Agape Love: What Makes Us Human

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

In the bowels of MIT, there is an experiment happening to make robots more human. The pioneer in this field, a robot by the name of Nexi, can smile, blink, nod, and show emotion in a variety of ways. Its sole mission in life is to make the humans interacting with it happy. In fact, it thrives on human interaction! You can read the rest of the article at: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/robotics/4343892.html

The advent of robotics brings us to a curious question. What makes humanity...human? What makes us different from the robots we create or the animals that also populate our planet? What makes us different from the other living things on this planet?

Most of what we do and say in life is really quite instinctual. We work...so we can eat. We surround ourselves with family. We have children and perpetuate our species. Even the memories we carry from one generation to another can be seen in animals. We communicate with others, just like animals do. We extend our territory and keep ourselves alive in the same way that every other living thing on the planet does.

But what makes us human? What makes us unique? We could list off many qualities that define humanity, but the one that makes us completely different than any other creature on the planet is really the most simple. It’s love. Not just any love either. Not the love we have for our families.

That love we see all over nature. Even your pet dog will mourn the passing of their companion dog. Not the love we see in our community. Again other animals show this love for each other. They stay in packs and often will even sacrifice themselves for the good of the others.

No the love that makes us human is what the Bible calls Agape love. This is the love we have for those we’ve never met! It’s the love we have for the folks in Haiti after their devastating earthquake. It’s the love we have for the homeless on the streets of Billings, Los Angeles, and elsewhere. It’s the love that compels us to compassion for the stranger and the wanderer.

And it’s the love described by Paul as being essential to...everything! To faith. To prophecy. To everything you can possibly think of! Without this love, we are nothing more than animals vying for more territory. It’s Agape love that makes us as a species unique on earth. Dogs do not care about dogs in other cities. Cats the same. Even chimpanzees, one of our closest relatives, have little knowledge or compassion for chimps in other cages in other places.

But we do. We risk our life and limb to save those we have never met. We give our own resources to help those who can’t help ourselves. We care, even for the animals that populate our planet with us. We love others in a way that is unthinkable in the rest of the known universe.
This is what makes us human. This is what we share with God. God’s love is agape love too. He cares for everyone, equally across the world. God’s love is so strong that it compelled God to give up everything, even life itself, to save people who hated him! “For God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us!”

This agape love never ends! All other loves in this world are subject to death. Erotic love ends when the lover dies. Love between friends can dwindle with time or distance. But agape love, it never ends. It extends past life and creates a new life. It is resurrection and life and wonder and joy and peace and hope and bread and water! It is all that matters in the end.

So, in the meantime as you live your life, take a moment to reach out to your neighbor. Those across the street from you that you barely know. Those in distant lands across the seas hurt by the earthquake or suffering from daily poverty. Even the neighbor you despise. Reach out in love and compassion. For in doing so, you will share the one quality that no robot or animal can reproduce. The quality that God Himself has at His heart. The universal love of others. Amen!