My heart breaks for my generation and culture right now. The way we respond to the truth especially concerns me. If the truth was a person (and It is), it seems like we might consider Truth to be a good friend from high school. Nostalgia is great, and we love catching up, but “hey man, the kids are calling. I’ve got to go,” we would say. In other words, it’s nice to know Truth, and we had some great times, but He’s got His life and, well, I’ve got mine. Truth is relegated to a “really good idea,” but not something that I center my life around. And let me be clear, I’m not talking about the lost here. They are doing exactly what they know to do right now. When I say “my generation and culture,” I mean Christians, specifically those under age 35 or so.
The mentality I’m referring to is the same one the disciples had before the cross. It’s the result of confidence in the strength of human love, as if it were the supernatural love of God because we’ve confused the two. Before the Cross, every one of the eleven disciples was absolutely convinced that they would die before they would abandon the Lord (Matt. 26:35). But before the night was over, all of them did, and only one came to the Cross. In the previous three and a half years, they had heard the Lord’s words; followed Him; watched Him heal, deliver and do miracles; they had even done signs and wonders in His name—yet the love that they had for Him did not keep them from abandoning Him. I would submit that many, many of us in the Church are right here. And we’re headed for trouble.
We are a very busy demographic. Young church-folks are passionate—throwing themselves into ministry work, missions or church programs. And let me say that I believe that much of the love for Jesus that drives us is very real. Yet, if we aren’t careful, we allow ourselves to believe activity equals growth in relationship with Jesus, and the supernatural love that was deposited in our spirit at salvation remains undeveloped. Instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to develop His love in us through communion with the Lord, self-denial, and obedience to His Word, we prop up our passion with the best of human love and activity. After awhile, our human love for the truth begins to grow cold. As time, pressure and/or persecution come down on us, we burnout. Maybe not abandoning the faith (as I said before, I believe much of the love, at a seed-level, is real), but backing way off of our stance for the truth. Our sensitivity to the Holy Spirit diminishes, and we essentially set the cruise-control on our faith.
We need to consider what kind of love we have for the truth. Even the height of human love will, over time, leave us in the mentality I described above. We need something more, and I fear we assume that we have enough. But there is one kind of love that will sustain us, keep us strong through temptation, fan the flames of passion within us, and help us to endure any kind of persecution that might come.
In John 21:15-19, the Lord Jesus asks Peter about his love. It is the story of the Lord restoring their relationship and Peter’s position as a leader after Peter’s denial. Most of us have probably heard a sermon or two about this passage. And many probably know that the word the Lord uses for “love” and the word Peter uses have two different meanings. According to Strong’s Concordance and Vine’s Expository Dictionary, in Jesus’ first two questions to Peter, He uses the word “agapao” or “agape” for love. This is a powerful word, reserved only for use in the context of divinity, such as the love between the Father and the Son. Peter is speaking from his brokenness when he uses a different word in his answers. Each time he answers the Lord, he uses the word “phileo” meaning “a close friendship, tender affection” or in the context, “the height of human love”. The Lord switches to “phileo” the third time He asks Peter about his love. This grieves Peter, which has been interpreted several ways. I personally believe the Lord meets Peter where he is in his brokenness and brings healing; yet, He simultaneously points out that the quality of love Peter has for Jesus is not enough to endure future temptation and persecution.
What we talking about here is remaining effective in the advancement of the kingdom of God, and the reality that in order to do that we must operate out of the deposit of divine love given to us and fostered by the Holy Spirit. Satan had no problem with Peter going back to fishing and would have let him spend the rest of his life doing that; because the keys to the kingdom of God that Jesus had given Peter would have never been used. The enemy will gladly allow us to remain for decades in the dead works that the Lord has called us out of (even if those dead works are church activities)—just as long as we never plug into the agape-love that allows us to do what we were really meant to do!
Or consider the pressure and persecution that we all know is coming. Jesus said, “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecuted you.” (John 15:20) Persecution, if you haven’t seen any of the latest headlines in America, is already here. It’s everywhere, and it will increase. If we do not allow the Holy Spirit to develop His agape-love into a prevailing mentality of Christ-like thoughts and actions, we may end up in heaven, but who knows what kind of black-eye we will leave on the gospel through our empty works or even denials before we die.
Matthew 24:12 says “…and because lawlessness will abound, the love (agape) of many will grow cold (or “psucho”, meaning evaporate; related to “psuche”, or “soul-life”.) This might seem confusing, since agape is a deposit of divine-love from the Father. How could it evaporate? Exactly. I Cor. 13:8 says “Love (agape) never fails.” Considering this, another translation of Matt. 24:12 might read, “…and because lawlessness will abound, many who think they are centered in divine-love will find out that all they really have is soulish/human-love, because it will fail.” The next verse is also significant: v. 13 “But he who endures unto the end shall be saved.” The word “endures” is “hupomeno” meaning “to stay under, remain, bear, or have fortitude.”
So if we put it all together in context, we might translate these two verses: “And because lawlessness will abound, soulish-love pretending to be God-love will crumble, but those who stay under the fortress of divine-love will persevere and be saved.”
Don’t believe that it could happen to you? Consider this: the word “phileo” in the Greek is not only used to describe the love that exists in a close friendship, but it can also be used as a verb to simply mean “to kiss”. It is sobering to consider that in every gospel that includes a reference to Judas betraying Jesus with a kiss, “phileo” is the word used to describe it. (Matt. 26:48, Mark 14:44, Luke 22:47) Some people think Judas secretly hated Jesus all along, but here we see that it wasn’t hatred, but phileo-love. Judas betrayed Jesus while having the best of human love toward Him. This brings a greater significance to Peter’s realization that the love toward Jesus that he had tried to stand on under pressure was phileo, not agape. Jesus was showing Peter that he needed more and deeper love in order to survive temptation and persecution.
So do we agape the truth? To have agape-love toward something means that we love the thing regardless of any good we can gain from it. Christ’s love for us compelled Him to die for us, even when we were His enemies. (Rom. 5:10) In the context of this evil world, what do we expect to gain from living our lives in devotion to Jesus, and speaking the truth? Our treasure is stored up in heaven, and we will be rewarded there. But in the meantime, can we accept that the truth will embarrass us in this evil culture, that it will bring us nothing but hatred and persecution? Or do we hold out hope that if maybe we bend the truth just a little, we might get something for ourselves, even just safety? Unless we can say that we love the man, Truth, and all that He says and does, regardless of what we could gain or lose in this world, we only have phileo-love. And it will not stand under pressure.
So to my brothers and sisters in Christ…to my fellow young parents, young passionate believers, recently hungry to build something that lasts…here is my question: can we handle the truth? That the “mean” scriptures and the boring ones reveal the Lord Jesus too? That instead of ignoring them or saying “well, that’s the Old Testament”, we’re supposed to engage the God who wrote them to find out why? Can we handle that the meekness of consistent communion and prayer; the seeking of true covenant in a church body, and being known in heaven more than earth; builds a better fortress of agape personally and corporately than a thousand hours of church activities done in phileo-love? Because after all, unless the Lord builds the house of our calling, we labor in vain (Psalm 127:1), and He only builds with agape-love.
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