THE MARRIAGE ANALOGY

WELCOME TO PASTOR DR. CARLOTTA'S COUNSELING CENTER.

The word teachesabout two forms of love. Agape and phileo. The word teaches how these types of love operate between people and God. God loves you because it is His nature to love you. he doe not love you based on anything you do or do not do. God 's love is based on His own nature and His nature is always to give. Right now God is aggressive and bounding toward you in love.

You might say, "I have failed Him." It does not matter. His love is not based on what you do. He first loved you. You had nothing that He wanted. You were lost in your trespass and sin, unfit, a child of the devil and He searched out, found and loved you. That is real love.

God's love for you is agape love. We talked about God being the aggressor in this relationship. That is exactly what agape love is. Agape love is an aggressive love. It's is always based on the nature of the giver. God loves you because it is His nature. God does not love you because you serve Him, and God does not quit loving you because you fail Him. He always loves. It is His nature.

There is not one sin you can commit to make God quit loving you, because His love is not based on what you do. He loves sinners, and they certainly are not doing anything to merit His love. Agape love is an aggressive love. It is always abounding, always producing, and it is never based on the receiver. It is always based on the giver.

Agape love is glorified in phileo love. When you respond, God is glorified. God is abounding right now with all things that pertain unto life and godliness. But what is it that pleases the Lord? FAITH! Faith is responding to His love. Faith is responding to His grace. The Lord's love for us is seen in the husband and wife relationship. The husband represents Jesus Christ; the wife, the church. As Jesus Christ loves the church. His is glorified when the church responds, Titus 2:11

Right now God's grace is appearing to all men bringing salvation. The sinner does not have to earn or deserve salvation. God's salvation is free. It is a gift in His hand. God is always aggressing toward him with salvation, and when the sinner responds, God is glorified. The same analogy is set up in the husband and wife relationship. Read I Corinthians 11:7.

The scripture does not mean that every woman is the glory of every man. It means the wife is he glory of her husband. Jesus Christ is glorified in His Church, and the husband is glorified in his wife. The husband is used in the marriage relationship to typify Jesus Christ. The husband is the aggressor. The woman is the responder.

God is always aggressing, always abounding, and is glorified when we respond to Him. He agape toward us, and we phileo back to Him. Agape love is glorified in our phileo love to Him. In the Word of God, a woman is never told to love (agape) her husband. Husbands are told to love (agape) their wives.

Read Titus 2:4. Both times in this vs. the word for love is phileo. Respond to your husband. Every time the husband is told to love his wife, the word agape is used. Do you know what that means? Husbands, you are to love your wife as Jesus loves the church. You are to love her whether she looks pretty or not, deserves it or not.

In the Bible, young Christians are never commanded to love God. When you first become born again, you have no capacity to agape the Lord, you can only phileo Him. There are Christians today, just born again, singing "Oh How I Love Jesus." Do you know why they love Him? Because He answers their prayer, gives them possessions, and supplies all their needs. That is phileo love, a responsive love. Their love is based on something done to or for them.

You can tell when you have moved from phileo love to agape love with the Lord when you no longer love Him simply because He does something for you, but because He is your Father. He is God. You would love Him even if He never gave you anything else. That is mature love, agape love. Thus type of love comes through more knowledge of Him.

The more we get to know out heavenly Father, the more our phileo love matures into agape. We can only experience this type of intimacy with Him through His word. We have the ability in us to love God. His nature has been infused into our nature, and His nature can flow out from us. We now have the ability on the inside of us to love people, despite what they do or do not do. If they loves us, or slap us, it does not change our love because we have agape love for them. Agape love is based on our nature, not theirs.

The world can not have agape love because it is a supernatural love. The best the world can have is phileo, a rapport love. God likes phileo love. He likes you to be friends with Him. He enjoys being a friend with you. The world says, "I will love you if you love me. Treat me right, and I will treat you right." But what happens when one fails the other? The whole basis for the relationship crumbles. Too many marriages are built on phileo love. God has promised believers a supernatural marriage in Ephesians 5, a marriage that will not fall apart in the worst circumstances. Be Blessed!!

If you haven't accepted Christ as your Savior simply say in an audible voice, in all sincerity from the depths of your heart, "Lord Jesus Christ, forgive me of my sins and accept me as Your child. I accept You as my personal Savior and I promise to follow the instructions of Your Word from this day on. If I fail because I am human, please help pick me up so I can try again! Thank you, Jesus, for saving me from all my sins. AMEN."