The English word love covers many meanings, but in Greek we discover concepts often often called ‘the Four Loves’. This is the story …
What is love?
Love is a difficult concept. The term love is a fairly flexible and elastic word in English. You can think of affection as an emotion, a sense, a choice or an motion or deed. You can love chocolate, you’ll be able to love cricket, you’ll be able to love your country, you’ll be able to love your parents and kids, you’ll be able to love your dog, and you’ll be able to love your husband or wife. The English word love covers many concepts, that are sometimes covered by multiple word in other languages.
The 4 loves
The New Testament was written within the Greek language, and the Greek text language uses different words that are translated into English as love. C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) wrote a widely known book called “The Four Loves” based upon 4 Greek words for love. He related these to the New Testament, which was originally written in Greek. His book was published in 1960 and continues to be widely read and quoted today.
It is useful to think about these 4 sorts of love, because these different Greek words are all translated as love in English, and we lose a number of the subtle nuances of meaning. There are another Greek words for various elements of affection too, however the 4 which are frequently quoted within the context of Christian faith are storge (affection), philia (friendship), eros (romantic love) and agape (unconditional love). These 4 words are either present in the New Testament and/or within the Greek Septuagint translation of the Jewish Bible, which the Early Church used.
1. Storge
The Greek word στοργή is often rendered in English as storge. Storge is used of family love, the love that oldsters have for his or her children, and the love that children have for his or her parents. Storge will also be the love on your pet dog or cat. Sometimes it may well be the love of an in depth colleague or friend “who’s like family”. In English we will talk of stogic love which is defined within the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology as “a primary variety of love that’s friendly/affectionate and is predicated on caring and nurturing”. C.S. Lewis calls storge affection.
It shouldn’t be used very much within the New Testament and in compounds, where it appears in three verses in Romans 1:31, Romans 12:10 and a pair of Timothy 3:3. In Romas 12:10 storge appears in a compound word which was translated by William Tyndale as “brotherly love” and as love (NIV), brotherly affection (ESV), brotherly love (KJV), mutual affection (NRSV).
It is the other of storge (astorge) which is utilized in Romans 1:31 and in 2 Timothy 3:3 where a negative type of the word was translated into English as unkind by William Tyndale and likewise within the Good News Bible, without natural affection (KJV), without love (NIV), unloving (NLT), heartless (ESV), and callous (New American Bible).
2. Philia
The Greek word φιλία is often written in English as philia. This is probably the most common Greek word for love. Philia is the love of something where there’s something in common. Philia is the love which results in an enduring connection. Philia love is shown within the friendship after we be in contact with a colleague after we or they leave the workplace, and we not must be connected, but need to be. Philia is the foundation of the word φίλος (philos) which is translated into English as friend (e.g. in Luke 7:34, Luke 11:6, James 4:4). C.S. Lewis calls philia friendship.
You have philia once you love your church, your hometown or home village, your country, or when a Welsh person experiences hiraeth. You have philia once you love your teammates on the sports team, or once you love a pastime like astronomy or mountain climbing.
Philia is understood in English where it’s used as a prefix as in philosophy meaning the love of wisdom, and within the word philanthropy which suggests the love of other people. More often philia is a suffix as in a bibliophile who’s a one that loves books, or an Anglophile who’s a non-English one that loves all things English.
The word philia appears inside some New Testament names: Theophilus (Luke 1:3 and Acts 1:1) means someone who loves God, and Philip means someone who loves horses. When Lazarus died it was philia which was translated as love in “Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick” (John 11:3 KJV) and “Behold how he loved him” (John 11:36 KJV).
The opposite of philia is a phobia where you hate or fear something. Philia on your country is patriotism, but dislike or fear of others is xenophobia.
3. Eros
The Greek word ἔρως is written in English as eros and is the foundation of the English word erotic. In Greek it was an intense, passionate love, sometimes although not all the time romantic. In English we talk of being ‘in love’; and folks talk of ‘making love’. C.S. Lewis just calls this sort of love eros.
