Eros ~ intimate love, love between a man and wife; philos~ friend love, and affection toward another, often grown from similar or common interests - both called love in the English language - both come with emotion and both are within our grasp - even in our own strength...
but agape ~ this love is so much more, this love is described with 15 different attributes ~ this is the love in 1 Corinthians 13, this is the love that bears witness to the work of the Holy Spirit in us, the love we are commanded to give to our brothers and sisters in Christ, all of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and this is the love that we are commanded to love our God - agape love - with all our heart, with all our mind and with all our soul, and this is the love that God so loved us with that He gave us His Son ~ but this love is not attainable in our own strength ~ this is a supernatural love, a love that can exist only by the power and leading of the Holy Spirit in us ~
Agape is patient ~ agape is kind ~ agape does not envy ~ agape does not boast ~ agape is not proud ~ agape is not rude ~ agape is not self-seeking ~ agape is not easily angered ~ agape keeps no record of wrong ~ agape does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth ~ agape always protects ~ agape always trusts ~ agape always hopes ~ agape always perseveres ~ agape never fails
Agape is described with absolutes and as a complete package, and it is always demonstrated, never just 'felt' ~ we are incapable of this kind of love on our own, and if you doubt that ~ consider, do you love, as described above and demonstrated by your actions all brothers and sisters in Christ?
Yet we are commanded to do just this ~ and through the power of His Holy Spirit we can do what is otherwise impossible, we can be used to demonstrate His love ~ agape love ~ supernatural love
And who wouldn't notice this? Certainly not natural, to some even crazy - but wonderfully and unmistakably noticeable ~ so one must ask ~ do they know we are Christians by this love?
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