“Understanding Love”

What makes you love every person that you come into contact with on a day to day basis? Is it their smile, laugh, the things they do or maybe the things they say. Love comes in all forms to and from one another but understanding the types is something totally different. God has given us love in 4 forms of Agape, Eros, Philia & Storge. Growing up in a Christian household allowed me to experience “Agape” love with my grandmother, mom & child on an infinite level. The compassion and caring nature of the Agape love I had inside flourished the heart and love God instilled in us at birth. What about those other loves’ that we experience in life that we don’t acknowledge but experience; did you know you experience those types of loves daily as well? Let’s pull back the mind and heart screen “smoke screens” and see how you experience those daily knowingly or unknowingly. It implies that love has different nature’s of being shown.

AGAPE: refers to the paternal love of God for man and of man for God but is extended to include a brotherly love for all humanity; also showing feelings for one’s children and the feelings for a spouse. Agape is also used by Christians to express the unconditional love of God for his children. The concept is expanded on in the Judaic-Christian tradition of loving God: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). It’s the ultimate love God instilled in us that is so innate.

STORGE: It’s the common or natural empathy, like that felt by parents for their children. Almost exclusively as a descriptor of relationships within the family. It is also known to express mere acceptance or putting up with situations, as in “loving” the tyrant. This is also used when referencing the love for ones country or a favorite sports team. It’s specific to the love you show within your family towards one another.

PHILIA: Christians are frequently exhorted to love their fellow Christians.
Philadelphia (brotherly love) appears a handful of times, and philia (friendship) appears once in James: Philia is expressed variously as loyalty to friends (specifically, “brotherly love”), family, and community, and requires virtue, equality, and familiarity. Furthermore, in the same text philos denotes a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers. It was once said that a neighbor’s humanity provides the primary condition of being loved; nonetheless his actions may require a second order of criticisms, for the logic of brotherly love implies that it is a moral improvement on brotherly hate. Loving the soul rather than the neighbor’s body or deeds provides a useful escape clause-or in turn the justification for penalizing the other’s body for sin and moral transgressions, while releasing the proper object of love-the soul-from its secular torments. For Christian pacifists, “turning the other cheek” to aggression and violence implies a hope that the aggressor will eventually learn to comprehend the higher values of peace, forgiveness, and a love for humanity with compassion and understanding. Also, understanding that you dont have to closely deal with your brethren daily but to love that person to the depths of your soul and require nothing in return but to love them as you love God.

EROS: Last but surely not least you have the essence and passion of EROS! Haha for those censored in ears please take no offense to what God ordains as loving or simply KEEP TREADING. But mature audience FRONT & CENTER!

Now that, that’s out the way; Eros is all intimate love. Intimacy at it’s finest that God ordained between husband and wife. It’s the encompassing love between the two that is showed through kissing, touching and rubbing. The connection that is transferred through loving sexual energy; somehow creates a bond that God put loving hot fire on. It’s the flicker to the flame. Knowing that God is love universally and it comes in all shapes forms or fashion will open your eyes and heart to loving in the right nature and mannerism. I pray that all are blessed with this passage and pray you find time to implement a few of these loves in your life a little bit better than before. Toodles!!!