Column-Friend, Please Tell Me Where Agape is

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Column - Friend, Please Tell Me Where Agape Is

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son ti be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we  ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit.” (1 John 4:10-13)

1. Human misfortunes, such as pain or sorrow, are not caused by a lack of money, but by a lack of love and the absence of someone to love enough to die for.

If someone were to ask Chunhyang how she could endure such pain and shame, and tell her to just listen to Byeon Satto and live in luxury, they would likely be slapped.

Chunhyang endured imprisonment and severe suffering out of her love for Yi Mong-ryong, and she preserved her chastity. 

However, this is not Agape love.

It is the human love of Eros or Phileo.

It signifies the pinnacle of human love.

As lawlessness increases, human love grows cold (Matthew 24:12); we are living in the end times where even such love is absent.

Terms like human love or the common prosperity of mankind are a thing of the past.

The world is brutal, driven by hegemonic competition solely for the sake of their own national interests.

Personally, because there is no mutual exchange of hearts, people part ways abruptly, like cutting a radish.

Is the church not like that, too?

Nevertheless, the church continues to sing the tune of love.

If you see an advertisement on television, it is because that item is not yet in that house.

Those who say they will love are not yet.

If there is love, it happens naturally.

Love in words and on the tongue is piled up everywhere, but deeds and truth (1 John 3:18) cannot be seen.

This is because the channel for importing Agape has been blocked.

With the oil channel blocked, even the trash bag that once seemed insignificant has become precious.

2. If the Holy Spirit seals and guarantees the faith that Christ, who is the resurrection and the life, dwells within, why do we remain in the resurrection of Jesus and the hope of my own future resurrection?

Since Christ dwells within me, He is the Spirit of resurrection and the life-giving Spirit; therefore, it is only natural that I, who was dead, have come back to life, and I, who live within him, will never die (John 11:25-26).

If Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life, dwells within us, then eternal life is present, and the Kingdom of God is present.

I have become the temple and the house of God; if this is not the Kingdom of God, then what is it?

We confess that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God, yet we constantly look up at the sky and cry out, "Lord, Lord."

While claiming that Jesus, who came in the flesh, is the Christ who died and rose again, He is actually separated between heaven and earth.

We claim that Jesus and Christ are the same, yet we are separated from ourselves.

In other words, it is "equal but separate." It means that we are the same, but currently separated.

Seeing that we will meet someday in the future, we look up at the sky and keep asking when he will come.

This is no different from saying it takes three years to find a child carried on one's back.

Even when the Holy Spirit comes and tells you that Jesus dwells within you as Christ, you persist with stubbornness and an unrepentant heart, adhering to the legal spirit of logic that humans cannot become one with God due to Adam's sinful nature (Romans 2:5).

Since individuals cannot handle it alone, they gather theological clubs to form factions, blocking the truth with unanimous unrighteousness.

They groan as they are struck by God's wrath and anger like missiles on a battlefield, yet their mouths remain alive, babbling that God still loves them.

This is practically a disaster.

When loveless, pale faces approach with forced smiles, I cannot help but hesitate.

When a Sapsal dog wags its tail wet from the rain, you can neither hug it nor kick it.

When a Sapsal dog approaches, wet with rain and wagging its tail, I can neither hug it nor kick it.

3. Seeking God to resolve one's own deficiencies is still at the stage of Eros.

It is the level of loving the Lord while saying, "He knows my need and always fills me."

As Plato said, Eros is finding one's lost half.

If you seek and love material things, health, a comforter, or a spiritual pillar, that is the Eros love described by philosophy.

Furthermore, exerting religious zeal in search of the beauty of supreme goodness is also Eros.

Talking about love for one another simply because they are fellow members of the same church or denomination is Phileo love.

It is familial love.

That is why current Christianity is criticized as a clique-based interest group.

Eternal life is knowing God in Christ, but without the Spirit of Truth, how can one possess such knowledge to obtain the image and glory of God and enter the eternal kingdom where one becomes one with God?

Therefore, one merely sings the song toward heaven, "That place is always overflowing with light and love," while singing the song, "The Lord's light and love overflow within me," is not very common.

Do not call it Agape while clinging to fill a deficiencies.

Do not adorn yourself with Agape while calling upon the name of the Lord in search of beauty.

4. Discern whether the love with which God loved so much that He gave His only begotten Son is the love that gave Jesus, or whether He is the One who came after Jesus, the Son of Man, was lifted up.

If you examine the context alone, anyone except the blind will know immediately (John 3:13-16).

Knowing Jesus, the Son of Man, is common knowledge.

It is history, just as one knows Socrates or Buddha.

However, the fact that the Lord, who became the High Priest of Atonement, became the sacrifice offering of reconciliation and came within us is a special grace.

He who lacks nothing, who unilaterally came to us who are lacking; He is the Christ who came possessing heavenly beauty within us, who are like rags and tattered clothes, completely devoid of beauty.

This is Agape.

Therefore, when the Spirit of truth comes, we can practice Agape love by keeping the commandment that we are one with the Lord, as he said, and by abiding in that love.

That is why he uses the parable of the vine and the branches, saying, "Abide in my love."

He says that when your joy is full, you will agape one another just as he has agape you (John 15:10-12).

Even now, those who have been called to call upon the name of the Lord in search of their own deficiency—that lost half—are expressing Eros love.

There is also Phileo love, which involves cherishing the crowd that has become one's side.

It is circulated as love.

However, the Agape love through which the Lord prayed is holiness in truth, glory in holiness, and oneness in glory; as that oneness matures within the anointing of the Holy Spirit and becomes perfect , Agape love emerges (John 17).

Just as the saying goes that even after going quite a distance in search of the red bean paste in a steamed bun, a signpost indicating 80 li (approximately 24 kilometers) to the filling still stands there, this was a long journey to find love—or rather, to follow that Agape—but there is still more to go.

Eros is good and Phileo is precious, but let us achieve Agape love so that to those seeking it, we may say, "Brother, here is that Agape love."

I pray that to those who desire to see God, we may be able to say, "God is here."

Written by Pastor. Yohan Kim

Translated by Missionary Sookyung Chung

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