Sunday, August 26, 2018 – Ephesian 6:23

Having God's Motivational Virtue AGAPE Love in Your Life, Pt. 3 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrBUJ-yWXHU

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.”

In addition to AGAPE Love, Paul utilizes the actionable Verb for “love,” AGAPAO, 10 times, in 7 passages, with 5 different contexts in this letter, Eph 1:6; 2:4; 5:2, 25, 28, 33; 6:24. Therefore, we see Motivational Virtue AGAPE Love in action in these passages. With 10 being the number for perfect order, 7 the number of spiritual perfection, and 5 the number for grace, we see love is the perfect order for the believer to live in spiritual perfection under the grace plan of God; to express the grace of God to others.

1. Eph 1:6, “To the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

The first use is in Eph 1:6, in the Perfect, Passive, Participle in the Dative Case that is in fact a title for Jesus Christ; “The one having been loved.” It emphasizes God’s actionable love for the human race by providing His salvation grace to the world through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who God the Father truly loves.

The action item of God’s love is seen in His son who He sent to provide the world with salvation that is applicable to those who believe in Jesus Christ. It emphasizes that fact that Jesus died for our sins, and the effect of His love and grace shown to those who believe, who are now in the “sphere of the beloved.” Therefore, it emphasizes our union with Jesus Christ, being “in the sphere of the Beloved.”

It is translated “Beloved,” which in other passages, (Eph 5:12 and 6:21), utilizes the Adjective AGAPETOS, as we will see below.

2. Eph 2:4, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us.”

The second use is in Eph 2:4, which we noted above as it also uses the Noun AGAPE for God’s “great” motivational virtue love. Here, God’s motivational virtue AGAPE love led Him to express mercy towards us sinners because He loved us. As such, God expressed His actionable AGAPAO love towards us in the form of mercy, which overcame our sins and gave us life in Christ, raising us to eternal glory, and seating us with Christ at the right hand of God in heaven, which also “demonstrates His surpassing grace in kindness towards us,” vs. 7.  The action item of God’s love is His mercy applied to the sinner who accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior.

This is our example of MVA Love in that we should help others to overcome their sins and raise them up, predominately but not exclusively by witnessing to others the gospel of Jesus Christ.

3. 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.”

We noted Eph 5:2 above, as this verse has both the Noun AGAPE and Verb AGAPAO in it. Here we are noting the actionable verb AGAPAO, which is Christ’s demonstration of His motivational virtue love. The demonstration of His MVA Love was the giving of Himself to God the Father as an offering and sacrifice for our sins. His sacrifice was pleasing to God, as noted in the phrase, “fragrant aroma.” In other words, it propitiated God the Father as a satisfactory sacrifice for the payment of our sins that pleased Him, cf. Rom 3:25; Heb 2:17; 1 John 2:2; 4:10.

Rom 3:25, “Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed.”

1 John 2:2, “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

Jesus Christ demonstrated His MVA Love by laying down His life on our behalf, John 15:13. As such, His MVA Love is the great example of how we should be expressing our MVA Love. This MVA Love is demonstrated in our lives by offering and sacrificing our lives on behalf of others. In other words, instead of living for ourselves inside of Satan’s cosmic system, we live for Christ, serving and sacrificing on behalf of others as God leads you to do so, as you ultimately serve God. This is our “walk in MVA love,” which is a pleasing aroma to God, cf. Phil 4:18; 2 Cor 2:14. In those two examples, we see that our MVA love is demonstrated in our giving and the application of Bible Doctrine in our lives, i.e., “the manifestation of the knowledge of Him.” The expiatory character of Christ’s death included the giving of Himself in our place as a sacrifice. With so great an example on our behalf, should we not give of ourselves in any capacity on behalf of others?

4. The fourth through ninth usage of AGAPAO takes what we just noted in Eph 5:2, and narrows it down to one application of MVA Love regarding the husband’s responsibility to actionably love his wife, just as Jesus Christ demonstrated actionably His love for the Church by going to the Cross. AGAPAO is used twice in Eph 5:25; 3 times in vs. 28; and once in vs. 33.

Eph 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.”

Eph 5:28, “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.”

Eph 5:33, “Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

Therefore, we see the significant role and responsibility husbands have to apply Motivational Virtue AGAPE Love towards their wives. The love of Christ for the Church demonstrated what the husband’s attitude toward his wife should be. Christ loved His church enough to die for it, John 10:15, 17; 15:13. Likewise, the husband should lay down his life for the benefit of His wife. This is further explained in vs. 26-27, and in vs. 28, it relates back to the greatest commandment “to love others, (in this case the wife), as you love yourself,” or even “as Christ has loved you,” John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; Rom 13:8-10.

5. Eph 6:24, “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible.”

The tenth and final usage is in closing the book of Ephesians, Eph 6:24. Here, it speaks of the actionable love believers should have for the Lord Jesus Christ, demonstrated by being unwavering in their faith and following of Jesus Christ. We will note the interesting word “incorruptible,” the Greek noun APHTHARSIA ἀφθαρσία when we study vs. 24 in detail below, but for now I want to tell you that the context of this word in its other usages in the NT stand for immortality. In other words, an everlasting love. And that is what we see here. We are to love our Lord Jesus Christ with an ever-present and ever-continuing Motivational Virtue Love.

Therefore, as Paul closes this letter, he has a statement about our personal relationship with Christ. Paul has told us of God’s great MVA love, but now he asks us:

“Do we love Christ?”

“Do we love Him?”

“Are we Christians?”

“Have we turned from sin and placed our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?”

“Do we love Him with an undying love that will go on into eternity?”

What a great question to end such a letter. Let us love Jesus! Soon we will see Him, and then we will put our weapons down. Then we will not regret having put all our trust in His perfect work, and we will not regret having been faithful soldiers engaged in His mission.

In all these examples, the action of AGAPAO love is motivated by the mental attitude motivational virtue of AGAPE love within the soul:

1. The MVA love that Christ has for us by going to the Cross, Eph 1:6; 5:2.

2. The MVA love God the Father has for us by providing for our Salvation, Eph 2:4.

3. The MVA love a husband has for his wife that demonstrates Christ’s love for the Church, Eph 5:25, 28, 33.

4 The MVA love we, the Church, have for Jesus Christ, in response to the love He has demonstrated towards us, Eph 6:24.

Because Christ first loved us, we in response are able to love Him that is also demonstrated in our love for one another, 1 John 4:10-19.

1 John 4:10, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

1 John 4:11, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

1 John 4:16, “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

1 John 4:19, “We love, because He first loved us.”

Finally, the Adjective AGAPETOS is translated “beloved,” in Eph 5:12 and 6:21. AGAPETOS describes the love one has for another, thereby classifying them in your heart and words as someone who is “beloved,” (i.e., loved by you). It is first used to describe the “children of God,” which is all believers, those loved by God, and then it is used by Paul to describe his close companion and coworker, Tychicus, as the “beloved brother and faithful minster in the Lord.”