G25 Agape Love

The divine love God showed when He provided for each person's good, with no regard for His own benefit, by sacrificing Himself, in the person of Jesus His beloved son, to pay the penalty for the sins of each person who would choose to accept and embrace Jesus as Lord/God and Savior.

Excerpt from the Community Bible Church Constitution's "What We Believe" section on love: "We believe that love is both a command and a HolySpirit-produced virtue. Love is a conscious act of the will to meet the true need of others without regard to personal reward."

Excerpts from Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume.

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<li>The demand of Jesus (to embrace and practice this kind of love) is self-evident because he creates a new situation. He proclaims God’s mercy as a new event that changes everything. The forgiveness of sins that he brings releases a new and overflowing love (Luke 7:47) which fills and directs all life and action. God’s new relationship to us puts us in a new relationship to him and to one another (cf. Luke 6:36ff.). This is a relationship of mercy and reconciliation. In regard to us, God’s love is a pardoning love. Jesus is the beloved Son (Matt. 12:5) whose death is an exercise of judgment and the establishment of a new order (12:8ff.). Jesus founds the new community into which we enter through relationship with him. Hence love for others is love for him (Matt. 25:31ff.), and he can call for radical commitment to himself (Matt. 10:37ff.). The Son brings remission, calls for an unconditional decision for God, and thus creates a new people who will tread the way of self-sacrificing love that he himself took.</li>

<li>Love of God means total commitment and total trust (Matt. 5:29-30; 6:24ff.).</li>

<li>Love of neighbor accompanies love of God (Matt. 22:39). This is no abstract love of humanity. Nevertheless, it transcends any restriction to compatriots; the neighbor is simply the person in need (Luke 10:29-30), or rather, the neighbor is the person close at hand who acts in neighborly fashion to the one in need. This action derives from a response of the heart and consists of doing in all sobriety what the occasion requires.</li>

<li>Love of neighbor definitely includes love of enemies (Matt. 5:43-44). It is the love of God’s new people which they show not merely to one another but even to those of the present age who persecute them. It is thus totally sacrificial. The martyr becomes an intercessor for the hostile world that imposes martyrdom. </li>

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