Category: Doctrine

Church doctrine a line in the sand. - How will a leader or council of leaders choose what the Church will teach?
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  • agapē a fruit of Love from a Higher Branch

    agapē a fruit of Love from a Higher Branch

    Charity (agape)

    This is our chief aim, the unconditional love of the Father given to us through his Son. Affection, friendship and romantic love are each the training ground for charity to grow. It’s also a rival to the three.

    C.S. Lewis – Four Types of Love

    Even with a half-dozen mentions of the agape love including definitions last time, as you can see from Lewis’ quote this is a fruit of a higher UNCONDITIONAL LOVE – a gift of God the Father through Jesus Christ.

    ἀγάπη – agapē

    feminine noun

    The KJV translates Strong’s G26 in the following manner: love (86x), charity (28x), dear (1x), charitably (with G2596) (1x), feasts of charity (1x).

    From ἀγαπάω (G25)


    We also followed a relational connection between some of ‘The 4 Loves’ last time, but let’s see some of the connecting branches of the love agape as well.

    ἀγαπάω (G25) – agapaō

    verb

    The KJV translates Strong’s G25 in the following manner: love (135x), beloved (7x).

    You may say, ‘God is love,’ a use of agape as a noun; but the relational verb for loveagapaō requires an action of personal relationship.

    The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

    First Letter of the Apostle John 4:8 LSB


    a LOVE of persons OR of things

    • of persons
      • to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, to love dearly
    • of things
      • to be well pleased, to be contented at or with a thing
    Lewis also cautions that these could become idolatry as well, rather than the intended love of God the Father through His only Son Jesus Christ. 

    Root Word (Etymology)
    Perhaps from agan (much) [or cf φιλέω (G5368) phileō, also a verb to love or to kiss ]

    Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

    the Apostle Paul writing to the churches

    or

    Greet one another with a kiss of love.

    the Apostle Peter writing to the churches

    The KJV translates Strong’s G5384 in the following manner: friend (29x).

    Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

    Gospel of John 15:13 KJV

    How would you describe your LOVE for a friend?

    Agape embraces another with affection like no other love.


    ἀγαπητός – agapētos

    the adjective from From ἀγαπάω (G25) agape

    Strong's Number G27 matches the Greek ἀγαπητός (agapētos), which occurs 61 times in 60 verses in the MGNT Greek.

    Outline of Biblical Usage

    beloved, esteemed, dear, favourite, worthy of love

    God the Father, Jesus and all the Apostles use it. 

    Peter, for example:

    Therefore, beloved G27, since you are looking for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our beloved G27 brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, \

    2 Peter:3:14-15 LSB

    And the Apostle Paul in several epistles: 

    I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved G27 children.

    Therefore, my beloved G27, flee from idolatry.

    Therefore, my beloved G27 brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

    1 Corinthians 4:14, 10:14, 15:58 LSB

    For the Love of God [O.T.]

    And recalling love from the Scriptural roots of Jesus and the Apostles in the Hebrew Bible: 

    A song. A psalm of David.

    (WLC 108:5)כִּי־גָדוֹל מֵעַל־שָׁמַיִם חַסְדֶּךָ וְעַד־שְׁחָקִים אֲמִתֶּךָ׃

    For your faithful love is higher than the heavens,

    and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

    Psalm 108:6 CSB

    Yet from the root word חֶסֶד
    ḥeseḏ:

    For Your lovingkindness is great above the heavens,
    And Your truth reaches to the skies.

    Ps 108:6 NASB95

    For Your mercy is great above the heavens,
    And Your truth reaches to the clouds.

    Ps 108:6 NKJV

    Do you see the high relational LOVE between God the Father, Jesus the Son and those who in and by the Spirit love the Lord?

    Mercy, Lovingkindness and agape love cannot be simply jargon among those saints saved in Christ Jesus.


    agapētos agapaō .. agapē

    Finally, your search for LOVE in New Testament Greek will draw you to one holy Scripture penned in a letter of the one Jesus loved. 

    ἀγαπητοί ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους ὅτι ἡ ἀγάπη ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐστιν καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται καὶ γινώσκει τὸν θεόν

    Α΄ Ιωάννη (1 John) 4 :: Morphological Greek New Testament (MGNT)

    It's all Greek to me too, so let me help you out. 

