"Mother’s Day” arrives on May 12! It is a Day when opportunity is given to honour out Wives and Mothers. We are commanded in the Scriptures, "Husbands love (agape) your wives just as Christ loved (agape) loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy .....and blameless” (Eph. 5: 25 - 27). He who loves his wife loves (agape) himself (1 Cor. 7: 4). While I was in Ecuador, I was asked to preach about "The Forgotten Key to Christian Marriage”.
There are four different Greek words for "love” - 1. Friendship (philos) 2. Eros (sexual) 3. Family (Storge) 4. Agape (God’s Love). The first three are conditional loves limited by bad relationships. "Agape love" is unconditional and can be commanded by Jesus to be done regardless of feelings. It is empowered to extend the boundaries of the other three kinds of love which are limited to the number of times a person can forgive somebody else to 7 times and extend it to 490 times every day (Matt. 18: 21 - 22). This "agape love” is the Guarantee of our other loves. It unleashes Agape love to enhance the other kinds of love and never degrades people but builds them up. It keeps no record of wrongs (1 Cor. 13: 5). This kind of "agape love” is "poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5: 5) only after we have received salvation and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the same proof as the disciples received on he Day of Pentecost (Acts 1: 8; 2: 4) of speaking in a new language (Mk. 16: 17). It is defined in 1 Cor. 13: 4 - 8. This love proves the romantic side of God and is demonstrated in Jesus’ Ministry.
Children are also to "Honour your father and mother, that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth” (Eph. 6: 2 - 3). To sum it up, agape love for our wives and respect for fathers and mothers by the same agape love gives us Jesus’ attention and the guidance of the Holy Spirit so we can be successful in knowing God’s plans for us. Paul tells us that our homes are mini-churches (Eph. 5: 32) where learn to do the ministry of the Holy Spirit using the Gifts of the Holy Spirit every day, praying in the Spirit (Eph. 6: 18), that guided by Spirit-led mothers that we can grow together. It is because of such wives, "that you may prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers” (3 Jn. 2). It can be said of Christian women, "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”
Yours in Jesus,
Rev. Gordon Williams
© GWEA, 2013