Love One Another

Love is a common theme in the Bible. In the Ancient Greek, there are four words for love, Storge, Eros, Phileo, and Agape. In our English language, there is one word, Love. This certainly creates a little confusion when we read. The source of this confusion is our use of the word love. I have noticed that love is typically only used in two ways in relationship with people, love of someone like a family member and love of someone like a significant other. We rarely use love in terms of friendship, so when we read that we are to love our brothers, it may seem slightly confusing.

Let's first look at the three Greek terms. Storge means affection. It is not found in the Bible. Eros means a passionate love. This would be the love between a husband and wife. It is not found in the Bible. Phileo means the love between friends. It is similar to loyalty. Agape is a sacrificial love for all. It would seem that phileo is an emotion while agape is an action.

Phileo and agape are both used in the Bible. Phileo is used in Matthew 10 to tell us that we are to phileo God more than anyone else. There is no specific command to phileo God in the NT, it instead uses the word agape.

Agape is used to describe God's love for mankind in John 3:16, "For God so loved [agape] the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." It is also used to describe what we should do. In John 14:15, Jesus says "If you love [agape] me, you will obey my commands."

In looking online, I found the following chart that contrasted these two types of love.

Philia	Agape
Natural	Learned
Emotional	Volitional
Discriminatory	Non-discriminatory
Conditional	Unconditional
Pleasure	Preciousness
Delight	Esteem
Liking	Prizing
Because of	In spite of
Fails	Never fails

This will be just the start of a look at what it means to love one another.