Agape, and the Lack Thereof

Some people will say that you can’t love money because it’s a thing. While they are well meaning it what they say, I believe they are wrong. We established weeks earlier that Agape is not just known as the perfect love of God, but that it can also be a love that is completely committed to something. If someone were to choose money over God, they would Agape money because they are more committed to it than God and it has become their master.

Strangely, there’s a bible story about this exact scenario. If you read Acts 5:1-11, you learn about Sapphira and Ananias. They sold one of their fields and decided to give some of their money to God (the church). They didn’t want to give all of the money from the sell away, which was an okay thing (verse 4). When they took the money and laid it before Peter’s feet, though, they said that it was the full amount. They lied. They did not wish to look greedy by withholding some of the money.

At that point in time, money became their master.

They began to love money more than they loved God. They Agaped money.

There are consequences for everything, and the consequence for their lie was death (physical-in-the-grave death). This has something to say for us. While I don’t believe I’m going to die if I don’t tithe a full 10% (which I claim to), I do believe that a lie like this can kill us spiritually. Because we tell God that we don’t want to tell him the truth, we can’t be with him. This happened first in Genesis chapter 3.

The story about Sapphira and Ananias is extremely familiar, isn’t it? It is, in essence, The Fall played out again. This is to show us that The Fall didn’t just happen once; it happens again and again and again. And the consequence is still death.

Here we are taught that you can love things and have bad consequences, but we are also being taught something else. We are being taught about the love that doesn’t exist. The love that Sapphira and Ananias are NOT showing. What about that?

In some sense or another I think I’ve always thought that in order to love the ones around me I need to protect them from who I really am. I couldn’t show them my filthiness — whether it was the filthiness of greed, pride, or envy (or something else!). And that’s the stance that Sapphira and Ananias took; they couldn’t show how they really wanted to keep their money, so they didn’t.

By trying to love and protect the ones around them, they really hurt them.

You can’t love the people around you and lie to them at the same time. Not purposefully, at least. If you lie to somebody you love, you have revoked that love (at that moment in time). That love can be restored, but when you lie it is revoked.

Why is this? Because you love whatever sin you are trying to hide, and if you love it, you can’t love the people around you. Jesus says that you can’t serve two masters. In other words, you can’t love both sin and people. It’s impossible, he says.

Please consider what or who you really love. It could make the difference in your friendships, relationships, spiritual life, and physical life. I urge you to take capture of every thought and consider what it means. Is it pointing toward a life of loving people or sin? A life of loving God or things? Please, take a serious look at your life; it’s important.