Tag: love

Blowing Kisses To God

Marissa

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for some time. I had intended for this to be my first blog post, but didn’t like the way it was coming together. Now, after hearing a seminar title “Wasted Worship” this weekend, I think I’m finally ready to write it and I think it will be at least two articles.

It all started, as so many of my Bible studies do, with looking in to the words for worship. The Greek word most often translated “worship” in the New Testament is proskuneō  (G4352 προσκυνέω). Its most basic meaning is to adore, show respect, bow down, or prostrate oneself. My favorite Greek dictionary says it literally means, “to kiss toward someone, to throw a kiss in token of respect or homage.” It is connected with an ancient oriental greeting. When one party was “much inferior, he fell upon his knees and touched his forehead to the ground or prostrated himself, throwing kisses at the same time toward the superior.”

I love this mental image. Worship involves us bowing down and blowing kisses toward God. I think of small children who loves their parents so much that they blow kisses to them at every opportunity. We should be so in love with God, so much in awe of Him, that we want to spend time every day seeking to “worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:23).

There is no room for pride in this definition of worship. It is the kind of worship that happens before God’s throne, which we are given a glimpse of in Revelation:

And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Rev. 4:9-11)

And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshiped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. (Rev. 7:11-12)

And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshiped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. (Rev. 11:16-17)

What should blowing kisses to God look like for us? Assuming that worship is more than falling to your knees and literally blowing kisses sky-ward (though I’m certainly not excluding that), what do you think worship should be like?

I have some thoughts about this, but I’d love to hear what you think. Part of worship involves demonstrating our love for God by keeping His commandments (John 14:15), praying and praising Him, and studying His Bible. What are other practical, daily ways that you think we can show God our adoration and love?

Passover Love

Marissa

Having stayed home from Sabbath services for three out of the past four weeks (our group is meeting in a room that triggers an allergic reaction – can take half the week to recover), I have had a chance to do more thinking and writing than usual on the Sabbaths. This week, I thought I would take the opportunity to begin a personal blog that I’ve been planing for some time.

I was reading John 16 and 17 yesterday as part of my pre-Passover routine, and two of my favorite passages stood out:

“At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” – John 16:26-27

“And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” – John 17:22-23

Agape and Phileo

One thing I find fascinating about these verses is that two different Greek words are used to describe God’s love for us. Of the Greek words for love, the one we talk about most in the church is agape (Strong’s G26, ἀγάπη). This is the word used when John writes, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). The most commonly used basic definition is that agape means Godly love.

But this is far too simple an explanation. Another commonly word used for love in the NT is phileo (Strong’s G5368 φιλέω). It and the related philos mean “to love .. to have affection for someone … with the idea of overweening fondness … Specifically, to kiss” (Zodhiates). There is no easy distinction between the usage of the two words, because agape and phileo are both used in various places of man’s love towards God, God’s love towards man, and inappropriate attachment to earthly things. Zodhiates writes that, in general, agape involves perceiving the needs of the one being loved and meeting that need, “not according to the object’s concept of need, but that of the one who loves.” Phileo implies having common interests and a friendship with the object of one’s love.

Back to John 16 and 17

The word used for love in John 16:27 is philos. What this verse is saying is that the Father Himself has common interests and friendship with those who love and believe in His Son. This is the same word translated ‘friend’ in the verse where is says Abraham “was called the Friend of God” (James 2:23). In this context, it is certainly not a lesser love than agape. Philos is an incredible kind of love to share with the creator of the universe.

In John 17:23 the word used for love is agape when Christ says that the Father “hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” If John 16:27 doesn’t touch us to the heart, this should. God shares the exact same love that He has for His Son, the One Who gave up eternity to pay the penalty for sin, with us. Even knowing all the sins we’ve done and thought and said, He loves us that much.

This love is one of the chief messages Christ wanted to communicate with His people before He was sacrificed as our Passover lamb. We know by heart that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). But I think we often lose sight of how incredible this love actually is. God and Christ call us Their friends, and share Their own love that They have for each other with us. That is a powerful message to take with you into the Passover.