    Beloved

    Strong’s G27agapētos From ἀγαπάω agapaō (G25)

    let us love

    g25 agapaō

    one another,

    allēlōn

    for love

    hoti agapē (G26)

    is from God;

    eimi ek θεός theos

    and everyone who loves

    kai pas ho agapaō (G25)

    has been [begotten] born of God

    gennaō ek θεός theos

    and knows God.

    kai ginōskō θεός theos

    1 John 4:7 LSB

    INTERLINEAR MORPHOLOGICAL Greek New Testament


    Questions of Agape Love

    source: BibleHub.com STUDY Questions

    Beloved,

    In what ways can you demonstrate “agape” love to those in your church community this week?

    And, dear friend, here's one to make it yet more personal

    How does the command to love one another serve as evidence of being “born of God” in your personal spiritual journey?

    more from 1 John 4:7 study


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  • All you need is Love Love Love

    All you need is Love Love Love

    Or should I say, Love, love, love, love perhaps four times?

    (As just a bit earlier than the Beatles another Englishman, Clive Staples, pointed out 4 loves — each at least somewhat different from the others?)

    Christians throw around the LOVE jargon rather vaguely and with much overlap (as does the world).

    For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. JOHN 3:16 green man
    For God so loved the world.. John 3:16
    • The word, “Love” occurs over 500 times in the Bible
    • translated more than 200 times from New Testament Greek into the English Standard Version

    Let’s have some Biblical intercourse about the real definitions of the Biblical loves to which C.S. Lewis referred.

    The Four Loves

    C.S. Lewis, born just a couple of years before my grandfathers, capitalized on this in his popular RADIO program and published a book called THE FOUR LOVES in A..D. 1960 (when I was only ten and John Lennon was just twenty).


    To outline Lewis’ approach briefly:

    The Four Loves was Lewis’ look at some of the different loves described in Greek thought: familial or affectionate love (storge); friendship (philia); romantic love (eros); and spiritual love (agape) in the light of Christian commentary on ordinate loves.

    Source: C.S. Lewis.org

    Although in A.D. 1960 Lewis began elsewhere, today let’s start with the world’s contemporary favorite:

    Eros – ἔρως

    Eros is the Greek term for romantic or passionate love. While the word itself is not used in the New Testament, the concept is present in the biblical understanding of marriage and the intimate relationship between husband and wife. Eros is seen as a gift from God, intended to be expressed within the covenant of marriage.

    The Song of Solomon [O.T.] is often cited as a biblical celebration of eros, highlighting the beauty and intensity of romantic love.

    Source: Biblehub.com

    Affection (storge)

    Affection covers an array of loves. Like animals, the care of mother to babe is a picture of affection. It relies on the expected and the familiar. Lewis describes it as humble.

    It’s the familiarity of, “the people with whom you are thrown together in the family, the college, the mess, the ship, the religious house,” says Lewis.

    Source: Biblehub.com

    My long search for affection in the Bible

    I do not mean affection literally (in English), but a Greek word for affection, STORGE.

    God blessed me with an additional embrace of His Personal and mysterious, complex love for us through searching aimlessly for love in the Bible. Only after researching further in other commentaries did I connect this word of affection with the Lord’s additional loves we experience so personally.

    God’s affection in the Person of His only Son JESUS was there all along and I had missed it.

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    ..says Lewis. The affection for the people always around us, in the normal day-to-day of life, is the majority of the love we experience, even if we don’t label it.

    ‘Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.’
    had jumped out to me in the NIV

    But in addition to our affection meaning devoted, when Paul writes to the Romans, the word the Apostle uses here for love obviously applies to brotherly love – philadelphia.

    I also liked his mention to ‘honor‘ each other above your SELF.

    Seems familiar to JESUS’ second summary point from the Commandments. LOVE actually appears in BOTH of these commandments cited by our Lord:

    Jesus said to him,

    “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.
    And the second is like it:
    You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
    On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

    Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV

    What is the greatest love?

    ἀγαπάω – agapaō

    *Thou shalt love kyrios thy theos.

    pillar of fire in the midst of Moses and the Hebrews

    Do we not hold FEAR rather than embrace the LORD our theos as a pillar of fire?

    But what about the Lord Jesus’ second commandment (which we often claim as our ‘GOLDEN RULE?’

    And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

    Gospel of Matthew 22:39 KJV

    ἀγαπάω – agapaō

    *Thou shalt love thy plēsion [neighbour]…

    The Lord seems to mention others as at least equal to our need for self-love, if not more honor as Paul suggests in writing to the Church in Rome. 

    This LOVE is the SAME Love, that is: agapaō !

    Storge – Other Loves plus Devotion

    Although the specific term storge is not used in the New Testament, the concept is evident in passages that emphasize family relationships and responsibilities. Romans 12:10 


    φιλόστοργος – philostorgos – adjective

    a Greek conjunction PHILO plus STORGOS - Do you see both LOVES?

    And look at its definition:

    1. the mutual love of parents and children and wives and husbands
    2. loving affection, prone to love, loving tenderly
      • chiefly of the reciprocal tenderness of parents and children
    Which brings us to a third love C.S. Lewis highlights:

    Philia (φιλία)

    Friendship is the love dismissed.

    “To the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves,”

    says Lewis,

    “the crown of life and the school of virtue.

    And at this writing in ~ A.D. 1958 or 1960 Lewis laments of such philos friendships: 

    The modern world, in comparison, ignores it.” Why?

    Perhaps we know it’s the most time consuming, the least celebrated, the one we could live without.

    Can we?

    Even in 2025 Common Era time-crunching christian church gatherings pressed to entertain all sinners in these last days?


    Discovering Phila-Delphia

    philadelphosStrong’s G5361

    a Christian loving Christians

    YES, it’s a great adjective describing the relational fruit of Biblical Christians.

    From φίλος (G5384) and ἀδελφός (G80)

    φίλος – Strong’s G5384philos

    Adjective

    Here's HALF of the Phila Delphia ANSWER. Read on and I'll get to the other HALF later. 

    †φίλος phílos, fee’-los; properly, dear, i.e. a friend; actively, fond, i.e. friendly (still as a noun, an associate, neighbor, etc.):—friend.

    “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends  G5384.

    “You are My friends  G5384 if you do what I command you.

    Jesus Christ, from the Good News of John 15:13-14 LSB

    JESUS, the Son of Man and Son of God EMBRACES His disciples as close friends.

    And you may have guessed it: 
    The relational word the beloved Apostle John uses here for LOVE is agapē.

    φιλέω – Strong’s G5368 – phileō

    a verb with similar meaning that we won’t want to miss

    1. to love
      • to approve of
      • to like
      • sanction
      • to treat affectionately or kindly, to welcome, befriend
    2. to show signs of love
      • to kiss
    3. to be fond of doing
      • be wont [an accustomed familiarity], use to do

    Perhaps the most convicting encounter with JESUS using this word phileō for LOVE occurs in His most personal encounter with the Apostle Peter after our Lord’s resurrection.

    Here’s an excerpt:

    “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?”

    He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love G5368 You.”

    “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?”

    He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love G5368 You.”

    He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love G5368 Me?”


    Now returning to our compound Greek word for Philadelphia we must consider one additional connection of LOVE:

    • philadelphosStrong’s G5361
      • From φίλος (G5384) and ἀδελφός (G80)

    ἀδελφός – Strong’s G80 – adelphos

    masculine noun — From ἄλφα (G1) (as a connective particle) and delphus (the womb)

    1. a brother, whether born of the same two parents or only of the same father or mother
    2. having the same national ancestor, belonging to the same people, or countryman
    3. any fellow or man
    4. a fellow believer, united to another by the bond of affection
    5. an associate in employment or office
    6. brethren in Christ
      • his brothers by blood
      • all men
      • apostles
      • Christians, as those who are exalted to the same heavenly place

    ἄλφαStrong’s G1 – alpha

    You've probably already guessed it and why this Greek word was designated as 'G1' in the Strong's concordance. 

    indeclinable noun – Of Hebrew origin


    “I am the Alpha G1 and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 1:8

    “I am the Alpha G1 and the Omega, THE FIRST AND THE LAST, the beginning and the end.”

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 22:13 LSB


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  • Sanctification – saints washed in Christ’s Holiness

    Sanctification occurs only 5-10 times in the New Testament, while “sanctify” occurs 70 times in 65 verses in the KJV throughout the Bible.

    Doesn’t sanctification require someone or something to be ‘sanctified?’

    What is sanctification?

    How is it different since Christ Jesus?


    Sanctification in the Old Testament

    congregation of the Hebrews at Mount Horeb

    Moses on Sinai

    Exodus 19 NKJV excerpt

    And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain..

    ‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant,

    … ‘And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

    Exodus 19:3-6 except NKJV

    So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.

    קָדַשׁ qâdash,

    to be (causatively, make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally):—appoint, bid, consecrate, dedicate, defile, hallow, (be, keep) holy(-er, place), keep, prepare, proclaim, purify, sanctify(-ied one, self),

    https://davidfowlerpreacher.com/2014/06/08/pictures-of-the-holy-spirit/
    Exodus 21:5-7

    “Also let the priests who come near to Yahweh set H6942 themselves apart H6942 as H6942 holy H6942, lest Yahweh break out against them.”

    And Moses said to Yahweh, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for You [testified to] warned us, saying, ‘Set bounds about the mountain, and set H6942 it apart H6942 as H6942 holy H6942.’”

    Exodus 19:22-23 LSB – noting H6942 meaning Sanctify or Hallow

    שְׁמֹות (Exodus) 19 :: Masoretic Text

    19:23 וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה אֶל־יְהוָה לֹא־יוּכַל הָעָם לַעֲלֹת אֶל־הַר סִינָי כִּי־אַתָּה הַעֵדֹתָה בָּנוּ לֵאמֹר הַגְבֵּל אֶת־הָהָר וְקִדַּשְׁתּוֹ׃

    Does this washing for holiness before God bring any sanctifying fear over you before facing the LORD your Maker?


    An Old Testament Word

    You may recognize the same word in a couple of important places in the Bible.

    Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified H6942 it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created in making it.

    Genesis 2:3 LSB

    זָכוֹר אֶת־יוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשׁוֹ׃

    “Remember the sabbath day, to keep H6942 it holy H6942.

    Exodus 20:8 WLC, LSB

    Pray then like this:
    Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

    Matthew 6:9 RSV

    Sanctification then prepares unholy sinners to face the Most Holy.


    Sanctification in the New Testament

    verb - From ἅγιος (G40) adjective (most holy thing, a saint) 
    - From hagos adjective (an awful thing) [cf ἁγνός (G53) adjective, properly, clean, i.e. (figuratively) innocent, modest, perfect:—chaste, clean, pure.
    • to render or acknowledge, or to be venerable or hallow
    • to separate from profane things and dedicate to God
    • to purify
      • to cleanse externally
      • to purify by expiation: free from the guilt of sin
      • to purify internally by renewing of the soul

    The Apostle Paul, in referring to a long list of sins of the Corinthians writes:

    And such were some of you; but you were washed,

    but you were sanctified G37,

    but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

    1 Corinthians 6:11 LSB


    a most holy thing, a saint ?


    Are YOU a HOLY Saint of JESUS Christ, therefore sanctified to Him in your mortal AND eternal life?


    Sanctified saints

    “For their sake I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

    Gospel of John 17:20 LSB


    In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting for God, for whom and through whom all things exist, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

    For both the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.

    Hebrews 2:10-11 BSB


    Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

    John 17:17 CSB – Jesus’ prayer for disciples


    Sanctification of children learning to walk in Christ

    To the saints in Galatia:

    Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

    But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

    Paul’s letter (epistle) to the Galatians 4:8-9 ESV


    To the saint sitting with you in church:

    In conclusion, the best way to examine some of the jargon of Scripture like anointed, consecrated, sanctified, justified and holiness is in prayerful time in the Bible itself.

    How better to explain sanctification (or any ‘Christian’ jargon) to a new child of the faith with whom you worship than with Biblical text?


    READ any of the links provided in the Scriptures above. 

    OR For more on the topic of Sanctification you may search it here on TalkofJESUS.com OR simply read the earlier post below with my closing thought.

    Sanctification – a refining of our holiness in Christ

    For this is the will of God, your sanctification.. For God did not call us to impurity,

    but in sanctification. 

    Consequently, he who sets this aside is not setting aside man

    but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

    1 Thessalonians 4:3a, (3b-6 short list of our impurity) 7-8 LSB

    ~A.D. 51 – Paul writes to encourage the Thessalonian Church

    A look back from 2025 CE to an earlier look at Sanctification

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