Love defined.

Brother Albert R.

Jesus loved us and said we should Love our enemies
I have heard it said that we have one type of love for our friends and another type of love for our family and another type of love for God and another type for.....
Jesus said that no man has greater love than that he lay down his life for his friends. If it is a friendship love then can it be the greatest kind of love?
(I am not a Greek scholar so I will not comment on, or differentiate between agape or phileo)
I believe that God has given all of us the capacity to love since the first day Adam looked at Eve. Sin has distorted our love since then, in that we now love things more than people or God. God has to reset our priorities as He sheds His love in our hearts by His Holy Spirit. I do not believe I love my wife, my mother, my sister, my brothers, my friends, with different kinds of love but rather that I relate to them differently because I am in a different relationship with them. It is the same love I have in my heart for all of them...it is simply that...my love causes me to care for all of them and will cause me to lay down my life for any of them. Love values those to whom it is placed upon. Love desires above all to be reciprocated by the one it has valued...and it hurts when it is not. Love cannot be separated by space or time and it will move heaven and earth to be with the one it loves...

Your thoughts...
Brother ALbert
PS My favorite love scriptures...
Matthew 22:36-40 New International Version (NIV)
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
 
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Salluz

Aspiring Man of God
I do not believe I love my wife, my mother, my sister, my brothers, my friends, with different kinds of love but rather that I relate to them differently because I am in a different relationship with them. It is the same love I have in my heart for all of them...it is simply that...my love causes me to care for all of them and will cause me to lay down my life for any of them.

I've read CS Lewis's book on this idea called The Four Loves, and this is actually somewhat of a point he makes, just tackling it from a different angle. The type of love is different because of our different relationships, but every love needs to spring from Godly love or it has a chance of being perverted into something dangerous. I'd say we really don't love different people in our lives the same way, or at least we shouldn't. When we hear about a man loving his coworker the same way he loves his wife, we call that adultery...

In the context of the Lewis book, he doesn't differentiate between what love is and what it should be as two separate words, therefore the eros that leads a man to prioritize his wife's wellbeing over his own is the same word as the eros that leads a man to abandon his wife for a coworker. Both are "that sort" of love. The only love that doesn't have a potential "dark side" is agape, the love of God, which is what we are told is patient and kind and does not boast, and it is also what love we are to use for our neighbor and our God. "Love (agape) the lord your God with all your heart..."

Any other love that springs from agape has those same characteristics, but the other three loves can exist on their own--and often do, to the detriment of many. I understand, though, that Lewis tends to tackle issues more as a philosopher than a theologian, so those musings on friendship, familial relationships, and romantic/erotic love are extra biblical in the sense that the bible focuses on love as it relates to God.

The exchange between Jesus and Peter in John 21 is really interesting looking at the Greek word for love used.

Jesus: Peter, do you love (agape) me?
Peter: You know I love (fileo) you.
Jesus: Do you love (agape) me?
Peter: You know I love (fileo) you.
Jesus: Do you love (fileo) me?
Peter:You know everything; you know I love (fileo) you.
 
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Brother Albert R.

Jesus loved us and said we should Love our enemies
I've read CS Lewis's book on this idea called The Four Loves, and this is actually somewhat of a point he makes, just tackling it from a different angle. The type of love is different because of our different relationships, but every love needs to spring from Godly love or it has a chance of being perverted into something dangerous. I'd say we really don't love different people in our lives the same way, or at least we shouldn't. When we hear about a man loving his coworker the same way he loves his wife, we call that adultery...

In the context of the Lewis book, he doesn't differentiate between what love is and what it should be as two separate words, therefore the eros that leads a man to prioritize his wife's wellbeing over his own is the same word as the eros that leads a man to abandon his wife for a coworker. Both are "that sort" of love. The only love that doesn't have a potential "dark side" is agape, the love of God, which is what we are told is patient and kind and does not boast, and it is also what love we are to use for our neighbor and our God. "Love (agape) the lord your God with all your heart..."

Any other love that springs from agape has those same characteristics, but the other three loves can exist on their own--and often do, to the detriment of many. I understand, though, that Lewis tends to tackle issues more as a philosopher than a theologian, so those musings on friendship, familial relationships, and romantic/erotic love are extra biblical in the sense that the bible focuses on love as it relates to God.

The exchange between Jesus and Peter in John 21 is really interesting looking at the Greek word for love used.

Jesus: Peter, do you love (agape) me?
Peter: You know I love (fileo) you.
Jesus: Do you love (agape) me?
Peter: You know I love (fileo) you.
Jesus: Do you love (fileo) me?
Peter:You know everything; you know I love (fileo) you.
It was C.S. Lewis and that book you reference in particular, that I had in mind as I wrote this post...(as well as others, but mainly Lewis). You have taken the post in the direction that I wanted it to go. I believe, (but I will not be combative or dismissive), confusion has entered our way of thinking about what we have been given by God...LOVE. In the beginning God created man in His image after His likeness...God is Love...so if we have been made after His likeness why can't we have His love within us? Sin entered the world and has permeated all of our being, but it did not eliminate what God had made us to have...His image, it only marred it. I do not include in my thinking of LOVE other words that use love as part of their definition other than agape or fileo.
(I will continue...have to run now)
God bless
Brother ALbert
 

Wings

Member
'This is My commandment,
That ye love one another,
as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.'

(John 15:12-13)

'But God commendeth His love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'

(Romans 5:8)
 

mattfivefour

Well-Known Member
'This is My commandment,
That ye love one another,
as I have loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.'

(John 15:12-13)

'But God commendeth His love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'

(Romans 5:8)
Exactly.
"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)
As Sojourner described it above, "Love is caring for another's greatest good."
 
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