SO, our last post covered a discussion on what it means to truly love God, but based on the feedback I got from each of the Family Groups it seems like a lot of yall got hung up on the idea of love. What even is love? And when we talk about love in the Bible, what do we mean? This can be really hard to understand sometimes because in English, we use love in a variety of ways. For example, the following statements are all 100% true:
I love coffee.
I love my mom.
I love my wife.
I love God.
Those are all true statements, but when you think about it, I don't love coffee the same way I love my mom, and I don't love my mom the same way I love my wife, and I don't love any of them the same way I love God. So, even though I am using the same word in all of those statements (love), I mean different things each time. This is why it can be so confusing for us when we are talking about "love" in the Bible. With that in mind, let's look at the four primary words for love in Greek (Greek is the language that the New Testament was originally written in, and these four words all get translated into English as "love").
1. Storge.
Storge is best described as a "fondness of familiarity". It is a bond that comes from shared experiences and circumstances, like being in the same family. You don't get to choose your biological family, but they are still your family. Even if you don't always like them, if they come under threat most of the time you will come to their defense. So, you might call this family devotion. A common trope in media is how siblings will hate each other and get on each others nerves, but when someone else shows up and starts messing around, the siblings immediately defend each other. You might hear the phrase, "Nobody gets to mess with my little brother but me." That's the idea of storge love.
2. Eros.
This is probably the most familiar kind of love for you, because it is what we might think of as "romantic" love. This is a physical, intimate love between a husband and wife, and it is also the idea of "being in love". Eros love is the most prevalent kind of love portrayed in media, although they usually reduce it to more of a lust/passion than actual love. Regardless, most of the time when we use the word "love" in English, this is the kind of love we think about. This is also the closest we get to love being a feeling, since there is an element of feeling involved with this.
Here is the interesting part, just like we use this version of love all the time in our culture today, so too did the culture in Jesus' day when the New Testament was written. Eros love was used and talked about all the time. HOWEVER, this word doesn't get used once in the whole New Testament. Whenever the New Testament authors talk about love, they are never referring to eros love. They DO address the idea of sexuality and passion, but almost always in a context of setting proper boundaries.
3. Philos.
Philos love is the warm affection found between good friends and family members. This is an essential love for the human experience, as we are created as social beings. We need friends and positive relationships in our lives, and philos love is the expression of those relationships. Philos love goes a lot deeper than what we might call friendship, because when we think of our friendships a lot of times they are built around common interests or settings but don't go very deep. Philos-level friendships are very deep and strong bonds that hold people together. Jesus had a philos love friendship with Lazarus and His disciples. David (from the Old Testament) and Jonathan also had this kind of friendship.
Romans 12:10 - "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor."
The underlined part there, "brotherly affection" is actually a combination of storge and philos. Paul took these two forms of love and mashed them together to describe the kind of bonds we should have with fellow believers. This is because we are not only bonded together through the shared circumstance of being part of the family of God, but we are also bonded through our shared faith in Christ and call to obedience. Its a powerful family-friendship love that we are called to have for each other as Christians. Do you love your fellow believers like this?
4. Agape.
The pinnacle of biblical love, agape love is an unconditional love. No matter the circumstances, experiences, values, behaviors, actions, words, or anything else, agape love perseveres. In the Bible, this stands out as the highest form of love. Agape love is the kind of love that God has for us. When Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross for the sins of the world, He demonstrated agape love. No matter what we do, God still loves us (and good thing, too). We sin? God loves us. We fight against God? He still loves us. We decide to start hating God? God still loves us. No matter what the conditions are, God continues and will always love us.
John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
Guess which Greek word is used in John 3:16? That's right, agape. It doesn't say "For God was so devoted to His family..." or "For God was so in love with the world..." or "For God was such good friends with the world..." No. It says "For God so unconditionally loved the world..." He put us first, even though we didn't deserve it.
Matthew 22:37 - "Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'"
Once again, Jesus uses "agape" for the kind of love we are to have for God. We should unconditionally love God with all of our being (heart, soul, and mind). In the Mark version of this statement, Jesus includes our strength, and if you recall our discussion from last week, He set up a totem pole of priorities for us: God > everyone else > me. We are to unconditionally love God with everything we have, and then love others as well.
When we read through 1 Corinthians 13 (the famous love chapter), Paul uses agape for love throughout that passage. He isn't talking about romantic love, or friendship love, but unconditional love, and the kind of love that we are to have for others because that is the kind of love God has for us.
Now, I want to make sure we are all clear on this: when we talk about loving God, loving fellow believers, and loving those out in the world, we are not talking about eros love - the idea of being in love with someone. Biblical love has nothing to do with romance. Instead, when we talk about biblical love, we are talking about the choice we make to put others first unconditionally.
I can love others (and you) unconditionally because that is the kind of love God has for me. With my sin I have hated God, spat at Him, made fun of Him, and my sin was part of what put Him on the cross. And yet, He still loves me. Jesus still died for me. He gave me the example of what true agape love looks like, and He has called each of us to have that same kind of love for Him and for each other.
What would it look like for you to love God the way He has loved you?
What would it look like for you to love other believers unconditionally?
What would it look like for you to truly put the needs of others before your own and live like Jesus lived?
No comments:
Post a Comment