Series: Love
1 John 4:7 ESV
Colossians 3:14 ESV
Colossians 3:12-14 MSG
If I could give the world one gift it would not be world peace or eradication of disease. While those are healing we desperately need they do not answer the greater question. They both only solve one piece of the problem.
They don’t begin to touch the overarching hierarchy.
Of course, this is my opinion based on experience and thoughts. It seems to me that the answer lies in love.
I John 4:7 we are told, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
Why love? Simply put, love is the tie that binds. The Apostle Paul’s words to the church in Colossae are found in Colossians 3:14, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Love is the universal element that ties everything together.
If we think about it, do we desire peace in our heart more than anything else? When we wake up in the morning do we first think of peace or even healing? We may think of those things if something unusual is happening in our lives, but it’s not always the case.
What is the one thing we strive for (even if we don’t realize it)?
Most people think of companionship with a person or an animal. We think of love.
Do people who profess hatred do so because it supplies their every need or is it because they so desperately want love but they didn’t get love?
How many songs have been written on love?
How many poems have been written about love?
How many times in your life have you said, “I love you?” Is there another phrase you’ve used as many times?
Even children speak words of love when they are very young. I remember my children saying, “I uhd you mommy” when they started talking.
Love IS the answer.
Love is the tie that binds.
Love makes life worth living.
But we need to consider the background of love in the ancient world and in today’s world. We need to remember there are no right or wrong answers. Love is complex and looking at how love was identified in the first century and how love was identified in the twentieth century can both give us insight.
In the Koine Greek there are several different words for love.
Agape is love of great affection. It’s unconditional love. It can be complete love and charity for another. Agape love is love of God.
There is Eros love which is passion. It’s the love of young couples standing at the alter to marry.
Philia love is the love of affection you have for friends. It’s often what we experience with friends, family, and community.
Storge love is the love and affection we have for children and family. It can include empathy between a parent and a child.
Philautia love is self love. It’s what we seek for self. It can lead to vanity. Aristotle considered philautia to be love of friends, family, or an activity.
Xenia love is what gives us the desire to be hospitable to friends and even strangers.
In the twentieth century theologian C.S. Lewis identified love in four categories.
He wrote of gift love which is parent to child, God to humanity. This Storge love gives us an empathy bond between a parent and a child. He saw storge love as being need and/or gift form.
Lewis identified philia love that is experienced between friends who are as close as siblings.
Eros love was identified by Lewis as the passion of love and being in love. He cautioned there is a dark side to Eros love when the passion turns to control of another.
He identified agape love as being unconditional love, as in love for God.
Both categories, the Ancient Greek and Lewis’ four loves help us remember that love isn’t just love. Love has many facets and ‘faces’ and not all kinds of love are what God intended. Humanity has not arrived. We are not perfect. However, daily as we turn to God and we remember God’s love is perfect and God always seeks good for us.
From the Message Colossians 3:12-14 tells us, “So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.”
Real love is what God desires for humanity because God is love and love is the tie that binds.
Spiritual Practice: Love
Ask God to give you love.
In God, Deborah
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