “The wages of sin is death.” I’m an heir. I inherit.

Here is the definition of agape: affection.

That’s it. That’s what it means. It means a warm, tender, compassionate feeling for another being. It’s something you’re capable of having, especially with the Holy Spirit’s help. It’s not beyond you. God doesn’t ask us to do things and then make them impossible.

Inheritance is all about helping you do things you could not do on your own.

Just about everyone feels affection. The Christian version is different because it’s supernaturally imparted, and it is less dependent on the way the object behaves. You can feel it for truly nasty creatures who do great evil.

That makes sense. God feels affection for us, and even the best of us are pretty bad.

I keep watching videos of healers on Youtube, and while I love what they do, I am aware that something very big is missing: affection.

I don’t mean that they have no affection. Clearly, they do. But it’s not like God’s affection, and I don’t think it’s their primary motivation. Love is the reason God created the universe. It wasn’t duty or a desire for harmony or a need for justice. He wanted other beings to shower and perfuse with love, and he wanted them to feel great affection for each other. If we go out and heal people, we should also be so full of supernatural love, they can feel it.

Jesus visited me twice. The primary thing I felt was the heat of his love. It was like radiation. I literally felt it, like the heat of the sun hitting my skin, except that it passed through me and surrounded me.

I don’t have that. I’m a nice guy for the most part, but if you meet me, you won’t feel waves of love making your knees weak.

John said that perfect affection cast out fear. He said that if you don’t love your brother, you are not of God. That’s scary. He said that he who hates his brother is a murderer, and we know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him!

Jesus said some people would be cast into hell after saying, “‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” It seems clear that you can heal people and still be way out of line.

There are preachers who have made themselves very rich by healing, or pretending to heal, sick people. There are preachers who make a big show of what they do, not so people can learn from it, but so they will be admired and supported with donations. I would like to heal people, but it’s pointless if I don’t have the right motivation.

This world is a tough place. Life begins with pain, and then people mistreat and abuse you. Satan and his children show up in most people’s lives long before they hear from God. We learn to be angry, defensive, and cruel, in self defense. Later, we go on offense, and we feel that the evil we have been subjected to makes it justified. We develop poisonous habits that go against God’s nature. Then, when we become Christians, we may remain snared in these strongholds.

People who are supposed to teach us fill us with lies that make things worse. They say Christianity is a set of rules, with a God who keeps score, like the College Board, and then decides whether you have enough points to get into heaven. They say we have to earn what we get. Contradicting Jesus very directly, they say Christianity is hard, and that you have to be a very special, very good person to make it. They tell us we have to change ourselves, which is completely ridiculous. They teach us nonsense, and as a result, most of us don’t get far.

Christianity is a supernatural way of life. It’s about spirits and supernatural power, not human effort and WWJD bracelets. God transforms us supernaturally. He is the only path to supernatural affection. He is the only one who frees us from hostility. He can drop affection in you like a bagboy dropping oranges into a sack. Through authority inherited from him, you can silence the hostility of your flesh instantly. We should be pursuing these things instead of trying to see how good we can be without his help. He isn’t looking for competition.

Love and fear are enemies. I want love–affection–to flow from me, and I don’t want fear in me, except for fear of the Lord.

I believe the church is still half-baked, even though we are seeing a lot of miracles. Without an atmosphere of supernatural affection, we are not complete. We’re supposed to be the representatives of Jesus, and love radiates from him with great power. If it’s not radiating from us, we are still not who we should be.