CUPID!

Much though some well-wishers of mine have wished it so, I have to disappoint them. Sorry, folks, Cupid—despite the title of this blog and the picture beneath—hasn’t targeted me yet.

The other day, I was in Piccadilly Circus, a traffic junction in the West End of London (circus = open circular intersection). Besides the neon hoardings, the characteristic feature of this London landmark is its statue of Eros (the god of love to the Greeks; a.k.a. Cupid to the Romans; but, apparently, there is some confusion as to whether the sculptor Alfred Gilbert intended his winged nude to be the deity of love at all). This London icon even shows up on the masthead of the British tabloid, the Evening Express.

It is fairly well established that the Greeks of yore had several words for love: eros, sensual love and passion; philia, “dispassionate” and virtuous friendship; storge, natural affection normally denoting familial relationships; and agape, the word most used for “love” in the New Testament, with its dominant connotation of a self-sacrificial love that characterized God Himself.

God is love.
1 John 4:16

Indeed, He is love. And it was this attribute that led Him to act on behalf of lost mankind.

But God demonstrates
His own love toward us,
in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

And the result? For all those who place their trust in Jesus Christ, believing in work on the cross for their salvation, eternal life is guaranteed.

For God so loved the world,
that He gave
His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish,
but have eternal life.
John 3:16

Agape. God’s. For me. For you.

But God,
being rich in mercy,
because of His great love
with which He loved us …
made us alive
together with Christ—
by grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 2:4–5

And from this agape, nothing—absolutely nothing!—can ever separate the believer.

Who will separate us
from the love of Christ?
Will tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
For I am convinced
that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities,
nor things present,
nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth,
nor any other created thing,
will be able to separate us
from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35, 38–39

Agape! Amazing agape that now makes us, in Christ, the children of God.

See how great a love
the Father has bestowed on us,
that we would be called
children of God.
1 John 3:1

The greatest agape—Christ’s self-sacrificial love.

Greater love
has no one than this,
that one lay down his life
for his friends.
John 15:13

And He did, dying for us. And in doing so, not only did He save us, but He also set us an example to follow.

… walk in love,
just as Christ also loved you
and gave Himself up for us ….
Ephesians 5:2

He showed us what it means to love.

We know love by this,
that He laid down His life for us;
and we ought
to lay down our lives
for fellow believers.
We love,
because He first loved us.
1 John 3:16; 4:19

Indeed this is Christ’s commandment to His followers.

A new commandment
I give to you,
that you love one another,
even as I have loved you ….
By this all men will know
that you are My disciples ….
John 13:34–35

So …

Let all that you do
be done in love.

1 Corinthians 16:14