Agape Love is Preoccuped With the Other Person

Rev. Ernest O'Neill

Love is not a big complex thing.  Love is a very practical interest in knowing what the other dear person is feeling and in seeing things the way they see it so that you can really understand them and sympathize, and empathize with them.  Now that love is shed abroad miraculously in the heart of any person who is willing to die to themselves.  You do have to be willing to die to yourselves loved ones and just one or two things then to comment on that.  That love does show itself in physical expression because I think a lot of you listen to that and you say, “Oh yes, it’s a very spiritual thing but it never shows itself.”  Of course it does, that’s what gives intercourse its beauty because “Agape” love is preoccupied with the other person rather than their body and that’s what makes the physical expression of love such a beautiful and such a right and appropriate thing to do.

It’s what brings physical intercourse into perspective, “Agape” love.  It’s what enables the woman to know that you’re not just making use of her body.  It’s what enables the man to know that you’re not just depending on his virility.  It’s a concern for the person and a desire to even die for the person if need be and that’s what “Agape” love is.  Ephesians 5 you see describes it, “Husbands should love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  And that’s what “Agape” love makes you want to do and so it does express itself in physical ways in a husband wife relationship but it’s a desire to give, and a desire to put the other person before yourself.