This blog is the second of a series based on topics treated by Rev. Dr. Alfonso Espinosa in his book series on faith and culture.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
Agape Love: Serving Others
Dr. Espinosa writes regarding agape love: “This highest and greatest love serves the other even when we don’t want to.” Agape is one of three Greek words describing love. The other two are philos, love between friends, and eros, romantic or sexual love. Agape love is the highest and greatest of loves because it centralizes the wellbeing of others. It is self-sacrificing and nonreciprocal. Most importantly, agape love is what we see in Christ, specifically at the cross. We did not deserve Jesus’ self-sacrifice for our sins, yet our Lord gave anyway.
Espinosa reminds the reader that Christians demonstrate agape love to their neighbor within the context of giving such love to God first. In other words, we agape love our neighbor because we agape love God. Jesus says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:37–38).
Challenges and Questions with Christian Agape Love
One may argue why, if God is concerned about our neighbors, He wouldn’t want Christians to hold loving their neighbor above all else. I propose two reasons. First, in giving our Lord agape love first, we honor Him and recognize His supremacy. This is a First Commandment issue: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). Second, it is in loving the Lord first that we are best equipped to attend to our neighbor’s needs. As we hold God’s Word above all other sources of wisdom, we learn how best to care for our neighbors. God teaches us to love as He loves. As we receive the Lord’s Holy Spirit in Baptism, He empowers us to seek the good of the other, even at our own expense.
The challenge with agape love is the sinful nature. We look back to the Garden of Eden, where we find Adam and Eve, initially unblemished by sin. The first man and woman loved each other with agape love, and did so naturally. God built them to do so, and they did so after first showing agape love to their Creator. Adam and Eve then sinned for the first time by doing the exact opposite of agape love; they disobeyed God by seeking their own greater wisdom, power, and godship. Notice the inversion: Adam and Eve agape-loved each other because they agape-loved God first. But when they put themselves first, they failed to agape-love God, and consequently failed to agape-love each other. Recall what happened after the fall when the Lord confronted them: Adam blamed Eve, and then blamed God by implication. Eve blamed the serpent. Not a great deal of agape love there!
Agape Love in the Three Estates
Dr. Espinosa writes about agape love in three estates: family, church, and state. He writes, “Family is the heart of the culture, showing its character.” Families may only possess a Christian character when they are connected to the means of grace found in the church. The author writes, “Church is the soul of the culture, serving as a conscience and guide for knowing what is consistent with its Creator and what is not.” The family, then, benefits when the state is “protecting and practicing what is at the culture’s core.” In other words, the state creates a context in which the family and church can thrive. The church brings Christ to the family through the Word and Sacrament. The family, empowered by the Sacraments, lives out the Word in the home and community. The state, composed of people originating in the family, facilitates the family and church.
Ideally, agape love is shown in all three estates, first to God and then to the neighbor. When this happens, all three function well in harmony with one another. As noted above, however, the sinful nature disrupts this.
Selfishness in Sin Hurting Agape Love
A selfish heart is the opposite of agape love. It is the father who spends too little time on his wife and children, most especially failing to serve them as the spiritual leader of the family. It is the wife who is overly concerned with having her way in the direction of the family, failing to serve her husband and submit to him. It is the children who are disobedient to parents and unwilling to share with one another. The family’s primary neglect is of the means of grace found in the church. This fault falls most heavily on the father.
Selfishness in the church manifests itself in two primary ways. The second flows from the first. To show agape love to the family and state, the church first does so to God. The church does this by remaining faithful to God’s Word, regardless of the reaction from the family or state. When churches are too concerned over relevance to the family or consequences from state, they offer a polluted or diluted version of God’s Word, seeking their own preservation. The effect is a malnourished family and thereby a corrupt state.
Selfishness in the state is manifest in neglect of the family and overreach against the church. The task of the state is to protect the family, allowing it to do its job of raising children fed on the means of grace. The state then also seeks to subvert the church by muting its message and curtailing its practice. In essence, the state seeks to obliterate the church in order to replace it with itself. In this way, the state endeavors to supplant God, harkening back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Quotations from Faith that Shines in the Culture copyright © 2023 Alfonso Espinosa (italics in original). Published by Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Scripture: ESV®
Learn more about what it means to live in these three estates and what you can do to serve God in them by reading Faith That Shines in the Culture.
