Love is A BATTLEFIELD: Part Two

There is such power in phileo! It is the highest visible, tangible expression of the love of God in the world. Until we see phileo lived out through and among men the spiritual gifts (tongues, prophecies, faith, wisdom, signs, wonders, and miracles) mean nothing. It all means nothing without phileo (1 Corinthians 13:1-4).

Phileo causes us to really care enough to be our brother’s keeper. It causes us to be truly accountable to one another and helps us to live with integrity. The reason many a Christian man falls into various sins of the flesh is because he has no phileo relationship with at least one man to be his defense. No one has his back.

When phileo is seen among men it causes others to want to become believers. Phileo particularly draws other men to Christ. If we want to see more men won to Jesus then we must be willing and commit ourselves to practice phileo with each other. For too long men have left it to women to do all the loving – God in worship and the world through relationships. But women operate best in Eros. That is their nature by God’s divine plan and design.

The result has been that the church is filled with God’s Spirit and mostly women. Where are all the men? On the street corner, in crack houses, at the club, on the golf course, at the office, and at home in front of the TV set. Why? Because women cannot draw men to Christ the way other men can. Only a man can impregnate a woman and only men can sow phileo into other men’s hearts.

Phileo in action always reveals the glory of God. It is through the erection of phileo among men that the ejaculation of agape comes into the world. Wake up, men of the church! A man can’t get a woman pregnant through her head! The last time I checked the best way to conceive a child is still through some intimate friction between two biologically different bodies – not through the art of conversation. The Father wants a lot more children out of the world so He is allowing the holy loins of His Son’s Body to be stirred and aroused by the sight of the lost. We men are finally starting to see the way Jesus sees and feel the way Jesus feels.

Through the trials and tests the restless, needy, love-starved world is coming into spiritual heat. Satan uses his devices to try and keep the world satisfied in sin, but the Holy Spirit is moving so powerfully upon all flesh that the world is recognizing it is not satisfied and must have something more. People by the millions are turning to Christ and His Body for relief from their insatiable hunger for the Father. Hear the world’s cry to the church: “Don’t just lie there – DO SOMETHING! I’m ready to receive, but you are not giving me anything but a lot of talk! What’s the matter? Aren’t you man enough to handle me?” And indeed, Christ has overcome the world (John 16:33) and we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us (Romans 8:37).

As members of His body –specifically His loins – we men are feeling that same stirring within us. More and more we are compelled to take action. But what action does God want us to take?

Simply this: Stand firm (hard) with phileo in the face of the world’s ugliness and allow Christ to have relationship with the world through us. To do this we must stop looking at how bad things seem to be getting (a quick route to spiritual impotency). Instead, we must look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). He must have control for it is He alone who has overcome the world’s resistance before and it is He alone who can keep us from going soft and dormant.

A revolution is upon us! The forces of darkness, hatred, and evil are about to launch a no-holds-barred attack upon the Church. This foreplay of persecution must not cause us to shrivel up and shrink back. Connected to Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we must stand erect and win our enemies to Christ through phileo.

Rather than a fight, we will offer our enemies the gift of God’s love, knowing that “we will overcome by the Blood of the Lamb, the word of our testimony, and because we loved not our lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11).