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If we are created to first know the love of God and then this love leads us to a deeper understanding of what true love is and can be, we will likely then ask, "Well then how does God define love?" Scripturally, we see that there are 4 different definitions of love in the Greek. These words were, unfortunately, all translated in the modern English word "love", but when we look at the Greek, we see how vastly different these words truly are. C.S. Lewis offers us a full treatment of this topic in his book The Four Loves, but as a quick summary here they are:
Storge - affection love, most often expressed in family; this is love connected to relationships that mostly happen by chance.
Phileo - friendship love, most often connected to a bond because of a shared interest.
Eros - this love is described by Lewis as an emotional love that is connected to the idea of 'being in love'; some people also understand this love as speaking about sexual desire (we see the word 'erotic' rooted in eros).
Agape - unconditional love; this is the love God shows to humanity.
While God offers us four different definitions of love, agape love is the love He offers us and the love He calls His people to live out. The word charity is often used to describe this love and while today we think of charity as giving to those in need, it was originally understood as care, love, and compassion for a fellow human being, perhaps best summarizes as 'love in action'. So we see that God's love for us is unconditional and is active. The unconditional aspect of God's love is the kind of love that we never fully experience in a human-to-human relationship. All relationships have a reciprocity in the love given and received (though there are different levels of expectation).
The other reality we must grasp is that we cannot love with agape love without God's help. We can try, we can will ourselves into the actions that appear to be agape love, but aside from the grace of God working in our lives, agape love as a natural outflow of our life is impossible.
God offers to us a love that reshapes how to can love others. When one knows him or herself to be fully loved in an unchangeable and unconditional way, there comes a freedom to truly love others. When we search for purpose in life, we can find part of that purpose in agape love - being loved by God with this love and then offering it to others brings purpose.
- tC
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