One of the stumbling stones to Paul’s exhortation
that agape-love “does not insist on its
own way,”[1] is
the assumption that this must mean we let other people have their way. This is
particularly difficult for people who were traumatized by abuse at some point
in their lives and now imagine that God wants them to continue letting people
do whatever they please.
However, because agape-love is goodwill
arising from a personal moral good rather than attraction, the measure of what
we express to others is always in reference to what God’s agape-love is doing
in us. Clearly, God does not deny his will in order to let a world of sinners
have whatever their evil little hearts desire. What, then, does he mean that we
are not to insist on our own way?
In this home church video, we explore how
agape-love is always seeking God’s best for others. This means that the
challenge is not between giving up our selfish interests in order to let
someone else have their selfish interests, but between us putting aside our own
interests in order to seek God’s best in each person’s life.
For the part of ourselves the Bible calls
our “flesh”, or “sark”,[2]
looking out for ourselves is the only thing it knows how to do. However, since
we are new creations in Jesus Christ,[3]
recipients of the new hearts Jesus has given us,[4]
with new selves that are created to be like Jesus Christ in true righteousness
and holiness,[5] we
can deny ourselves the right to have things our own way, and look for God’s
best in every person we deal with for the rest of our lives. Trading our way
for Father’s way is best for us all.
Although God’s word does not teach
perfection in this lifetime, it is clear that God’s command to, “pursue love (agape),”[6]
includes pursuing this quality of not insisting on our own way no matter how
difficult it seems to us. As we also, “earnestly
desire the spiritual gifts,”[7]
we express our love and faith by seeking to help and minister to others based
on what God can do through us rather than what we can do alone.
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
[1] I Corinthians 13:5
[2] The Greek work translated flesh in the New Testament sounds like “sark”.
This has become the preferred way of referring to this part of our lives in our
home church.
[3] II Corinthians 5:17
[4] Ezekiel 36:26
[5] Ephesians 4:24 (context: Ephesians 4:17-24).
[6] I Corinthians 14:1
[7] I Corinthians 14:1
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