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of Chris Fishtrom
The word Agapians is from the Greek word agape meaning love and -ians meaning those belonging to. Love for this writing is Christian love. Agapians are followers of the teachings of Jesus Christ and belonging to Christ. Also the word Agapians, a way of referring to the body of Christ, is not a denomination. Note: Agape is sometimes translated in the KJV Bible as charity.
| Paul in first Corinthians Chapter 13 gives us a functional definition of Christian love: | |
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| 4: | Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; |
| 5: | it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; |
| 6: | it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. |
| 7: | Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. |
| 8: | Love never ends... |
Lives of Agapians:
Agapians never give up and they care more for others than for themselves; Agapians don't want what they don't have; Agapians don't strut, don't have swelled heads; they don't behave rudely, are not selfish, don't fly off the handle; don't keep score of the sins of others; don't revel when others grovel, but rejoice in the truth; they put up with anything, trust God always, are filled with hope, always look for the best, never look back, keep going to the end. Agapians never fail.
They seek to stay on this path as though their lives depend on it, in fact, their lives do depend on it.
You may question 'Agapians never fail.' As an individual we will have failures but as a group or body we need not fail.
What happens when we live as an Agapian?
God brings these gifts into our lives much the same way that fruit appears over time in an orchard, things like caring for others, infectious exuberance about life, passionate patience, and serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion, and a conviction that the presence of God permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. We find God's laws are embedded in our minds and written in the core of our being.
What happens when we don't live as an Agapian?
Repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion such as Wicca; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing every one into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions to tobacco, alcohol, drugs, etc.; ugly parodies of community; and all such things.
copyright © February 05, 2004 george sappington
revision copyright © Sept 30, 2004 george sappington
