ELOHIYM IS LOVE

1 John 4:8

Many of you know that the Greek word that John uses that is translated as love here in this verse is the word Agape’

A few verses later in verse 16, John tells us that if we dwell in Agape’, we dwell in Elohiym and Elohiym dwells in us.

If you back up a verse, in verse 15, He is discussing that it is what we confess by what we live that makes it real. I have discussed this verse in other segments. It is not merely a matter of confessing with our mouth as the false Apostle Paul claimed in his letter to the romans. It is a matter of confessing by the way that we live, our actions prove what we confess.

The same is true with confessing Agape, it is having it dwell in us.

Paul cleverly combined a list of some very admirable traits and defined Agape’ as such in his first letter to the Corinthians but is this list actually what Agape’ is, at least what Elohiym’s Agape” is?

Are we going to let someone who contradicted our Messiah over and over again define such an important word? Especially, since Elohiym dwelling in us depends on His Agape’ dwelling in us?

No, we must turn to the true scriptures and the spoken words of the prophets and of our Messiah.

We need to also consider what is different about His type of love that is superior to the love that we can possess on our own without Him.

First let’s build a platform, a few verses earlier John had said;

1 John 2:5-6

5 But whoso keeps (or Holds fast to or guards) His word (Logos), in him verily is the AGAPE’ OF ELOHIYM perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him.

6 He that says he dwells in Him ought himself also to walk, EVEN AS HE WALKED.

So having the Agape’ of Elohiym is directly associated with holding fast to and guarding the “Logos” of Elohiym and walking as Yehshua who was the logos of Elohiym walked.

It is paramount that we understand what is being said here; possessing the Agape’ of Elohiym is dependent on possessing His Logos and walking in it.

I have discussed in other segments how the Logos of Elohiym is taught by His Spirit through keeping His commandments and statutes. Let’s see if Yehshua taught the same thing. The night before He was killed He said;

John 14:15

15 IF you AGAPAO me, keep my commandments.

21 He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that AGAPAO me: and he that AGAPAO me shall be AGAPAO by my Father, and I will AGAPAO him, and will manifest myself to him.

22 Judas said unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, Why is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not unto the world?

23 Yehshua answered and said to him, IF a man AGAPAO me, he will keep my words (Logos): and my Father will AGAPAO him, and we will come unto him, and make our residence with him.

24 He that does not AGAPAO me does not keep my sayings (Logos): and the word (Logos) which you hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me

John 15:9-10

9 In as much as the Father AGAPAO me, so I AGAPAO you: dwell in my AGAPE’.

10 IF you keep my commandments, you shall dwell in my AGAPE’; in as much as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His AGAPE’.

In between these verses He is telling them that IF they do this, He will send them the Spirit of truth which would comfort them and teach them the truth.

He is spelling out the conditions. Today there are billions of people who claim they have Elohiym’s spirit without even attempting to meet these conditions. They lie to themselves and they are confessing that Yehshua is a liar because He spoke these words clearly and they are claiming the prize without meeting the conditions.

These “IF’S” are there, they are in the text. You hear these people, who do not even know what the commandments are and could care less what they are, talking about the love of Jesus. They do not even have a clue what the love of Yehshua is.

He does not know them and they do not Know Him. They are the workers of lawlessness that He spoke of in Matthew 7, of the many who come to Him that day and say, Lord, Lord have we not done many wonderful works in your name…..

If your own logos is in disagreement with the true logos, the unleavened bread of life, you do not AGAPAO Yehshua or His Father. You are living apart from His word.

Therefor you do not have the Spirit of truth, you simply are deceived and you are led by the spirit of the deceiver. The ticket to freedom is through Yehshua, He was given the name the logos of Elohiym. But the ticket is not free, it requires repentance which is fleeing from the lies and agreeing to walk in the light, in the truth.

Any agreement that we make with our Creator apart from agreeing to do it His way is an invalid agreement and we simply remain lost in our sins and will have to pay our own death penalty.

Amos 3:1-3

3:1 Hear this word that YEHWEH has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying,

2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

3 CAN TWO WALK TOGETHER, EXCEPT THEY BE AGREED?

To understand, we must cry out to be in agreement with Him and fight to walk in that agreement. We must look at this from the big picture point of view. What is the big picture? YEHWEH put us here with the purpose of building a family.

Looking back on how it was before the Exodus and before the flood, He looked into the individual hearts of men and women and He manifested Himself to those whom He chose because they wanted Him.

There are only a few of these special people mentioned in scripture who captured His heart by choosing His protective nurturing care, choosing Him as their source. Of this small group of people, Abraham surfaced and YEHWEH chose him from whom He would build a whole nation of people out from. They would be given special favor and the opportunity to be an example to all others nations.

