With the coming of Christ's birth, I am left to ponder the true meaning of Love. God sent His only begotten son knowing that He was going to be cursed and murdered on the cross - even though He lived on earth WITHOUT sinning! He didn't deserve this, and yet He loved us enough to sacrifice His own son for our salvation. The depth of His love is unfathomable to me.
In an attempt to understand God's love in a better way, I decided to look up the Greek words for love.
1) Storge- This means affection. It represents a natural affection that one would feel for a family member. Like the love a parent has for a child.
2) Philia- This means friendship. This is a virtuous kind of love. Representing loyalty.
3) Eros- This is a passionate love. A romantic love with sensual desire and longing. This is the love God intended to be between husband and wife.
4) agape- This means "I love you". But not in a sensual way. This is the love used to describe Jesus love toward the beloved (us). It is a self-sacrificing love. Representing the desire to give love to all, both friend and foe. (Love your neighbor as yourself). This is the word most often used in the New Testament.
I wish the English language had more depth, I really enjoy looking things up in the Greek because the meanings are so much deeper and richer.
I hope that as you enter into this Christmas season, you take the time to ponder God's love for you - and for your neighbor! I hope these definitions will bring more meaning to your love.
To all of you reading this, I give you philia or is that agape? :D
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14 comments:
Hey Sonya,
You are so cool. I loved the Greek words. Part of my family is from Athens, Greece. In fact, I have just spent three days in the kitchen making three batches of baklava and I have one more batch to make.
I agree. I wish our language had the passion of other languages.
Thanks for the definitions and for the heavy emphasis on loving your neighbor. That is very difficult for me at the moment in a very literal way. I'm working on it!
America, being the melting pot that it is, has the interesting position of using English (and tries to have the world accept English as the universal spoken language) yet drawing its language from the world.
Digging into the Greek is great. And if you search the dictionary for the original roots, you will find depth of meaning....and wonder why our words have changed so much for their original intent.
My daughter and I were just chatting about the meanings of love the other day, so this is perfect timing for us; thanks for the reminder!
Amen, love your neighbor as yourself, wonderful reminder!
Have a Merry Christmas and your family
Love Sharon
Loving you & your writing today! Thanks for the inspirations.
Sonya, "storge" was new to me. Thanks for enlightening me! :)
Hi Sonya,
I use the Amplified Bible because it expands on the Hebrew and Greek meanings for specific words. It really has taught me so much!
I just stopped by to wish you and your beautiful family a wonderful Christmas.
Blessings!
I absolutely LOVE doing word studies! It is so wonderful to go deeper into His Word and His Love.
What an interesting word study! Thanks for this information. I had heard of Agape love but not the others. Thanks for the wisdom! God's love is amazing!
Thanks for this precious reminder of His purpose. He came to die, because He loved us so much! He is Love personified.
Sonya, thanks so much for your encouraging comment. I pray the women see Jesus through us and know His love for them. Please pray for His words in my talk. Thanks.
Hey Sonya,
Delving into the greek words is greek to me too. It's not something I'm accustomed to doing and honestly, it's TIME!
THANKS FOR SHARING THIS.
philia!!!!!!!!!
Lea
I doubt I used that in the right context but if not.. you get my drift
;)
Ah . . . the writer in us makes us so curious about words, doesn't it? I do the same thing, Sonya! I'm forever examining and exploring words.
Thank you for the short lesson in love:-)
Beautiful post, Sonya!!
I've not heard of these except AGAPE--so I've been enlightened!!
Agape love--the kind of love that God shows us--unconditional love--and yes, it is hard to achieve.
Beth
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