Advent

December 3, 2021

Scripture Reading: Philippians 1:3-11

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.

In the above scripture, the word translated as love from the Greek, agape, means properly, love which centers in moral preference*. What is moral is just. Does this type of love drive all our decisions to determine what is best what is right in the world for ourselves and others?

In the compiling of the English language, I do wish the word “love” would not have been designated to cover such a vast expanse of meaning. For example, 1 Timothy 6:10 is translated For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. The Greek word translated as “love” is philarguria, which means love of money, avarice, covetousness**. Indeed, this Greek word starts with “phil” which might refer back to what we call sibling love, but would, I believe, more correctly in today’s world means greed which overcomes people to the point that they care less for their siblings or anyone else then they care for money.

I ask again, is moral love, just love the driving force of all our decisions to determine what is best what is right in the world for ourselves and others?

Prayer: Lord, open our awareness to the injustice we do not see in our world today. Lead us toward loving for what you consider best. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/greek/26.htm

**https://biblehub.com/greek/5365.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.