Following Christ: Loving Like Christ

Loving Like Christ (Luke 6:27-38)

Collin Leong. 21/7/2017

I. Introduction

If you have been a Christian for a long time, you are probably aware that the Bible uses four different Greek words for "love".  These include  "Philia", "Storge", "Eros" and "Agape."  But in fact there are actually seven types of "love" according to the Greeks. They are:

• Eros - refers to physical love and sexual attraction and it is where the term “erotica” came from.

• Philia -  the sincere and platonic love. Eg: for your brother or a really good friend.  Philia exists when people share the same values and dispositions with someone and the feelings are reciprocated.

• Ludus - the flirtatious and teasing kind of love, the love mostly accompanied by dancing or laughter. It’s the child-like and fun kind of love.

• Pragma -  everlasting love between a married couple which develops over a long period of time. Comes from understanding, compromise and tolerance. This is the root word for "pragmatic."

• Philautia - Love of the self. The Greeks believed that we can only love others if we truly love ourselves and we can only care for others if we truly care for ourselves.

• Storge - Love of parents for their children. Storge is the love that knows forgiveness, acceptance and sacrifice.

• Agape -  the selfless kind of love, the love for humanity.  The love you give without expecting anything in return reflected in all charitable acts. It is the compassionate love that makes us sympathize with, help and connect to people we don’t know.  

So, when someone says "I love you", which type of love are they referring to? To add to the confusion, popular pop music makes the word cheap by calling any form of teenage crush, one night stands and lust of the flesh as "love." 

 A song by Bruno Mars says:

It's a beautiful night,

We're looking for something dumb to do.

Hey baby,

I think I wanna marry you.

If we wake up and you wanna break up that's cool.

No, I won't blame you;

It was fun, girl.

Just like "truth" is no longer absolute in the world today, "love" has been made subjective to individual point of view. But God's love is not subjective because God is love and He is not subjective. Therefore if we want to love like Christ, we need to have a deeper insight into Christ's type of love. We cannot "follow" something that we do not understand or something we create in our own image.

Though the Bible uses "Agape" as the representative word for God's love to us, we will quickly realize that Christ's love transcends beyond what Agape meant to the Greeks. In other words, man has not even invented a word that perfectly describe Christ's type of love.

One way to understand Christ's love is to identify its attributes. There are probably a dozen attributes or so, but we will look at the primary ones. Then we could ask ourselves, "How much of each attribute do I have in the way I love others?"

But before we do that, let's do a quick recap of how the Bible commands us believers to love others.


II. The Commandments to love like Christ. 

Love is the foundation of every other commandments in the Bible. It is the "chief" of all commandments, just as Jesus said:

 Love (Agape) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love (Agape) your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30) See Lev. 19:18

If we cannot love like the way the Bible commanded us, then all other commandments doesn't matter much.  "These three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13)




1. Commanded Love. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. (John 13:34)

• Why did Jesus say that this is a "new" commandment, if the old testament had already told us to love our neighbors? It's because He sets a new standard to the love that the Jews understood - it is to "love one another JUST AS I HAVE LOVED YOU." We shall see later that His standard is very high indeed!

2. Costly Love. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 John 3:16)

• If we don't know Jesus' love, we don't really know what love is. Real love is costly.

3. Caring Love. “And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Eph 5:2)

• The love is a caring one, not a callous one. Like how we treat small children with tender care.

4. Conspicuous Love. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

• Our love need to bold and visible, but unpretentious. In Asian culture, we tend to hold back showing affection to others to "save face." We should not do this out of culture or fashion. It requires humility and innocence – nothing to prove, nothing to hide

5. Committed Love. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Phil 2:1-4)

• Having same love – to love but also to allow to be loved. Love is unselfish and puts others first.

III. The Characteristics of Christ's Love

One passage that clearly explains Christ's type of love is found in Luke 6:27-38. It is thought directly by Jesus Himself.

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.  Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

"Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

Jesus not only taught it, He also lived it. The love He taught and lived by has an incredibly high standard, and yet is possible for His disciples to achieve. While we may not achieve ALL the love attributes at ALL times, but we have seen people who has done incredible deeds in similar fashion as Christ. 

