Love

The other day I saw that one of my young friends had posted something very profound about love on Facebook.  I think she learned it through the school of hard knocks, but I hope some of what I taught while I was with them was helpful.  This led me think I really need to do a blog on what the Bible says about love, and of course, this leads me to 1 Cor. 13

1 Corinthians 13

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^{[b] 6} it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³ So now, faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

You see in the New Testament, there are three different words for love.  The first one, Philo, is best translated as “brotherly love”. This is the precursor of the word for Philadelphia.  If you have ever been to Philadelphia, you see that the meaning of the name of their city is not followed.  What I think best describes Philo is the love between people in a fraternal organization. 

The second word used for love is Eros.  This is where we get the word erotic.  This is usually the type of love we would connect with Valentine’s Day.  In the Bible, it would be used to describe the love between man and wife. 

The last word is agape.  This is God’s love, or as some say, unconditional love.  This is how God loves us and we are to strive to have this kind of love for God and our fellow Christians.  First Corinthians, chapter thirteen, speaks about Agape love. 

I ask you that you try to use these verses to help you with your marriage and with your relationship with God.