There’s something that never ceases to baffle me. I’ve known this my whole life, it’s been repeated to me several times every day, yet I can never quite get my head around it. And to be honest, I think you’d be hard pressed to find any human on this earth that can explain it. And that simple thing is love. Love is often cast as a feeling, an emotion, a response to something or someone. But, I’m not actually talking about the feeling of love. I’m talking about a different kind of love—and that is Agape Love.
You see, Agape is an Ancient Greek word for love and it means “love of the highest form-a brotherly love, the love of God to man.” And this is the love that is unexplainable.
We use the word love in our daily lives an uncountable number of times each day. We use it to describe our passions, interests, and favorite foods. We use it to express to people how much they mean to us. And as humans, we can pretty much wrap our heads around this feeling of love.
But this love that I’m talking about is a completely different form of love. When the Bible was translated into our languages today, a bit got lost in the translation. One part of this is we condensed several different versions of love into one “catch-all” definition. But this leaves a lot out for our understanding. Because, God doesn’t love as as we love pizza or running.
He loves us with a love where He sent his son down to live on our sinful planet, only to die bearing the weight of all the evil that was ever done and will ever be done in the world. He loves us with a love that never gives up no matter what we do for Him. And, He loves us with a love that follows us no matter where we are at in the world.
This is a crazy love. I just don’t quite understand it. One of my favorite ways that God illustrates this to us is in the book of Hosea. He uses this image story to show His pursuit of each of us individually.
In the story, Hosea the prophet plays the role of Jesus. And we play the role of the adulteress. So, here’s how it goes. Hosea is told to go and marry this woman who is a known prostitute. He doesn’t understand it, but he does it. He romances her and she marries him. And they are in love for a bit. But, then, something new and exciting comes into her life, and she sleeps with another man. And yet, in the midst of the frustration, anger, and hurt, Hosea stays married to her. He continues to pursue her and love her. It’s absolutely unexplainable. She doesn’t deserve this. She isn’t seeking him. In fact, she’s completely abandoned him and treated him like trash.
But, he still loves her. He still pursues her.
And, this is what God does to us. We’re horrible, sinful people. We mess up daily, even if we’ve committed our lives to serving Him.
But, with unexplainable Grace, He reaches down in love. He pursues us with an unfailing and unexplainable love.
This is the greatest love story I’ve ever heard. And we’re a part of it!