What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)

There’s a new commercial where a woman is singing the ‘Love Boat’ theme while advertising all the things to do while aboard a cruise ship of the cruise line she is representing.  This got me into thinking about all the songs about love over the years that I can remember, like the ‘Love Boat’ theme.  ‘What the world needs now is love, sweet love’; ‘This is just another silly love song’; ‘Don’t tell me what love can do’; ‘I ain’t talking ‘bout love’. (The last two are lyrics from Van Halen songs, for those of you who don’t appreciate – love – good music.) 

There are bunches of songs that tell us about love. The word ‘love’ is something we throw around quite a bit – ‘I love that new show!’, or ‘You seem to love that chocolate cheesecake’.  But do we truly ‘love’ these things, or are they something we simply enjoy a lot?  I certainly love my wife, more than she’ll know; I certainly love my children and grandchildren, more than they’ll know; and I certainly love our cats, more than they’ll know – but my love for Shirley is much different than my love for our children and grandchildren, and much different than my love for our cats.

All of us have our different expressions of love; some of us love cooking, some love our cars.  I love shooting and guns (though I need to do this more often that I have been).  We hear of athletes who play their preferred sport, like football, baseball, or golf, for the ‘love of the game’.  Our pastor ‘loves’ the Christmas season, with all the jingles and carols – many of you do, as well.  I personally love that we do not have snow or cold weather – cold weather being anything approaching freezing as a daytime high, with that white stuff laying around.  We love our friends, our family, our church, and several of you told me you love me, right in front of my wife, who doesn’t seem to mind.

I of course love you right back, but not in the same vein as I love my beautiful bride of 42 years.  I don’t love to be the center of attention, though others do.  There are those who love what they possess, others who love to share what they have.  We love our parents and siblings, as well.  There are many types of ‘love’ that can be expressed, beyond that shared by husbands and wives.  There are forms of good love, and forms of not-so-good love.  The English language has that one word, love, but it can have so many meanings, and in our Bibles that are written in the various English translations, love can be confusing and all of us know that, though our experiences, to be true – in our feelings even before we try to define it.

I mentioned in a previous Word-of-the-Day that through the exploration of our Bible to gain deeper understanding, the definition of ‘love’ in the English language can be broken down through the original Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament.  Both have words that better define these separate meanings of love, both good and bad expressions.  For example, there are eight different types of love expressed in the New Testament alone in the original ‘Greek’:

Thelo = Haughty, Snobbish; A Love To Be Seen (Mark 12:38)

Philaguros = Covet; Greed; Monetary/Material Love (1 Timothy 6:10)

Philanthropos = Humane Kindness/Love (Titus 3:4-5)

Phileo = Friendly, Fondness Love (Revelation 3:19)

Philadelphos = Brotherly Love (1 Peter 3:8)

Philoteknos = Maternal/Paternal Love (Titus 2:4)

Philandros = Spousal Love (Titus 2:4)

Agape = Affectionate, Overarching, Caring Love (1 John 4:16)

The first two, Haughtiness and Greed, are not loves that Christians should embrace. Humane, Friendly, and Brotherly love are what we should express to each other in caring and interest, and helping each other out.  Parental love can be for our children and for those who could be our children, while Spousal Love is only for our spouses (I’m hearing all the ‘Well, DUH’ comments on this one, but ‘Philandros’ is the root of the word ‘Philanderer’, meaning a guy who ‘flirts’ (and much more) with many women).  Agape love, a love-feast that only God can give us in His Holiness, is reserved for Him to provide and for us to reciprocate per the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:5 (‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might’).

In leading up to Christmas, we can also express the appropriate love to each other; as friends, brothers/ sisters in Christ, and as parents or as guiding examples to children.  Never forget the Ultimate form of Love is Jesus Christ, who God provided for us in His Agape love that is overwhelming.  This love is best expressed in John 3:16, as God loved us so much, He allowed His son, Jesus, to be our sacrifice to cover our sins, if only we accept Him as Lord and Savior.  When we accept Christ, we are to provide Him all the Agape love back to Him – not just once but in every breath that we take.  Our love for Christ is to be the best that we can provide to Him.