"Radical Love" v. Agape

This is my metaphor, so let me do this and try to take my meaning.  Of course the metaphor  will fail in some ways. . .  I think Agape (the Love of God) is like pure, organic, non-gmo, unrefined cane sugar.  I think the radical love, or "loving on" so touted by the Progressive Christian leaders is like a glob of saccharine, aspartame, sucralose and acesululfame-K.  The real stuff that grows out of the ground leads to Life and health;  the synthetic stuff leads to liver disease, cancers, IBS, seizure disorders, nausea, kidney disfunction, etc. 

Libby laid out for us the basics of Agape a couple weeks ago.  It is that aspect of God's character which is poured out as He wills, to meet the needs of it's objects.  As God's people experience it, Agape always involves obedience to God, and so can never be authentic if it violates God's revealed truth.  So it is purer, clearer,  deeper, and more powerful than any counterfeit. 

American pop-Christian culture is awash in messages about a different kind of love.  Writers prattle about "loving on" people without regard for a moral context.  Teachers talk of "loving on" people without regard for the big, eternal overview which always dominated the thinking of  Jesus and his Apostles.

I saw a History Channel program a while ago about a big, interstate highway  bridge that collapsed out West somewhere, letting a lot of vehicles plunge into the river.  A church group might have set up a free coffee stand a half-mile up the road leading to the bridge,  to show compassion to the thirsty, weary travelers.  They would be "loving on" them.  But if they didn't warn them clearly about the bridge, have they shown God's love to them?  No.  But on Sunday they can gloat "We gave out 1800 coffees!"

The consistent message of Jesus and the apostles He trained is to do good to all men, particularly with a clear eye open to the results that will be realized in the unseen Kingdom of God to come (Heaven).  This theme jumps out at you everywhere in Jesus' parables.   Paul's thinking was so renewed that he could say that his knowing of people was not by fleshy qualities, but by how they were related to God.

Not coincidentally, one of Satan's favorite ploys is to suck people into groups where they will be, via almost overwhelming warmth and compassion, made to feel they belong and are cared for.  Cults and false religions have successfully used counterfeits of God's love to seduce people, multiply and influence.   

So as you been challenged so often in this blog, read the Bible.  Test all teachings against the revealed Word of God.  The love someone is showing you may feel good;  it may be sweet;   but at the same time it may be manipulative, self-serving and a counterfeit of God's love. 

-guest post by David Nitz