Thursday, January 18, 2018

Eros or Agape?



Image result for crucifixion

https://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/michael-craven/the-christian-conquest-of-pagan-rome-11640691.html


 Love


English is an incoherent language when it comes to love. We must first discover the context
before we know what meaning is intended.



Yesterday I overheard on TV a homosexual talking about his coming out of the closet, how he had been warned that his popularity and career would be negatively impacted by his revealing his sexual orientation. "But here I am!", he proudly boasted of his continuing popularity. "Love is love!" he opined. Obviously comparing love between same sex companions with love between a heterosexual couple.

Was he talking about eros or agape?

YHWH defined agape. ἠγάπησεν http://biblehub.com/interlinear/john/3-16.htm

For God so loved, that He gave His son.

So when God talks about love, He is talking about giving. When people talk about love, they are often talking about getting. They are talking about feelings, they are talking about sexual orientation. What makes me feel good?

http://rgonce.blogspot.com/2013/01/giver-or-getter.html

There can be little honest debate regards what the Bible teaches about sexuality. YHWH planned for one man and one woman to be united as husband and wife, and to be loyal to each other for life. He wanted them to procreate and have godly offspring. The fact that mankind violated this principle in many ways never changed God's intention.

http://rgonce.blogspot.com/2014/06/basic-teaching-on-marriage-divorce-and.html

When I speak up for Biblical based morality, there are some who are quick to call me a hater, a person who does not respect the "other".  I must be homophobic or Islamophobic?

No, perfect love (Agape) casts out fear.  I am not afraid, not even of death.  But I want people to learn the blessing of giving, and to free themselves from slavery to sin.  With all the talk about the horrors of slavery, who is talking about slavery to sin?  That is a slavery many times worse than the slavery suffered by Africans who were sold as chattel.  When we are enslaved to our feelings, and cannot make righteous decisions in our lives, we are truly without hope, and need a savior.

I hate sin and love YHWH.  God so loved sinners that He gave His Son, so I love sinners.  I do not mean I enjoy running with sinners, but that I want them to have salvation.  Please do not misjudge me. There is no conflict between hating sin and loving sinners.  

Slaves to Righteousness

Romans 6:15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,[c] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Image result for Elliot He is no fool, who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot loose
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3cSH5g7msU