Agape Perfected

AGAPE PERFECTED

This is a term taken from the teaching series by Bob Mumford called "The Agape Road". It consists of eight thirty minute sessions that clearly explain what is involved in receiving and walking in a new lifestyle that pleases God our heavenly Father. It is based on the truth of (John 14:6) where it records a very important statement of Jesus "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me". Since we know from scripture that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, the perfect God/Man, because He was born of a virgin so He was "sinless", so He was 100% human and 100% God at the same time. So we can safely say that He was "Agape Perfected" because we know that Agape is the Greek word that is translated as "Love". The Greek language has several different words for love, but in English we only have one. So we can say "I love God", but we can also say "I love pizza", or "I love my cat or dog" etc. The apostle John declared in (1John 4:8) that "God is love" [Agape], so we can say that Agape is God's kind of love since "God is Agape".

 

Back in the last part of the 19^th century there was a lot of church groups teaching "holiness", and some developed a doctrine called "sinless perfection" which told people they could become so holy they would be "perfect" in this life. We can only be "faultless", or without sin when we stand before God in our resurrected bodies (Jude: 24-25). As long as we still dwell in our earthly bodies we have our fleshly nature which is rebellious and opposes the things of the Spirit. (Gal 5:16-21). Only as we yield to the prompting of the Holy Spirit who indwells every "born again" adopted child of God can we live a life of liberty that pleases our heavenly Father. We live in a "fallen world" in which we have an enemy who hates God with a passion, and since he can do little directly against God he takes out his wrath against God's children. His kingdom of darkness is a well organized army consisting of millions of "fallen angels" who still have access to heavenly places (Eph 3:10). And also a huge number of "earth bound" wicked demon spirits who because they are "bodiless creatures" have an intense desire to inhabit a body to carry out the enemy's plan to hinder God's plans. These demons naturally prefer a human body. But will settle for the body of an animal rather than be unclothed. (Mark 5:1-20). This is only one of many incidents that show how Jesus dealt with demons in the gospels. And in (Mark 16:17) Jesus declares the believers in Him shall cast out demons!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                     30/08/12