Much of our love is conditional:
Parents: “I will love you if you obey!”
Lovers: “I will love you if you fulfill my need!”
Where, Agapao is a Greek for love in its purest form. It is love with no strings attached. It means to love unconditionally, and sacrificially to love as God loves sinners and the way he loves his Son. Agapao is a verb. It means love that is an action by choice, not emotion.
Chapter 8 of Romans is perhaps the most theological in the New Testament, where Paul discusses God’s love in Christ.
Beginning at Verse 18
“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
The earth here is endowed with consciousness. The whole of creation is waiting for its liberation. The Jewish thought of the time was that the present age of sin’s dominion would change in the age to come. The day of the Lord will be the coming of the New Age, where a there will be a new and renovated earth.
From ancient Jewish writing, the earth is a universal mother. She shall give to the mortals her best fruit and countless store of corn, wine and oil. Yea, from heaven shall come a sweet draught of luscious honey. The trees shall yield their proper fruits, and there will be rich flocks of cattle, lambs and sheep. He will cause sweet foundations of white milk to burst forth. And, the cities shall be full of good things and the earth’s fields rich. Neither shall there be any sword throughout the land or battle din. Nor shall the earth be convulsed anymore with deep drawn groans. No wars shall be anymore, nor shall there be any more drought throughout the land, nor famine, nor hail, nor havoc among the crops.
Verse 19 – Eager Expectation
“For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God;”
The ancient Greek word apokaradokia means eager expectation. The word refers to the attitude of the person who scans the horizon with his head eagerly thrust forward, eagerly searching the distance for the first signs of the dawn break, for the glorious future of God for the world. For Paul, life not is not weary nor defeated waiting. Life is a throbbing with vivid expectation. The keynote of life is hope, not despair.
Verse 22
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now;”
This verse refers to the birth pangs of the Mother. Mother earth is groaning in birth pangs to give birth to the new day. We too are groaning for our bodies to be set free.
Verse 26
“Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words.”
When we do not even know the future for which we groan, the spirit comes to our help in our weakness. The spirit groans through our dreams and hopes that will bring in the new day, with a God who is in the tune with us and who recognizes the new day.
Verse 28 to 30
“We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he is also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
In every painful experience, God is working on our side to bring about the Shalom, the good future. God is still on schedule to bring in his and our new future. The God who works on our side is the one who did not spare his own son.
Verse 31
“What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?”
This is a reference to to Genesis 22 verse 16:
“And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son.”
It is the Yahweh God who speaks. Because you have done this, because you have not refused me your son, I will shower blessings on you and make your descendants as the stars of the heavens and the grains of the sands on the seashore. You always love, and loyalty is shown by his not refusing his son but giving him for the life of the world.
Verse 35
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ: Neither death nor life. In life we live with him. In death we die with him and are resurrected. Death is not the end, because of Gods loving act in Christ. It becomes God’s door to the fullness of eternal life.
Verses 38 and 39 – No Angels
“For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers.”
Angels for Jews and Paul are grudgingly hostile to humans, because the Angels feel angry that God created us. They did not want to share God with anyone, and they begrudged humanity for its creation and our share in God.
When God appeared on Sinai to cut his covenant with Israel, the Angels were there. They felt their nose is pushed in. They were even supposed to have assaulted Moses as he went up to the mountain to meet God. But no grudging Angel can separate us from the love of God: Not any power, nor height nor depth.
Verse 39 – Hupsoma and Bathos
“Nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The concept of Hupsoma and Bathos come from Greek. Hupsoma means to elevate a thing. In Astrology, Hupsoma is a time when the star is at its highest influence. Bathos means an extreme depth. In Astrology, Bathos is when a star was at its lowest and waiting to rise and to put its influence on a person. For the Wisemen, “We have seen his star in the rising sky!” No fates, no star influence, no height or depth can separate us from the love of God.
Jeremiah 31 verse 3
This verse is also a reference to Jeremiah 31 verse 3:
Thus says the Lord:
“The people who survived the sword
found grace in the wilderness;
when Israel sought for rest,
the Lord appeared to him from afar.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
The Yahweh God appeared to him (Israel) and says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love. So, I am constant in my love for you.”
Sacre – To Make Holy
We must reclaim the theory of God, from the angry God of the Middle Ages, who is waiting at the least provocation to cast his humanity into Hell, to a God of everlasting love. Can we be God’s loving people in the world? Can we bring some constancy to love spelled out in our time? We who have been baptized in our time, can we be baptized in love? To our families and our children, I will love you with an everlasting love?
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. All his wonderful passion and purity. “O thou spirit divine and all my nature refine. Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.”
Teilhard de Chardin – The Last Word
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
Reverend Arthur Schwabe Blog 