The Arrival - Advent Love

The Love That Changed Everything: The Christmas Story is the Definition of Agapaō

The story of the first Christmas is often celebrated with gifts, carols, and decorations, but at the center of this story is the definition of love. The birth of Christ is widely considered the supreme example of divine love, specifically the type of love known in Greek as agapē or agapaō. Jesus’s birth didn’t just show the world what agapaō looked like; it fundamentally changed the meaning of the word itself, transforming it from a vague concept into a powerful, permanent standard of sacrificial, unconditional action.

The Original Idea of Love
1 John 4:7-8 NIV - Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Before the Christmas story, the Greek language had many words for love. Philia described the warm bond between friends or family members, like the loyalty you feel for your best friend or sibling. Erōs described romantic love like what a man and woman would feel toward each other when dating or getting married. The word agapaō  however, was different. It was used occasionally in ancient Greek writings, but it was often vague. It suggested a basic goodwill or a general affection, but it wasn’t defined by any grand, active proof or deep commitment. It was more of an idea than an action.

Then, Jesus entered the world. When he got older he incorporated into his message a different kind of agapaō.  In chapter three of the Gospel of John , Jesus’s words are captured,  “ God so Loved the world” and at that moment the  word “agapaō “ takes on a whole new meaning. When John wrote one of His letters to the Church, he associated the word  agapē with God himself by saying “God is Love”, (theos eimi agapē.)

The Supreme Act of Sacrifice
Philippians 2:5-8 NIV - In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death--even death on a cross!

The Christmas story provided the physical, undeniable definition that agapaō had always lacked. It tells the story of God—the Creator of the entire universe—choosing to “take on flesh,” leaving the glory and perfection of heaven to become a helpless, vulnerable human baby. This event, known as the Incarnation, is the supreme example of love because it involves radical self-sacrifice and humility. God didn't come as a powerful, conquering king who demanded loyalty; He arrived quietly in the humblest way possible, born in an animal stable and laid in a feeding trough. This lowering of status and power—this total self-giving—for the benefit of humanity is the pure definition of unconditional love. It was a choice to give everything, without expecting anything in return. It was not just love in word but it was love in action.

Changing the Definition of Agapaō
John 3:16 NIV - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Because of the events in Bethlehem, love was redefined. When writers of the New Testament captured Jesus’s words, he used agapaō to describe his love for his creation. Jesus wasn’t talking about a gentle feeling; he pointed his words  to the concrete, undeniable act of God giving his Son for the world. The definition became: pure, willful, intentional, and unconditional. It is love that is based on the giver's choice and not on the recipient's worthiness.

Jesus’s birth showed agapaō or true love was intentionally choosing the ultimate well-being of his creation, even if his creation was his enemy and did not want anything to do with him, and even if it requires the ultimate sacrifice, his death.  The Christmas story proved that this ultimate form of love was real and possible, giving everyone a new, impossible high standard for love that focused on action—the choice to give—rather than just emotion. It made God's love tangible, setting the standard for all relationships.

Changing How We Love
1 John 4:9-10, 12 NIV - This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins…No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

The challenge for us this Christmas season is to live out the love taught and shown to us by God himself when He gave us his Son on that glorious night the virgin gave birth in a manger. In the same way that God loved us we should love one another. It seems easy but it is impossible for us to accomplish such a challenge unless God lives in us. The gift of God is not just in the birth of Jesus we celebrate this time of year, but it also includes the death he died for us on the cross, the resurrection, and the promise that He lives and if we believe in him,he will come to us,live in us, and change our understanding of how we should love.

What is your definition of love this Christmas season? Jesus did not enter this world so we could celebrate his birth once a year. Jesus came into this world to change his creation and bring the human race back to a relationship with him where we can have God living in us. If we are willing to turn to God, repent, and believe, He has promised to come and live in us.  We will have His love pouring out of us. Let agapaō love complete you this Christmas, throughout the New Year, and for the rest of your life.