Agape Love--Other-Centered vs Worldly Love--Self-Centered

Many people do not recognize the kind of love which God tells us about in the Holy Bible. The human race has gone so far away from the original plan of our Creator for mankind they don't truly understand it. Once an individual gets a glimpse of this type of love, they may be drawn toward their Creator. When they appreciate what it is about they learn to love God with all their heart. This article explains to us a little about this love. We hope you will be blessed and lead to our Creator and Redeemer, for He is the only source for a love which will truly and forever make us contented, happy, and at peace with ourselves and others.

1 John 4:8--"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."

1 John 5:3-5--"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, [even] our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

Deut. 6:5--"And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

Lev. 19:18--".....thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I [am] the LORD."

We read these same two commandments, which sum up the ten, in Matthew 22:37-40. We also understand from reading some of the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5, keeping of the commandments goes beyond just our words and actions. It also includes our thoughts and motives. Love for God and mankind is broad and deep.

The kind of love which exists among the three members of the Godhead is "other-centered." This is the kind of love God has for us and all of the creatures He has made. The Creator made us in His image in the beginning. Since the fall of man He longs for us to understand this kind of love and to be completely restored into this other-centered love, instead of the self-centered love of the carnal nature. This is what sin is all about. It is all centered in selfishness. Our Creator and Redeemer knows we will never be happy with this kind of love. Anyone who would enter the perfect heavenly abode must have this other-centered love or he would be miserable because of his selfish nature. So, God is striving to win us back to Himself and this kind of love.

This is why Jesus came to die for us. His life and death were a revelation of this other-centered love which our God has for us and all of His creation.
Just as there have been people who walked with God over the ages (Enoch is a prime example), God will have a group of people who will walk so close to Him again, they will be translated without seeing death. They will be alive when Jesus comes again, and will arise from the earth, along with the resurrected saints, and go back with Jesus to heaven. These people will have gone through a time where they have learned to trust God supremely and have learned, to the greatest extent a person can learn on earth, how to be "other-centered," which is what agape love is all about. This is a love we will ever be learning more about as the years of eternity go by.

"The law of love is the foundation of God's government, and the service of love the only service acceptable to Heaven. God has granted freedom of will to all, endowed men with capacity to appreciate His character, and therefore with ability to love Him and to choose His service. So long as created beings worshiped God they were in harmony throughout the universe. While love to God was supreme, love to others abounded. As there was no transgression of the law, which is the transcript of God's character, no note of discord jarred the celestial harmonies." {TMK 366.2}

"If we dealt kindly and tenderly and compassionately with one another, loving others as Christ has loved us, what a change would take place in our world! What a transformation would be brought about in the home life! In this church there are whole families who need to be educated and trained for the future, immortal life. All the power that can be obtained from above is needed to lead their feet in safe paths." {2SAT 177.3}

" . . . . Deeds of kindness, charity, and love to others will make you one with Christ and take your mind from yourself." {DG 166.3}

The life Christ lived while on earth is an example for us. We are to follow His example, and thus we will learn to be other-centered.

"The life of Christ was a life charged with a divine message of the love of God, and He longed intensely to impart this love to others in rich measure. Compassion beamed from His countenance, and His conduct was characterized by grace, humility, truth, and love. Every member of His church militant must manifest the same qualities, if He would join the church triumphant. The love of Christ is so broad, so full of glory, that in comparison to it, everything that men esteem as great, dwindles into insignificance. When we obtain a view of it, we exclaim, O the depth of the riches of the love that God bestowed upon men in the gift of His only-begotten Son!" {FE 179.3}

"We are to learn a lesson from the goodness and mercy and self-sacrificing life of the Father. We are to study how to give our sympathy and love to others. As we have received this priceless gift, so we are to impart it. We are to learn how to rule by love and kindness, rather than by severity and censure. When an erring person becomes conscious of his wrong, do not deal with him in a manner that will take away all his self-respect. Do not seek to tear to pieces, but to bind up and heal. You may see the errors of a brother. Yet he may not be able to discern his wrong; and it may be difficult to know how to act. But never pursue a course that will give him the impression that you regard yourself as his superior. You may think that your feelings, your pursuits, your organization, are superior to his, but do not seek to make this apparent; for such a course is altogether out of harmony with true refinement, true nobility of character. We are not to bruise the souls of the erring, but to go to them armed with humility and prayer. When the gospel minister, with his heart subdued by the love and grace of Christ, comes in touch with human minds, he can reveal his superior qualifications, not by destroying hope and courage, but by inspiring faith in the faithless, by lifting up the hands that hang down, and confirming the feeble knees.--RH Nov. 21, 1899." {PaM 212.3}

We should ever remember we cannot live a life of self-denial and loving service to others without the divine power of Christ in our daily lives. We cannot truly love others without His love dwelling in us. It is by beholding Him in the word of God, and communing with Him through prayer that we gain this kind of love and compassion.

