Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant. ⁴

(1 Corinthians 13:4 NASB)

(1) Agape love is the greatest virtue of the Christian life. Yet that type of love was rare in pagan Greek literature. That’s because the traits agape portrays—unselfishness, self-giving, willful devotion, concern for the welfare of others—were mostly disdained in ancient Greek culture as signs of weakness. However, the New Testament declares agape to be the character trait around which all others revolve. The apostle John writes, “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. ¹⁶ God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁶” (1 John 4:16 NASB)

(2) The Saints are to order their behavior or manner of life within the sphere of this divine, supernatural (agape) love produced in their heart by the Holy Spirit. When this love becomes the deciding factor in their choices and the motivating power in their actions, they will be walking in love. They will be exemplifying in their life…

(3) …the self-sacrificial love shown at Calvary and the Christian graces mentioned in our study passage today “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant. ⁴” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8 NASB). It is a love that is willing to sacrifice one’s self for the benefit of that brother or sister, a love that causes one to be long-suffering toward him, a love that makes one treat them kindly, a love that rejoices in the welfare of another, a love that has no room for envy in the heart, a love that is not jealous, a love that keeps one from boasting of oneself…

(4) …a love that keeps one from bearing oneself in a lofty manner, a love that keeps one from acting unbecomingly, a love that keeps one from seeking one’s own rights, a love that keeps one from becoming angry, a love that does not impute evil, a love that does not rejoice in iniquity but in the truth, a love that bears up against all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. That is the kind of love which God says a Christian should have for another.

(5) “(Agape love) speaks of a love which is awakened by a sense of value in an object which causes one to prize it. ¹⁶” It springs from an apprehension of the preciousness of an object. It is a love of esteem and approbation. The quality of this love is determined by the character of the one who loves, and that of the object loved. “(In Jn 3:16) God’s love for a sinful and lost race springs from HIS heart in response to the high value HE places upon each human soul. ¹⁶” (John 3:16 NASB)

(6) Every sinner is exceedingly precious in His sight. “Phileo,” which is another word for love, a love which is the response of the human spirit to what appeals to it as pleasurable, will not do here, for there is nothing in a lost sinner that the heart of God can find pleasure in, but on the contrary, everything that His holiness rebels against. But each sinner is most precious to God, first, because they bear the image of the Creator even though that image is marred by sin, and second, because through redemption, that sinner can be conformed into the very image of God’s dear Son…

(7) This preciousness of each member of the human race to the heart of God is His precious element of the love that gave His Son to die on the Cross. The degree of the preciousness is measured by the infinite sacrifice which God made. The love in John 3:16 is a love whose essence is that of self-sacrifice for the benefit of the one loved…

(8) …this is a love based upon an evaluation of the preciousness of the one loved. This (Agape Love) is an attitude of selflessness. Biblical agape love is a matter of the will and not a matter of feeling or emotion, though deep feelings and emotions almost always accompany love. God’s loving the world was not a matter simply of feeling; it resulted in His sending His only Son to redeem the world. Love is selfless giving, always selfless and always giving.

(9) The very nature and substance of love is to deny self and to give to others. We can only have such love when Christ is free to work His own love through us. We cannot fulfill any of Christ’s commands without Christ Himself, least of all His command to love. We can only love as Christ loves when HE has free reign in our hearts. When the Spirit empowers our lives and Christ is obeyed as the Lord of our hearts, our sins and weaknesses are dealt with and we…

(10) …find ourselves wanting to serve others, wanting to sacrifice for them and serve them—because Christ’s loving nature has truly become our own. Loving is the supernatural attitude of the Christian, because love is the nature of Christ. When a Christian does not love, they have to do so intentionally and with effort—just as those must do to hold their breath. To become habitually unloving we must habitually resist Christ as the Lord of our heart…

(11) To continue the analogy to breathing, when Christ has his proper place in our hearts, we do not have to be told to love—just as we do not have to be told to breathe. Eventually it must happen, because loving is as natural to the spiritual person as breathing is to the natural person. Though it is unnatural for the Christian to be unloving, it is still possible to be disobedient in regard to love. Just as loving is determined by the will and not by circumstances or other people…

(12) …so is not loving. If a husband fails in his love for his wife, or she for him, it is never because of the other person, regardless of what the other person may have done. You do not fall either into or out of agape love, because it is controlled by our will. Romantic love can be beautiful and meaningful, and we find many favorable accounts of it in Scripture. But it is agape love that God commands husbands and wives to have for each other…

(13) “Husband, love your wife, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her. ²⁵” (Ephesians 5:25 NASB) The love that each person controls by his or her own act of will. Strained relations between husbands and wives, between fellow workers, between brothers and sisters, or between any others is never a matter of incompatibility or personality conflict but is always a matter of sin. Loving others is an act of obedience, and not loving them is an act of disobedience.

(14) “The absence of (agape) love is the presence of sin. ¹⁴” The absence of love has nothing at all to do with what is happening to us, but everything to do with what is happening in us. Sin and love are enemies, because sin and God are enemies. They cannot coexist. Where one is, the other is not. The loveless life is the ungodly life; and the godly life is the serving, caring, tenderhearted, affectionate, self-giving, self-sacrificing life of Christ’s love working through the believer.

(15) Just last night; Agape love centers on the needs and welfare of the one loved and will pay whatever personal price is necessary to meet those needs and foster that welfare. Agape is the love that gives. There’s no taking involved. It is completely unselfish. It seeks the highest good for another no matter what the cost, demonstrated supremely by Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf. That is why forbearing love could only be agape love…

(16) …only agape love gives continuously and unconditionally. Eros love is essentially self-love, because it cares for others only because of what it can get from them. It is the love that takes and never gives. Philia love is primarily reciprocal love, love that gives as long as it receives. But agape love is unqualified and unselfish love, love that willingly gives whether it receives in return or not. It is unconquerable benevolence, invincible goodness—love that goes out even to…

(17) …enemies and prays for its persecutors. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. ⁴³ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. ⁴⁴” (Matthew 5:43–44 NASB) That is why the forbearance of which Paul speaks here could only be expressed in agape love. Giving oneself to others is agape love. Biblical love is not a pleasant emotion or good feeling about someone, but the giving of oneself for his sake.