Agape Love
Agape love is not a mushy, sentimental feeling, such as we often hear people say. Nor is agape emotionally inspired. God loves everyone because that is His nature and the expression of who He is. God loves the unlovable and the unlovely, not because we deserve God’s love or because of anything we have done. It is His nature to love and He must be true to His nature. Agape is displayed by “action and truth”, God is both love and truth (1 John 3:18).
Love on Display
Many use the word love, however agape love is always shown by what it does. God’s love is shown most clearly at the cross. “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4–5). Salvation is a gift to be received within your heart.
God loves everyone who ever lived. God loves humans so much that He sent His generated Son to be crucified for the sins of the world(1 John 2:2).Not because we are worthy of anything but death. But, because God did not want the human race to die without an opportunity to be redeemed to life. He loves mankind so much that He has given us the choice to choose life or death Deuteronomy 30:19.
Love of the World and Flesh
Most people will apply human wisdom or feelings to love and come up with a mixture of truth and lies. Some say fornication is making love to ease their minds. The truth is that fornication is sin. Even some good folks will say love tolerates or even condones sin, saying everybody sin. That is exactly what Satan wants you to believe and say. Truth is, that’s not agape or looking out for the good of another. Jesus talked more about hell than He talked about heaven. Those in the world possess a worldly love; it is one of convenience or selfishness. Even an atheist claims and say they love, yet they don’t know God and God is love (1 John 4:7-12). “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
God Loves Believers
God’s love ”never fails” (Psalms 52:8) for those who have received Christ into their hearts, “His mercy endures forever “(Psalms 106:1), His love “is our shield” (Proverbs 30:5). Agape is not motivated by personal gain (1 John 3:16). Agape love is sacrificial.
In what I call the greatest chapter in the bible (Romans 8). Chapter 8 tells us why and what God has called us to believe and ends with how much God loves the believer. Paul describes the love that God has for His children. Toward those that walk after His Spirit, not after the flesh (Romans 8:4, 28). Ending Romans 8 he says in verses 38-39: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
God loves Believers More than Unbelievers
Its the love of God that justifies us who received Jesus into our hearts, God calls them His children. This love is not extended to everyone, only to those who have faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). It is agape love of God that brings people into intimate relationship with Himself. It is only to those who love the Son of God (John 14:21). In today’s world, there are some that will say they believe but have no love for Him or His righteousness. The agape love God and believers share is God’s “covenant love,” and it is conditional, given only to those who place their faith in Jesus for salvation (John 3:36). Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are loved unconditionally, secured, forever in the family of heaven.
How God Loves Unbelievers
God loves the unbelieving, unregenerate sinner living in their sin. That love is expressed by God, sending Jesus into the world to pay the cost of sin; His crucifixion (John 3:16). God makes the sunshine and rain on the crops of both evil and righteousness. God’s plan from the fall in the garden is to restore mankind to the state Adam was in before the fall (Genesis 3:15). As long as unbelievers have breath, God’s love waits patiently for the unbeliever to receive His love by receiving Christ and the gift of salvation (Romans 5:8). God’s love for unbelievers is focused on their redemption, making us whole like Adam was, until the desire for pleasure overcame their love for God. The break in the relationship required a plan for redemption.