What is Love?
You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18b NKJV.)
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NKJV).
The test of loving like Christ is not loving Jesus. It’s loving Judas. (Anonymous meme.)
What is Love. That’s a tricky one, isn’t it? Philosophers, poets, apostles, theologians, pastors, writers of novels, all these and more have taken a crack at it. Even my “Go-To” dictionary, Miriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition [Updated Annually], ©2000, gets a bit tongue-tied on defining “love,” so I’ll skip it for now. In the scripture quoted above, even Paul goes to great lengths to tell us what love looks like, but is rather tenuous on saying what it is.
The Bible uses four primary ancient Greek words to express different types of love, popularized by C.S. Lewis in his book The Four Loves; agape (ἀγάπη), philia (φιλία), storge (στοργή), and eros (έρως). Each has it’s own unique definition.
agape (ἀγάπη); (charity/unconditional love) God’s supreme, self-sacrificial, and unselfish love that gives of itself without demanding anything in return; Lewis viewed this as the highest virtue and the source that must guide the other three natural loves.
philia (φιλία); (sometimes called “brotherly love”) a deep, chosen comradeship based on shared values, interests, and intellectual connection, which Lewis considered the least biological and rarest of the loves.
storge (στοργή); (family/kinship love) the natural, comfortable love born of familiarity, fondness, or family bonds (such as the love between a parent and child or a person and a pet).
eros (έρως); (romantic/physical love) the state of passionate romantic and sexual love focused intensely on another person.
But like Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, Lewis says more about what love looks like than what love is.
To be honest, the best “definition” of “love” I’ve ever come across came from a most unlikely source; science fiction author, the late Robert A. Heinlein, who defined love as “when the happiness and well-being of another is as, or more, important to you than your own.” To me, this definition seems to cover all four of Lewis’s Four Loves.
The word “love” gets thrown around a lot. We “love” our spouses and children, of course. But we “love” a particular flavor of ice-cream. We “love” going to the movies. We “love” it when the Braves/Falcons/Bulldogs/Yellow Jackets win a game. We “love” our homes. We “love” our church. We “love” Jesus. We “love” God.
When I was a kid, we used to sing a song I haven’t heard in a while. You probably sang it to. It goes like this:
“Jesus loves me, this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong,
They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
The Bible tells me so."
Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves you.
The Bible tells me so.
Rejoice always,
Jerry Lipscomb
