And so to the grand climax. "And now abideth faith, hope, and agape. But the greatest of these is agape."

There still remains a "mystery." For all that I perceive I see only as a reflection in a mirror. But one day I shall know, even as I also am known. Agape will reveal. This unique quality binds all creatures, and binds them to the divine, and in the course of the ages brings all to fruition. Read that chapter from 1 Corinthians 13 aloud replacing "love" with agape. Yes, it is magnificent using the word "love," even though constantly in danger of falling into sentimental emotion and idealism which, however "lovely," doesn't really seem likely to be fulfilled in practice. Read with agape, setting aside the conventional beauties and rhythms of the Authorised Version, it becomes a thing of might and power, power which, however mysterious, has divine strength, and the word itself has, despite the short vowels, a cutting edge with its own sharp articulation. That, of course, is not strictly relevant - but useful in our reading.

So Turner reminds us, by quotation from New Testament and later writers, of the essential, particular and original connotations of the word. In the constant and increasing use of the word agape by the early Christians, there is a persistence (Turner quotes the plea of Athansius for the correct understanding of the term) in the quality of their "love," their unique, indispensable, relationship with one another and with Christ. As they are one with him, so they are one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, a relationship that transcends all other relationships. This indeed may sanctify and invigorate them. When the aged John repeats again and again "Little children, love one another" he is not referring, except inter alia, only to gentleness, consideration, loyalty and sentiment, but to a strong and unique relationship in unity, which binds them with duty, mediates the power and strength of the divine to face all the perils and cruelties of the world. It is a universal and essential basis for survival and fulfilment within life and being. As Paul says, in effect, you cannot be in reality unless you are in agape.

A flood of light

Bearing this in mind, we suddenly find the common conversations of the early Church gleam with a penetrating light. "Little children, love one another" - each of you is in a special and living relationship with all others. So again through the eloquent writings of Paul, whose letters are the earliest Christian documents we possess, we have the language and attitudes of the early Christian community, culminating in the magnificent 1 Corinthians 13, in which agape becomes the cosmic life, the one essential binding all together. Here is a flood of light that transforms all our outlook, clears away questioning and imparts a new dynamic and energy, when the significance of agape is thus held firmly in the mind.

May I repeat these words? "And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not agape" - what follows? ­ "I am nothing."

Or again, "Agape never faileth; but whether there be prophecies they shall fail; whether there be tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part." What a clear and absolutely contemporary statement for our consideration today, looking forward to the fulfilment of all things, "when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away..."

We must have hope. We must have faith. But above all we must possess within ourselves agape. This is the cohesive force within the nature of things, essential power and life. This is that which unites all with the deep current of "love," the hidden essential of all being and fulfilment of that being.

So we "love" to form our guilds, our study groups, our societies and brotherhoods, which find their ultimate in the worshipping community, united with the divine, the life-stream of our human association. Here, essentially, is the justification for all national and political organisation.

And the absence of true agape from politics and political units, societies, countries, is the reason for their stultification, their warring cruelties. As the greatest thinkers have seen, the only society that can flourish towards fulfilment for all its members is the theocracy in which on earth we seek to mirror the nature of the divine, pervaded by the power and unifying force of agape. That again, is the essential. In communal work, the liturgy, we enter the stream of life, the movement and dance of life vitalised by the energy of agape.

So too, in our human relationships, there can be permanence and wholeness only when agape pervades and gives that deeper, binding reality to them.