He gave them His precepts and His commandments that would define His perfect character if they would hearken unto His voice and walk in them, in agreement with the perfect character that He wanted to give them. They rejected Him over and over again.

There were very few who believed Him, just as there are very few who believe Him today. Yes, they believed “IN” Him, just as billions believe “IN” Him today, but so few have actually believed Him.

Let me give you an example, IF you believed Him, you would believe that IF you walked in His statutes and commandments that He would heal you because He says so and you would not put your trust in doctors and such.

The proof that you do not believe Him is because 1) you ignore His pre-requisite to walk in His statutes, therefore your actions confess that His commands and statutes are lies and 2) the fruit of you not believing Him is manifested in your trust in another source, therefore you again are confessing that His word is a lie.

I could give you many such examples but that is not the point of this segment. The point is man has rejected Him for nearly 6,000 years, all except a few.

He is not looking for such hearts as these to be in His family. He is looking for those who believe Him and confess that belief with their actions, even to the point of death, knowing that He can resurrect us anyway.

His Agape’ living in us comes from being guided by His Spirit. It is a matter of agreeing with Him and walking in that agreement.

It is not a superficial love of saying how much you love Him with your lips or singing empty praise songs saying that you glorify Him while rejecting His very instructions that would teach you who He is. Such empty hollow worship as this is an abomination to Him.

Although Paul’s definition of Agape’ is smooth sounding and itching ears love such sayings, it is lacking the complete picture as all of his part-truths do, it is lacking the most important part, and that is that it is not of ourselves.

In Matthew 22, one of the Pharisees which was a lawyer asked him a question, tempting Him, and saying,

36 Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law?

37 Yehshua said to him, you shall AGAPAO Yehweh your Elohiym with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with your entire mind.

38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, you shall AGAPAO your neighbor as yourself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

(I want to point out here that Paul said in Galatians 5 that the whole law is fulfilled in one commandment, to AGAPAO your neighbor as yourself. He kind of left out the biggest and foremost one, didn’t he?)

Why did Yehshua use this terminology here that all of law is hung off of these two commandments?

Because true relationships need to be built with Elohiym’s AGAPE’ as their foundation, otherwise they are temporary at best because all is temporary apart from Him.

Matt 24:11-12

11 And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many.

12 And because iniquity shall abound, the AGAPE’ of many shall wax cold.

Can iniquity and Elohiym’s Agape’ co-exist? In other segments I have discussed the Greek word that is translated as iniquity here and in three other convenient places in Matthew, one of those being in Chapter 7 when Yehshua says depart from me you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.

It is the word anomia which means transgression of the law.

Yehshua is saying in this verse that false prophets will deceive many by taking them away from the law, and their agape’ would wax cold because of it.

Do we have the ability to AGAPAO without Him living in us?

Matt 5:46

46 For if you AGAPAO them which AGAPAO you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do that?

Obviously we do, so this points us to two different sources. It is either from self and based on our own righteousness or it comes from Elohiym and is based on His righteousness?

Going back to the purpose that we were created, we were created to become part of His family, to take on His character which is taught by His Spirit through His word.

Elohiym’s Agape is different than our best efforts if He and His Son our not dwelling in us.

I knew a man that on the surface appeared to have a perfect marriage, at least the most perfect that I have ever seen. This man was upright and full of His own integrity and most were very impressed with him, including myself. He had tapped into certain rewards that our Creator set up that are part of His laws of nature.

He certainly had agape down pact as far as Paul’s definition to the Corinthians and his marriage seemed pretty solid as a result of His actions on a physical plain.

Was there anything missing? By his own admission he did not believe in the Messiah, less more put His trust in His Creator. He lived a life of self-achievements and I am sure that most anyone would have looked up to Him.

The problem was His success was still at the expense of others. He still esteemed self and, unless He repents, his life will be temporary. Worse yet, he did not engage in his Creator’s family business of helping Him build His Kingdom.

There is something missing that our own efforts cannot complete, just as our own efforts cannot fully AGAPE’ in truth because we are not self-less as our Creator is and as He wants us to be.

My Father wants the building of His Kingdom to be a family effort. Living His agape is by design perfect but man has chosen the darkness instead.

It is all His and He wants to give it all to us to share in but we have put self in front of the equation and rejected His plan.

He is calling forth a people to live into a new era who will realize that their efforts have not worked and who want Him and His Son to dwell in them to teach them.

To learn more about Elohiym’s Agape, let’s look at a few of the instructions that Yehshua gave to His disciples;

Matt 5:38-40

38 You have heard that it has been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

39 But I say unto you, that you do not resist evil: but whosoever shall smite you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.