"Many think that it is impossible to love our neighbor as ourselves; but it is the only genuine fruit of Christianity. Love to others is putting on the Lord Jesus Christ; it is walking and working with the invisible world in view. We are thus to keep looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." {RC 103.2}

"The life of Christ was a life charged with a divine message of the love of God, and He longed intensely to impart this love to others in rich measure. Compassion beamed from His countenance, and His conduct was characterized by grace, humility, truth, and love. Every member of His church militant must manifest the same qualities, if he would join the church triumphant." --FE 179 (1891) {LDE 62.2}

"Oh, if all who professed to be followers of Christ were indeed living channels of light to the world, imbued by the Spirit of God, with hearts full to overflowing with the gospel message, with the very countenance beaming with devotion to God and love to others, what a work might be accomplished in a short time! The messengers of the truth would not speak with hesitation, with uncertainty, but with fearlessness and confidence. Their words and the very tones of the voice would strike conviction to the hearts of the hearers." —Review and Herald, Aug. 23, 1892. {BLJ 284.5}

"We can love our neighbor as ourselves only as we love God supremely. The love of God will bear fruit in love to our neighbors. Many think that it is impossible to love our neighbor as ourselves, but it is the only genuine fruit of Christianity. Love to others is putting on the Lord Jesus Christ; it is walking and working with the invisible world in view. We are thus to keep looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith." --Review and Herald, June 26, 1894. {WM 49.2}

"We are to empty the heart of everything that defiles the soul temple, that Christ may dwell within. Our Redeemer has told us how we may reveal Him to the world. If we cherish His Spirit, if we manifest His love to others, if we guard one another's interest, if we are kind, patient, forbearing, the world will have an evidence by the fruits we bear that we are the children of God. It is the unity in the church that enables it to exert a conscious influence upon unbelievers and worldlings." --Review and Herald, June 5, 1888. {YRP 76.4}

"Herein is the love of God manifested, inexpressible, immeasurable, and passing knowledge. The human mind cannot grasp it in its fulness; but we should put forth the most earnest efforts of which we are capable, that we may communicate redeeming love to others. Eternity, all eternity, will unfold that love, and then we shall know what here we cannot comprehend." {BEcho, November 25, 1895 par. 7}

"Children should be instructed by both precept and example. Their parents should manifest kindness and courtesy and loving attention to each other. They should manifest self-forgetful love to others. Children will copy the lessons that they see practiced in the family circle. Holy angels will be round about a family where love and joy and peace abound." {RH, June 24, 1890 par. 4}

Being Self-Centered

"The more clearly our eyes behold the attractions of the future world, the deeper will be our solicitude for the inhabitants of this world. We cannot be self-centered. We are living in the time of special conflict between the powers of light and those of darkness. Go forth; let your light shine; diffuse its rays to all the world. Christ and the heavenly messengers co-operating with human agencies, will bring the unfinished parts of the work to a perfect whole. Not to fill our place because we love our ease, because we would avoid care and weariness, is not to shine; and how terrible the guilt, how fearful the consequences!" {CH 35.3}

"You have an experience before you to gain. You cannot be self-centered and be prepared for whatever work or responsibility, however difficult or dangerous, which is in Christ's line. Your eye must be single to the glory of God, and then your profiting [growth] will appear unto all. You need to employ every means of grace [so] that your love to God, and to all with whom you associate, may be pure and Christlike. Then you will approve the things that are excellent and be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Your Christian life must take on a different mold, else you will never see the kingdom of heaven." {DG 137.1}

"Jesus, seeing that to antagonize was but to harden, refrained from direct conflict. The narrowing selfishness of Judas' life, Christ sought to heal through contact with His own self-sacrificing love. In His teaching He unfolded principles that struck at the root of the disciple's self-centered ambitions. Lesson after lesson was thus given, and many a time Judas realized that his character had been portrayed, and his sin pointed out; but he would not yield." {Ed 92.1}

"Warning, admonition, promise, all are for us, upon whom the ends of the world are come. "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober" (1 Thessalonians 5:6). . . . Watch against the stealthy approach of the enemy, watch against old habits and natural inclinations, lest they assert themselves; force them back, and watch. Watch the thoughts, watch the plans, lest they become self-centered. Watch over the souls whom Christ has purchased with His own blood. Watch for opportunities to do them good." {AG 332.5}

"Naturally we are self-centered and opinionated. But when we learn the lessons that Christ desires to teach us, we become partakers of His nature; henceforth we live His life. The wonderful example of Christ, the matchless tenderness with which He entered into the feelings of others, weeping with those who wept, rejoicing with those who rejoiced, must have a deep influence upon the character of all who follow Him in sincerity. By kindly words and acts they will try to make the path easy for weary feet.-- "Ministry of Healing," pages 157, 158.

"The soul finds rest only in cherishing meekness and lowliness of heart. The peace of Christ is never found where selfishness reigns. The soul cannot grow in grace when it is self-centered and proud. Jesus assumed the position that man must take in order that the peace of Christ may abide in the heart. Those who have offered themselves to Christ to become His disciples must deny self daily, must lift up the cross and follow in the footsteps of Jesus. They must go where His example leads the way." --Lt 28, 1888. {1MCP 45.2}

Being Other-Centered

"Those who wait for the Bridegroom's coming are to say to the people, "Behold your God." The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them." {COL 415.5}

"Love is the basis of godliness. Whatever the profession, no man has pure love to God unless he has unselfish love for his brother. But we can never come into possession of this spirit by trying to love others. What is needed is the love of Christ in the heart. When self is merged in Christ, love springs forth spontaneously. The completeness of Christian character is attained when the impulse to help and bless others springs constantly from within--when the sunshine of heaven fills the heart and is revealed in the countenance." {COL 384.2}