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For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. (2 Peter 1:5-7)

Here we come to the end of the list of virtues that Peter puts out to us. \xa0Yesterday\u2019s word was \u201cPhiladelphia,\u201d the word for \u201cbrotherly/sisterly love\u201d or \u201cmutual affection\u201d in our translation. \xa0Today\u2019s word steps that up a notch by using the word for the highest form of love\u2014that particularly Christian form of \u201cunconditional love\u201d that we call \u201cagape\u201d (ah-gah-pay).

This is the word that describes the whole of the good-news Gospel of Christianity in a nutshell. \xa0God so loved (agape) the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. \xa0 \xa0

Agape love is God\u2019s love. \xa0It is unconditional love\u2014a love that sets no pre-requisite conditions. \xa0But is more than that. \xa0As Mark Buchanan suggests in his book on Peter, it\u2019s more like \u201cunprovoked love.\u201d \xa0We are loved this way by God (and sometimes our parents too) out of the blue at times, and for no good reason based in our activity at all. \xa0

Agape then is not just a love that sets no prior conditions\u2014it is a love that actively commits to pursuing those who never could have deserved it and who might even actively resist it. \xa0Even when our actions anger God\u2014his commitment to love us in Jesus Christ stands firm. \xa0Even when our actions disappoint, disregard, or demean God\u2014God\u2019s commitment to love us in Jesus Christ stands firm. \xa0It is Agape love\u2014a commitment to love that overcomes and continues to love despite absolutely everything that comes against it. \xa0 \xa0

It is only because of this Agape love of God for us that any of us can come even close to displaying this kind of counter-cultural love-commitment toward anyone else. \xa0But it is this form of love, more so than any other virtue, that displays what it means to \u201cbe like Jesus.\u201d \xa0

This is why Paul says the greatest of the virtues is love in 1 Corinthians 13, and why this virtue gains such a central place in that letter as the linchpin of all Christian community and action. \xa0It is, says Paul, one of only three things that remain into eternity of all our earthly works and virtues, and of those three, it is the greatest.

Of course\u2014there\u2019s a good reason that this virtue comes at the end of the list. \xa0It is the hardest of them all to live out. \xa0Yet it is also the clearest and most oft-repeated command given to us\u2014by Jesus in the Gospels, and by most every New Testament author throughout the letters. \xa0\u201cThey will know we are Christians by our love.\u201d

There are two sides to the coin of learning to live this kind of Agape love, I think. \xa0First\u2014each day we must remember and believe that this is the way that God loves us\u2014we must be grounded in the Agape love of God. \xa0Then, second, we must seek to \u201cgo and do likewise.\u201d \xa0Step by step, interaction by interaction, conversation by conversation we must practice this Agape love day by day in the power of the Pentecost Spirit. \xa0

Can we take one step further toward loving someone else in an unconditional, unprovoked way today\u2014especially those that frustrate or disgust us? \xa0This is the call if we are to love as God has first loved us, remembering always that when we fail, God\u2019s own Agape love continues to hold us fast: forgiving us, setting us back on our feet, and sending us out to try it again.\xa0

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Grace and peace to you many times over as you deepen in your experience with God and Jesus, our Master. Grow in the grace and understanding of our Master and Savior, Jesus Christ. Glory to the Master, now and forever! Amen! (2 Peter 1:2; 3:18 MSG).

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