Love
Love in The Bible
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 New International Version
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonour 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.
Love is mentioned between 300 and 800 times in the bible depending on whose research you believe.
But whoever you believe, it is evident that love is very important to Christians.
But what is Love?
In English we just have one word for love, and it can have numerous meanings.
You may say I love my wife or I love my sister or I love my friend or I love watching television or I love fish and chips.
They all mean something different, but they all use the same word.
The Greek language is more specific and has words for love which inform you of which type of love you mean.
The ancient Greeks were sophisticated in the way they talked about love, recognizing a number of different varieties. They would have been shocked by our laziness in using a single word both to whisper “I love you” over a candlelit meal and to casually sign an email “lots of love,” or to shout to someone “love you” as an alternative to goodbye.”
The Greeks used many different words to identify the different types of love that we use one word for.
Below are 4 words for different types of love that the Greeks used.
· Eros (sexual passion)
· Philia (deep friendship)
· Storge (family love)
· Agape (love for everyone)
1. Eros, or sexual passion
The first kind of love was eros, named after the Greek god of fertility, and it represented the idea of sexual passion and desire. But the Greeks didn’t always think of it as something positive, as we tend to do today.
In fact, eros was viewed as a dangerous, fiery, and irrational form of love that could take hold of you and possess you—an attitude shared by many later spiritual thinkers, such as the Christian writer C. S. Lewis.
2. Philia, or deep friendship
The second variety of love was philia or friendship, which the Greeks valued far more than the base sexuality of eros.
Philia is concerned with the deep comradely friendship that developed between brothers in arms who had fought side by side on the battlefield.
Friendships today may have developed through shared interests, similar views and memberships of the same clubs or churches.
It is also about showing loyalty to your friends and sacrificing for them, when necessary.
We can all ask ourselves how much of this comradely philia we have in our lives.
It’s an important question in an age when we collect “friends” on Facebook or other social network platforms like sweets.
In John 15 verses 12 to 13 we are encouraged to love our friends.
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
3. Storge love
This kind of love embodies the love between parents and their children.
Storge is familial love. It is the natural love that family members have for one another. This is the type of love parents feel for their children and vice versa.
Storge also describes the type of love that siblings feel towards each other. It can also include the feelings that grandparents have for a grandchild or and uncle feels towards a nephew or niece.
In Luke 15 we have The Parable of the Lost Son (Prodigal Son).
In verse 20 we read
So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”
Even though his son had left home and wasted the money his father had given him his father still loved him.
This is an example of Storge Love
You can read the whole Parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15 verses 11 to 32.
4. Agape, or love for everyone
The fourth type of love, and perhaps the most radical, was Agape or selfless love.
This is a love that you extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers. Agape was later translated into Latin as caritas, which is the origin of our word “charity.”
C.S. Lewis referred to it as “gift love,” the highest form of Christian love.
There is growing evidence that Agape is in a dangerous decline in many countries. We urgently need to revive our capacity to care about strangers.
Agape is the love Jesus had for us all.
If we want to get closer to God and demonstrate our love for God we need to practice Agape love.
When we say we love God we mean that we want to think like God and behave like God.
In other words we want to “Agape” all people even the ones that we do not like.
Love for God means having Agape for all persons.
What does Jesus say about Love?
Jesus tells us how to practice Agape love by loving our neighbour.
In Leviticus 19 verse 18 it says
18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.”
However, the Jews of the time interpreted this as their neighbours being other Jews and not Gentiles.
Jesus shows us how to love our neighbour in The Parable of the Good Samaritan which is told in
Luke 10 verses 25 to 37. How to Agape (love) our neighbour.
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d]”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.
31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
33 But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.
34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.
35 The next day he took out two denarii[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The road between Jericho and Jerusalem was a very dangerous one.
As recently as 1926 there were still reports of bandits in the area.
In the parable it was the Samaritan who had compassion on the traveller while the Levite and priest just passed on by.
The Levite and the Priest might have been worried about violating the purity law with regard to dead bodies (in case the traveller had died) which is contained in Leviticus 21:1–4.
They were not allowed to touch a dead body.
If they did this would have meant them having to ritually cleanse themselves before performing any of their duties.
But that is really irrelevant to what is being said here. At very least, either of these men could have contacted someone else to tend to the man if they did not wish to go near him.
Jesus uses the example of a non-Jew who shows compassion and Agape towards the beaten traveller.
Jesus was clearly making the point that we are all called to Agape (love) our neighbour whoever that person is, be it friend, enemy or someone who is just in need, and in whatever circumstances.
What did Jesus do?
Throughout the bible Jesus shows his Agape love for people through his healings and wise teachings. The next reading shows how Jesus helps and shows Agape (love) for a woman who is about to be stoned to death. This woman is a complete stranger.
The saying
‘People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’
came from this biblical reading.
John 8 New International Version
8 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.
3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say
6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
This sounds a bit far-fetched. Someone comes along says a few words and everyone goes away.
Except, remember, this is Jesus who knows the law better than anyone.
Jesus uses the following 3 parts of the law to solve the situation.
1. In Jewish law both the man and the woman must be present when the crime of adultery was claimed.
The man was not present.
2. There had to be 2 witnesses to the crime.
It is highly unlikely that there would have been 2 witnesses.
3. If anyone had committed this crime themselves then they could not take part in the stoning.
When Jesus said “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” the older men left first followed by the younger ones.
You could not take part in the stoning if you had committed the same crime.
When you understand how Jesus used the law against the crowd then you can understand why everyone left the woman alone.
It is one of the many wonderful examples shown in the bible of how our Lord Jesus shows Agape to someone who is in trouble.
Will we follow the example that Jesus set for us?