Below we list six characteristics or attributes of Christ's love. Many of them are obvious. What is important here is to analyse how we love in our flesh against His standard. Only then do we realize how far short we are in this "greatest commandment", and can thereby make conscious decisions to improve ourselves. 

1. Unconditional. Loving the undeserved; Loving without pre-conditions . 

• God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8)
• Man's love is conditional. We impose certain biased conditions on what kind of people we can love and what kind of people we can't. They must posses certain traits that we like.
• We are prevented from unconditional love due to pride and sense of superiority. 
• References
• But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. (Luke 6:35)
• …bears [stegei] all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures [hypomenei] all things.  (1 Cor 13:7) Stegei – “roof over; cover”; Hypomenei – “I remain behind”

2. Sacrificial. Loving others more than self; Willing to suffer for the sake of others. Christ’s love was a costly love.

• "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)
• Man's love is the selfish kind. Love is leaned towards guarding self-interest, or at best a “fair” compromise. Love is cheap and is gone once it’s inconvenient.
• We are prevented from sacrificial love due to Self-Centredness.
• References: 
• "And if someone takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well." (Luke 6:29b)
• "It is not rude, it is not self-seeking"  (1 Cor 13:5a)

3. Giving. Loving without expecting; Being generous/liberal with time and resources without calculating loss.

• “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). 
• Man's love is transactional in nature. We expect an exchange. “if you love me, you will give/do this for me.”
• We could not give liberally due to greed and selfishness. We are calculative.
• References:
• "Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what is yours, do not demand it back." (Luke 6:30) 
• "Love is patient, love is kind." (1 Cor 13:4)

4. Forgiving (aphiemi – “I let go”).  Loving with mercy. Love that is focused on restoration of the offender without condoning or ignoring the wrong. Judgment and justice is left to God. 

• I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. (Isaiah 50:6)
• Man's love demands fairness. Brotherly love can only happen when a sense of  “justice” exist. We are focused more on “rights” than on "relationship."   
• We can't forgive because we are judgmental and are self-righteous. 
• References: 
•  “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;" (Luke 6:37)
• "...it is not easily angered [provoked], it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth." (1 Cor 13:5b,6)

5. Immutable. Loving Eternally – a love that will not change over time regardless of circumstances. It is irrevocable and indestructible.  His love is not dependent upon our faithfulness. (Mal. 3:6)

• "When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (John 13:1).
• Man is fickle and is double-minded. His heart changes with circumstances and “feelings”. Man's love is fragile.
• References:
• "bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."  (Luke 6:28)
• "Love never ends [ekpiptei]."  1 Cor 13:8;  Ekpiptei = fall off; fade away; fail

6. Transforming. Loving Inspirationally. A love so genuine and powerful that the loved is transformed and inspired to love others. 

• "For the love of Christ controls us… he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised."  (2 Cor 5:14-15) 
• Man's love is bounded to human rationale (logic) and changes with circumstances (inconsistency) and therefore has limited impact on others. This is due to our fear and self-preservation.
• References:
• "If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also." (Luke 6:29a).  
• "…  to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:19)

IV. Discussion

1. Discuss the six attributes of Christ’s love above and their meaning:

a) What it is, and what is it not?  

b) Give real life examples if possible – can you cite examples of people who has exhibited this attribute in loving others?

2) In your experience, which of these attributes do you find difficult to practice? 

(a) What do you think are the attitudes that stand in the way of embracing these attributes? 

(b) Share examples of your experiences that illustrated failures/success in practicing these attitudes. 

3) Which of Christ’s Love attribute you wish you have more of?

(a) Why do you wish you have more of it? (Who will benefit from it and what is the desired impact?)

(b) What is one way you can improve it? What attitudes or mind set need to change? 

References:

https://thoughtcatalog.com/rania-naim/2016/02/the-7-kinds-of-love-and-how-they-can-help-you-define-yours-according-to-the-ancient-greeks/