One cannot appreciate the incredible good news of the everlasting gospel unless one understands God's unique agape love. This love explains why God saved us sinful human beings (see also Ephesians 2:1-6 and Titus 3:3-5).
Note: The word eros does not appear at all in the New Testament. Phileo is the word that is generally used to define human love. The noun agape is used some 87 times in the New Testament and always refers to God's unique love. It must not be confused with the verb agapao (a deliberate action of the will), which is used some 129 times in the New Testament and can refer to man's self-centered love (see Jn. 3:19; 12:43; Lk. 6:32; 11:43).
HUMAN LOVE IS: | GOD'S LOVE IS: |
A. CONDITIONAL Depends on beauty or goodness and therefore needs arousing. When this love is attributed to God it perverts the gospel into conditional good news or good advice: Matt. 19:16-27; John 9:14-31 |
A. UNCONDITIONAL Is spontaneous, uncaused, and independent of our goodness. This is the ground of our salvation: Rom. 5:6-10; Eph.2:1-6,8,9; Titus 3:3-5 |
B. CHANGEABLE Fluctuates and is unreliable: Luke 22:31-34 (Divorce rate in U.S.) |
B. CHANGELESS Everlasting and never fails: Jer. 31:3; 1 Cor. 13:8; Jn. 13:1; Rom. 8:35-39 |
C. SELF-SEEKING (U-turn agape) Egocentric; therefore always ascending, socially, politically, academically, economically, and even religiously: Isa. 53:6; Phil. 2:21. (Satan is the originator of this self principle and infected man with it at the Fall.) Ezk. 28:14,15; Isa. 14:12-14 |
C. SELF-EMPTYING (agape) Selfless; therefore will step down for the benefit of others: 1 Cor. 13:5; 2 Cor. 8:9; Phil. 2:6-8 |
Because Satan knows that the agape love of God is the ground of our salvation, he does not want believers to understand this love. He knows if they do, his hold on them is gone. For this reason, the first thing he attacked in church history is the concept of God's agape love. Once he perverted this, it was not hard for him to pervert the gospel. This is how he accomplished his deception: by creating a battle between the word agape and eros among the Church Fathers.
The Eros Gospel (Legalism) GOD MAN |
The Caritas Gospel (Galatianism) GOD MAN |
The Agape Gospel (Grace) GOD MAN |