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“Come and get your love...”
First Love, Part II - Love Feasts
Recap: Welcome back to Theophilus. Yesterday, we began our First Love series by looking at the church in Ephesus and how they neglected their calling as a community. Today, we follow that further by exploring the biblical concept of love in its original context.
Missed previous emails in the series? No worries, you can read all the emails we sent online by clicking here.
I’m a big fan of 60’s music.
The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel… these figures were instrumental (haha) in shaping the culture of the time.
Most of their music was influenced by a desire for social change, a desire commonly expressed through the call to “peace and love.”
Woodstock in 1969.
The Love Feast
The earliest Christians would have agreed, to them, that love was the engine driving the universe. So much so that they gave their regular gathering the title of “love feast.”
Instead of a hippie protest, the love feast was a celebration of Christ’s victory over sin. It was a time to come together as a community to encourage and uplift one another in living for and with Jesus.
The name “love feast” gets its name from the Greek word agape, one of several words the Greeks used for love. Agape is notable among them as the highest form of love conceivable, often tied to the act of self-sacrifice.
No surprise that the early Church associated this love with Christ Himself.
Agape in the Bible
It comes in the form of love.
Agape appears several times throughout the New Testament and bears a close connection to the person of Jesus.
It’s agape that stands as the litmus test when Jesus reproaches the Ephesian church for…
…forsak[ing] the love [agape] you had at first.
What we see here is agape as a non-negotiable trait for Christ’s followers.
The church in Ephesus was known for doing much good (Revelation 2v2-3) but their negligence of agape (v4) was so severe that it put their very identity at risk.
When such a love is lost, the Church goes with it.
So how does a church get to the point of neglecting agape?
In the coming days, we’ll explore three main reasons for the loss of agape, Power, Dogma, and Idolatry, each highlighting a different angle of our human weakness.
And what better way to start than with a little bit of power?
We’ll see to it tomorrow but, for now, be blessed.
Application: Take some time to look up the different Greek words for love. Compare them with agape and take note of what you’ve learned about this kind of love specifically.
Jon,
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