“Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). When our God called upon Moses from the burning bush to liberate His people, these were the words that were spoken to him. Before our God could begin to instruct Moses on what his mission would be, it was necessary that he understood with Whom he was speaking. For the ancient Oriental culture, it was important to remove their footwear before entering any temple as an expression of their love and reverence to that god. In doing so, they would avoid desecrating “sacred” ground with the filth from their feet. Therefore being enlightened with this revelation, two very important lessons can be learned from this practice. First, just as the apostle taught the Athenians, God does not dwell in man-made temples (Acts 17:24) and second it is the presence of God that makes any and all grounds holy (Exodus 3:5). Having reached the top of this spiritual mountain, let us then remove the “shoes” from our feet, for we too are in the presence of the almighty King. After all, the same apostle who has been training us for this expedition is the same who exhorts us to “be ye holy; for I am holy” (1st Peter 1:14-16). The removal of our footwear is a symbol of purifying our souls from the filth that attaches itself to us during our time in this wilderness we call world. Notice that in the ancient custom the action of leaving their sandals at the door before entering the temple is an act of love manifested by their reverence. This same concept is hinted at in the advice given to us by the Qoheleth (Hebrew word for “preacher”) in Ecclesiastes 5:1. We are invited to “draw near” our God to hear His loving voice encourage and advise us, but first we must watch how we enter His house. This is why we established through Holy Scriptures that the very essence of our God is love. This is why Moses was told to remove the filth from his feet before he received the mission of love from God. It is important to realize that God was preparing Moses to go and free His beloved children from slavery. Undoubtedly, this further proves God’s love for His children. He did not just randomly select and send any man unprepared, but rather He carefully instructed him, so that he would not fail in the liberation of His people. The same is true for the first coming of the Lord. The apostle Paul teaches us that God manifested His love for all of mankind by liberating us from the bondage of sin (Romans 6:16-18). Moses himself prophesied that in the same manner God had selected him to bring freedom to the Israelites from Egyptian bonds, God would once again do so with all of the world, but through a superior Liberator (Deuteronomy 18:15). The Greeks call this genre of love agapē. In their tongue, it is the highest form of love that can be shown. Interestingly enough, it is the same Greek word the apostle Peter uses to reveal to us as the peak of this mountain. In a past article, we mentioned that in Greek Koine there are four different ways to describe love. In Greek, there is storgē (love between parents and children, siblings, or husband and wife), erōs (passion and desire), phileō (love between friends or brothers), and finally agapē. The description for this type of love is far more specific than the previous three. Greek philosophers, such as Aristotle, would use agapē to describe an exceptional act of kindness and generosity amongst men. According to the Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (T.L.N.T.), the exact translation to this form of love is not as simple as the previous three (T.L.N.T., volume 1, pg. 8). It is believed to have been used first to make reference to when a host received a stranger with a warm welcome. It describes agapē as “the most rational kind of love, inasmuch as it involves recognition and judgment of value, whence its frequent nuance of ‘preference’” (T.L.N.T., volume 1, pg. 11-12). In other words, this Greek description of love makes it superior because first, it is not reciprocated but rather initiated and second, it is able to identify a person’s true value rationally absence of misguided emotion. The person practicing this kind of love is he who does not wait to be loved nor does he allow his uncontrolled emotion pollute the purpose of his actions. His love is pure and undefiled; this form of love naturally flows from within a pure, godly heart. Do you recall the reason God sent His son to save the world from sin? It is John who teaches us that God did not reciprocate man’s love toward Him because instead He “first loved us” (1st John 4:19). The apostle also uses agapē for love to further confirm Peter’s understanding. An additional lesson that we gain from the use of the Greek word is that “agapē links persons of different conditions…it is a disinterested and generous love, full of thoughtfulness and concern” (T.L.N.T., volume 1, pg. 13). This is the purpose behind Peter’s logic that a fully matured Christian is distinguished when his love clearly emulates the love that God has for His children. We must not ignore that God gave His only begotten Son for everyone, especially for His enemies. He extended the olive branch of peace first because He cannot bear the idea of being at war with His creation. Hence why the Master illuminates our minds by teaching us that in loving our enemies (those whom we deem inferior to us) we can present ourselves as children who are “perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48). Only a fully matured disciple of Christ can see past the sin of a fallen sinner and be able to lovingly restore him from his sin. It was because of this love that our Lord decided to allow Peter to continue to be His chosen leader even though he had denied Him three times. Agapē is being able to love our neighbor as God has loved us (Luke 10:25-37). Loving as God loves is having the ability to see how He sees man’s soul. It is being able to love all men equally because they are all equally valuable to our God. Every one of the apostles made their godly love known before men because they literally gave their lives for the Gospel. They willingly died like the Master died so that all of humanity would have access to the wonderful grace of God. Like our Redeemer, our brethren from the first century laid down their lives for strangers they would never physically meet. The presence of their agapē can still be felt today in the pages of God’s Holy Word which many of them suffered great persecution for. Therefore, it is undeniable why we must remove the sandals from our feet now that we are here, at the top of this spiritual Everest. It is clear that the glue that held the entirety of this mountain together is God being love. We have access to this summit because only through His son can His love be purely enjoyed. To be continued…
