Worldly Love

It appears to me that the terms "worldly" and "love" are appalling contradictions. If Agape is the love of the will that seeks to put others first above itself, that is certainly not of the world. Agape is the first fruit of the Spirit. We are told to "Imitate God... and walk in love". It appears that the people of this world have a emotional love that can be partially seeking for the benefit of others but it appears that many times it is for themself, not for the other person. Many times it appears that this love comes out of a desire for self-fulfillment rather than the fulfillment of the one they are "loving". If to love is part of imitating God then clearly there is a different in the definition of love between the saints and sinners.

The love of this world seems to be not a true love but a selfish love and especially in these days not a love at all but rather a lust. A craving for self pleasure. The things that they do in regard to the other person and yet still done out of their own desire for self-fulfillment or to quench their own lust. They are not imitating God in love but they are walking according to their own desires of the flesh and mind.

It is impossible to hold to this point of view without yet holding to the total depravity of human beings. If human beings can freely choose God by their own will then they must be able to do a truly good work on their own accord. But as we know it, we were "dead" in our transgressions and sins and walking according to the course of the world. We were totally depraved from doing a good work of the Lord; dead. When we were made alive with Christ and raised with Him it gave us as saints the ability to truly love as a fruit of the Spirit. This love does not originate from our own hearts but this love originates out of the Spirit within us.

Jake Campbell