LOVE ONE ANOTHER
The theme for Warners Chapel in 2003 is
“Love One Another”. Love is wonderful, but often misunderstood.
Some of the problem comes about through the English language. We love
baseball, apple pie, and mother. We love to see a beautiful sunset, our
alma mater win the conference championship, the affection between two people
devoted to one another in marriage. Love. What is love?
The Greeks had several
words for love. These words described the love between brothers, the love
of a parent for children, and the love that one has for the care of another
without anything offered in return. Each of these words translated love
are important aspects of the love we need for each other.
Love among the followers of Jesus is a requirement He places on us. It
serves as the badge of discipleship, for Jesus said, “By this shall all men
know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:35).
The world is watching, does it see a group of people devoted to following Jesus
who demonstrate that commitment by loving one another?
Our love is made possible because of God’s love for us, we cannot possibly
love God unless we love one another. John wrote, “Beloved, let us love
one another: for love is of God; and ever one that loveth is born of God, and
knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love... If a
man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth
not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
(I John 4:7-8, 20)
The command to love one another requires action. Just as faith requires
action (James 2:14ff), so does our love. If all men are to know we are a
disciple by our love one for another, it follows that the love must be
demonstrated before the world (John 14:15). Two of the Greek words
translated love give us some direction concerning what actions we need to take.
The first is the verb agapao. This love is concerned with the
welfare of others without concern for the worthiness of the one receiving it.
Vine commented, “Christian love, whether expressed toward the brethren, or
toward men in general, it is not an impulse from feelings, it does not always
run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for
whom some affinity is discovered. Love seeks the welfare of all, Romans
15:2, and works no ill to any, 13:8-10” (Vines Expository Dictionary of New
Testament Words, page 703).
The second verb is phileo. This word, according to Vine, “more
nearly represents tender affection”
(page 703). This word in its noun form is combined with the Greek for
brother and is A third way to determine how our actions of love should find
expression is found in I Corinthians 13. Paul wrote: