Sunday, August 19, 2018 – Ephesians 6:23

Having God’s Motivational Virtue AGAPE Love in Your Life, Pt. 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBHEURCi3-E&feature=youtu.be

Grace Fellowship Church

Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard

www.GraceDoctrine.org

5. The Encouragement, vs. 21-24.  

Eph 6:23, “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Here we are noting AGAPE Love that relates to the motivating force behind all that God does. Why does God do or say anything? Because of His Love.

AGAPE Love is also one of His virtues, related to His dignity and integrity. How does God do or say anything? In a Loving way!

Therefore, AGAPE is God’s Motivational Virtue Love by which He says and does all things.

This is the same love that we should have in our lives; the motivation behind all that we say and do, plus the virtue behind all that we say and do. We will call this, “Motivational Virtue AGAPE Love,” (MVA Love).  

Ephesians began with MVA Love and now ends with it, Eph 1:4, 15; 2:4; 3:17, 19; 4:2, 15-16; 5:2; 6:23. 

We continue this study by noting the last six utilizations of the noun AGAPE in Ephesians.

5. Eph 3:19, “And to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.”

Having the solid foundation of motivational virtue AGAPE Love for Christ, it will propel you to know and grow even greater in love with Jesus Christ, where you can know and live in His “Tesseract Love,” (breadth, length, height, and depth), vs. 18, when you live in the “Life Beyond GNOSIS,” vs. 19, and the “Life Beyond Dreams,” vs. 20.

As you may recall from our teaching in Ephesians chapter 3, (see our website), the “Tesseract Love” of Christ is that which we can comprehend spiritually and live in experientially. It is a love envelope between Christ’s love for you and your love for Him that consistently interacts and overlaps, surrounding your every thought and action. It also has the 4^th dimension of time, which is the eternal and infinite love that the Lord Jesus Christ has for you that you can know and comprehend in the faith rest life. It is “the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.”

6. Eph 4:2, “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.”

To “walk worthy of our calling,” vs. 1, the believers Motivational Virtue AGAPE Love is demonstrated by being humble, gentle, patient (longsuffering), and tolerant towards others. Having the mental attitude of MVA Love moves you to express that love towards others in these ways. The further context of this MVA Love is found in vs. 3, “Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” With MVA Love demonstrated through your humility, gentleness, patience, and tolerance towards others, you will be a peacemaker inside the body of Christ, as you help, exhort, reprove, lift up, etc., your fellow believers to the glory of God.

7. Eph 4:15, “But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.”

Working diligently as peacemakers towards the unity of the Spirit, in this passage MVA Love is the virtue that motivates you to teach the truth of God’s Word to each other with the result of your own personal spiritual growth, as well as enhancing the growth of others. In this, you should recognize false teaching and false teachers when you hear it and see them, vs. 14, so as to refute their teaching with the “truth” of God’s Word. This will allow you to continue your momentum in the spiritual life and provide momentum for others too. Motivated by the truth of God’s Word, individually and collectively, we will grow spiritually, with the result of being drawn closer and closer to Jesus Christ.

8. Eph 4:16, “From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

When we personally grow spiritually, we will be motivated by the virtue of AGAPE Love to assist the rest of the Body of Jesus Christ, (i.e., other believers), to also grow spiritually. The demonstration of having motivational virtue AGAPE Love is to support your church by which the Word of God is disseminated, and be an Ambassador for Christ yourself in one or more of its many applications. A demonstration that you do not have AGAPE Love, is when you do not assist the growth of others within your church or even outside of your Church with your time, talent, or treasure.

9. Eph 5:2, “And walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”

Here, our motivational virtue AGAPE Love leads us to live the Christian way of life; “walk in love,” as we imitate how God lives, vs. 1, (i.e., in holiness and righteousness). This is demonstrated when our lives are a pleasing offering and sacrifice to God. In other words, instead of living for yourself inside of Satan’s cosmic system, you live for Christ, serving and sacrificing on behalf of others as God leads you to do so, as you ultimately serve God. Our great example in this endeavor is Jesus Christ and His completed work culminating in the Cross.

John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” This is a demonstration of Tesseract MVA Love.

10. Eph 6:23, “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Here, Paul gives a final blessing based on his desire for all believers to have Motivational Virtue AGAPE Love in their souls and lives. In this passage, we see that love is not possible without faith. Faith means “what is believed.” It is knowledge we rely upon and use. That knowledge should be God’s Word, Bible Doctrine, resident within your soul. Having God’s Word in your soul, you rely upon it to make the various daily moment by moment decisions in your life. You think like God would think. You think like Jesus Christ would think. You think by means of the Holy Spirit based on what the Word of God says. When you use God’s Word as the basis for your daily moment by moment decisions, you are expressing your MVA Love towards God while expressing your MVA Love towards others by the righteous and holy decisions you make. That is Paul’s desire for you. That is God’s desire for you!