He is repeating part of the law that Israel had perverted that had to do with repayment. They had taken the principle and applied it into their relationships. He is telling them that if someone wrongs you, do not look to repay that wrong, forgive their actions, show them that you AGAPAO them. Let Agape’ be your response to all matter of wrong doing.

He is not saying to love their wrong doing; just do not respond with vengeance. Vengeance belongs to YEHWEH anyway, He is going to repay all for all they have done.

40 And if any man will sue you at the law, and take away your coat, let him have your cloak also.

This is Agape’. It is self-less love, understanding that your Father sees all and He knows you have need of a coat and a cloak anyway. If this person wrongfully sued you, by giving him your cloak you might just expose his wrong doings in his heart if there is anything left of it.

There is a proverb that pertains to this;

Prov 25

21 If your enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:

22 For you shall heap coals of fire upon his head, and YEHWEH shall reward you.

Matt 5:41-42

41 And whosoever shall ask you to go a mile, go with him two.

Maybe this is someone that asks for your help to move something heavy, stay with him and help him with more.

42 Give to him that asks you, and from him that would borrow of you, do not turn him away.

He is saying to lend freely to all who ask. As a matter a fact, if it is a brother, we are commanded to not even charge interest.

Today there is an attitude of not helping another because they could get a job if they wanted to, how do you know? Maybe they could but is that our place to judge without taking the time to find out the details instead of blindly judging the situation with our own form of self-righteousness?

Who blessed us to have the money in the first place; none of us could have anything including life itself unless our Creator allows it.

Matt 5:43-45

43 You have heard that it has been said; you shall AGAPAO your neighbor, and hate your enemy.

44 But I say unto you, AGAPAO your enemies and pray for them which and persecute you;

45 That you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

We should love others in a way that they would know that we want them to be in our Father’s Kingdom with us.

Again, He is not saying to embrace or love their evil deeds, we just need to let His light shine through us and not repay evil with evil.

I want to add here that the king james and some other translations add some things to this verse; bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and despitefully use you. The translators add this because Luke quotes Yehshua saying this in Luke 6:28. We need to be careful,
Luke was not an eyewitness and he was a follower of Paul.

We need to be careful who we ask for our Father to bless because we need to know His will. The night before Yehshua was killed He said that He does not pray for the world. The prayer that I have for those who persecute me is that they will be brought to repentance, not blessed apart from repentance.

He goes on in Chapter 6 to say to be careful that we do not do our deeds to be seen of men or to feel good about ourselves. We are to desire the true Agape’ and nature of our Creator, His character living in us needs to be the source for our choices to do good.

He also tells us to be perfect, only one is perfect; therefore it is being at one and in total agreement with Him that makes us perfect and this can only come from He and His Son living in and through us. This happens through living the instructions.

True agape that does not come from self, if it is living in us, it is a fore shadow of the marriage banquet where we will be made one with Him in His family permanently.

This life that we are given now is just a testing and a proving ground that demonstrates that we are willing to put our fate in His hands and believe His promises and live to attain them, just as Abraham was willing to offer up Isaac which was pure agape, the type of agape’ that Elohiym is purposing to build in His family.

Abraham knew that He could not give Isaac eternal life by disobeying ‘EL Shadai.

He chose to give His son eternal life by trusting His Master and teaching Isaac to do the same. He knew that he could not add one second to his son’s life apart from ‘EL Shadai allowing it anyway and He believed His Elohiym. He believed His promises.

Can there be true love without trust?

This means that we must also reach a point where He can trust us to be married to Him.

There really are not words to totally describe what Elohiym’s Agape’ is. It is certainly self-less love but is also being in agreement with Him and trusting in Him and much more. As YEHWEH said through Amos, CAN TWO WALK TOGETHER EXCEPT THEY BE IN AGREEMENT?

No, and we certainly cannot be in agreement with the dark and walk in the light. Elohiym’s AGAPE’ comes from taking on His perfect character and walking in the light, becoming children of the light.

I will finish today with one of the earlier verses;

1 John 2:5-6

5 But whoso keeps (or Holds fast to or guards) His word (Logos), in him verily is the AGAPE’ OF ELOHIYM PERFECTED: hereby know we that we are in Him.

6 He that says he dwells in Him ought himself also so to walk, EVEN AS HE WALKED.

One more;

1 John 4:19

19 We AGAPAO Him, because He first AGAPAO us.

We cannot even LOVE Him unless He first chooses us to LOVE us and let us see who His perfect character is, OUR part is to want to be chosen, to fight for it.