GLCC Children's Network

So says John 15:18-19. The world hates a Christian. I'm not (and neither was Jesus) talking about individual people, but about the spirit of the World, about Satan, and about people blinded and bound by him.

The world hates us. Why? Because we don't follow its rules. We don't think like it does. We don't belong to it.

It's one of the biggest irony's of all time. People who are of the world - of the flesh - love it. They think that the world (and the flesh) has the answers to all of life's needs and troubles. In essence, they are giving themselves over to Satan, to let him take care of them.

Satan hates them. He hates all of us. After all, his goal is to send everyone into eternal suffering. How can you do that to someone, unless you truly hate them? Why does Satan hate us? Because we have something he will never have. Satan desires to be like God. (Is 14:14) But it is we who are made in God's image! And so Satan's great pride causes his great hatred of us.

But it's alright. Satan (and the world) hates God, too. And since we are children of God, he loves us. So we need not fear Satan's hate. He can't harm us if we don't let him. And when the world rejects us, or the things we say, they are really rejecting Jesus.

At our Friday night cell meetings, our 10-12 year-old group has been going through the Gospel of John, as part of a challenge I gave them several months ago. Last week, we talked about Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. This week, started looking at some of His last teachings before His death on the Cross.

Chapters 13-16 in John narrate Jesus' last words of teaching to his disciples. There is an almost hurried tone to these words. It's as if the Lord is giving a last-minute pep talk. I'm reminded of a scene from the movie Any Given Sunday. Coach D'Amato is walking down the tunnel onto the field with his young, inexperienced quarterback, Willie Beaman. D'Amato just keeps firing advice and instructions at Willie, who just keeps replying "Yeah." For the disciples, like Willie, it was a lot of information to absorb in very little time.

One of the first things that Jesus told the disciples was that He was giving them a new commandment. This must have been confusing to them. First, He reduces the Ten Commandments down to two. Now, He's giving them a new one. And like the other two (Love God above all, love your neighbor as yourself), His new commandment is born of love: "...as I have loved you, that you also love one another." (John 13:34, NKJV)

This opened the discussion on what "love" really means in the New Testament, especially when Jesus is speaking of it. John's Greek translation of Jesus' instructions uses the word agapeo ( αγαπη ) for "love." This is one of two words used in the NT for "love," the other being phileo. ( φιλεϖ )

Without getting too technical, there is a very important difference. Phileo is used to reference an emotional, heart-centered love. Phileo love is an easy love, an immediate love. Not that there cannot be intensity to it, but it is love that does not generally have a cost to it.

Agapeo, or agape love is much different. Beyond a simple feeling of the heart, agapeo requires an act of the will. It is a love of the mind, a sacrificial love, a love that requires risk. This is a love that places the one loved above self.

This is the kind of love that Jesus calls us all to. Not an easy, painless, "like" kind of love; He desires us to love one another with a risky, sometimes painful, willful love. It's easy to love someone when they are nice to you. But loving someone who just smacked you in the face - that's agapeo.

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Reminder!!! Due to the Fourth of July Weekend, there will be no cell group on July 3rd!!