Notice: Love in the Scriptures

The ancient Greeks had four different words we translate love. It is important to understand the difference between the words...

i. Eros was one word for love. It described, as we might guess from the word itself, erotic love. It refers to love driven by desire.

ii. Storge was the second word for love. It refers to family love, the kind of love there is between a parent and child or between family members in general. It is love driven by blood.

iii. Philia is the third word for love. It speaks of a brotherly friendship and affection. It is the love of deep friendship and partnership. It might be described as the highest love of which man, without God’s help, is capable of. It is fondness, or love driven by common interests and affection.

iv. Agape is the fourth word for love. Eros, storge, and philia each speak about love that is felt. These describe “instinctive” love, love that comes spontaneously from the heart. Paul assumes that eros (desire) and phileo (fondness) are present.. But Paul’s real point is to address a higher kind of love, agape love. Agape describes a different kind of love. It is a love more of decision than of the spontaneous heart. It is as much a matter of the mind as the heart, because it chooses to love the undeserving.

v. “Agape has to do with the mind: it is not simply an emotion which rises unbidden in our hearts; it is a principle by which we deliberately live.” (Barclay) Agape really doesn’t have much to do with feelings – it has to do with decisions.

vi. Strictly speaking, agape can’t be defined as “God’s love,” because men are said to agape sin and the world (John 3:19 and 1 John 2:15). Yet it can be defined as a sacrificial, giving, absorbing love. The word has little to do with emotion; it has much to do with self-denial for the sake of another..

· It is a love that loves without changing.

· It is a self-giving love that gives without demanding or expecting repayment.

· It is love so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing.

· It is love that loves even when it is rejected.

· Agape love gives and loves because it wants to; it does not demand or expect repayment from the love given. It gives because it loves, it does not love in order to receive.


David Guzik,
Enduring Word


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