(Part 9) The Lenten Prayer of St Ephraim is the ‘Step Stool’ of ‘Ladder of Divine Ascent’ for the Rest of Us

 

“Love (ἀγάπη) to Thy servant”

Self‑giving love for God and neighbor, willing the good of the other even at cost to oneself.

• Step 2 – Detachment: hating the world in order to love God without rival.

• Step 30 – Faith, hope, love: final step; love as “state of angels,” “progress of eternity,” and true likeness to God.

• Step 24–25: charity toward brethren, not judging, bearing wrongs, as expressions of love.

For fuller reading in the Ladder: especially Step 30, with preparatory themes in Steps 2, 24, 

Biblical References  ἀγάπη – love (charity)

NT
Extremely frequent (about 116 times across 26 books). Key verses: 

1 Corinthians 13 (esp. 13:13) – μείζων δὲ τούτων ἡ ἀγάπη – “the greatest of these is love.” 

1 John 4:8 – ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν – “God is love.” 

LXX
Used especially in Song of Songs and in some later books as the regular word for love; the more common OT word is ἀγάπη/ἀγαπᾶν alongside φιλία/φιλεῖν.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8  

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.  …. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The petition for ἀγάπη—love—crowns the prayer as the highest and most perfect virtue, revealing the very life of God within the soul as self-giving, sacrificial care for both God and neighbor. In The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Saint John Climacus presents love as the summit of the spiritual ascent: in Step 2, detachment frees the heart from rival attachments so it may love God wholly; in Steps 24–25, love is expressed concretely through patience with others, refusal to judge, and bearing wrongs; and in Step 30, love is described as the “state of angels” and the true likeness of God, the eternal perfection toward which all virtues aim. Scripture proclaims this same truth with unmatched clarity, declaring that “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and that above all gifts and virtues, “the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13), for it alone never fails. Thus, ἀγάπη is not merely an emotion, but the very fulfillment of the Christian life—the grace by which the believer is united to God and becomes a living icon of His boundless, enduring mercy.