In the New Testament the concept of eros is used for the love between a husband and wife. The idea of eros can also be present in the poetic Song of Solomon within the Old Testament. The word eros shouldn’t be explicitly utilized in the text of the New Testament, however the concept of eros love within the context of a husband and wife is found, see 1 Corinthians 7:5 and Hebrews 13:4.
Eros was a mythological goddess, who then got here to symbolise romantic love. Her brother Anteros was the mythological god of selfless or unrequited love. Eros is maybe higher known by his Roman name of Cupid, often illustrated shooting arrows at someone to make them fall in love.
An example of unselfless love was the Victorian evangelical Christian politician Lord Shaftesbury (1801-1885). His Christian beliefs and love of individuals drove him to spearhead social reform. After he died the people of London wanted a statue to recollect him. They erected a statue of Anteros in 1894, which was to represent his selfless philanthropic love. It was a bit odd perhaps that his Christian love was represented by a statue of a pagan god, and it’s unfair that this famous statue at Piccadilly Circus is commonly incorrectly commonly often called Eros, which in his case actually represents the unsuitable type of love.
The opposite of eros is an intense hatred or loathing of somebody or something.
4. Agape
The Greek word ἀγάπη, normally written in English as agape, is a selfless spiritual love for others. Agape is a selfless love, within the sense of being kind and loving, which forgives, and is given whether it’s returned or not. Agape wants the most effective for others whether or not they are friends or enemies.
It is agape which is translated as love in, “Love your enemies and pray for individuals who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44 KJV). It is agape which is translated as love within the phrase “God is love” (1 John 4:8 NIV). It is agape which is translated as love by William Tyndale in “Now abideth faith, hope, and love, even these three: however the chief of those is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
C.S. Lewis calls agape charity, which is how the word was translated within the Authorized King James Version where it says: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, shouldn’t be overvalued” (1 Corinthians 13:4), and “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the best of those is charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13). This is a bit misleading today, as in the trendy sense, charity tends to imply an organisation, but nevertheless the sense of putting love in motion continues to be there.
The opposite of agape is selfishness and indifference to others.
Agape fellowships
In the Early Church the word agape was also used for a communal meal, held in Christian fellowship, after they invited and included the poor. See Jude verse 12 and a pair of Peter 2:13 where it was translated as “feasts of charity” (KJV), or perhaps misleadingly as “love feast” (NIV, ESV) or more helpfully as “fellowship meal” (GNB, NLT). In the past it was fashionable for some church fellowship groups and Christian Unions to be called apape groups, although that is less common today.
St Paul’s definition
It is the word agape which St Paul used when he summed up love with the words in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, which is a passage often quoted at weddings: “Love is patient, love is kind. It doesn’t envy, it doesn’t boast, it shouldn’t be proud. It doesn’t dishonour others, it shouldn’t be self-seeking, it shouldn’t be easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love doesn’t enjoyment of evil but rejoices with the reality. It all the time protects, all the time trusts, all the time hopes, all the time perseveres” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV). Here St Paul lists the traits of agape as being patient (long-suffering), kind, honourable, truthful, resilient, protecting, trusting, hopeful, enduring and persevering. He contrasts it with being envious, boastful, boastful, rude (ill-mannered), proud, dishonorable, self-seeking, quick to anger, grudging, gloating, resentful and dishonest as marks of what agape shouldn’t be. Jesus said that “By their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:20).
The order of affection
I don’t consider that love thinks by way of myself first, then my family, then my neighbours, then my country, then others. As Jesus asked: “Do not even pagans try this?” (Matthew 5:47). For Christians there isn’t any favouritism (James 2:1). Jesus said that the order is that the primary commandment is to like God, after which the following is to like our neighbours (Matthew 22:34-39). Jesus then told the story of the Good Samaritan as an example that true love treats all people as our neighbours (Luke 10:30-37), and with Christian love we even love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). Jesus commanded that we love each other (John 13:34), and this must be a recognisable characteristic of Christians (John 13:35), and the order is actually to like others first before ourselves (Philippians 2:3).
Conclusion
Christian agape love shouldn’t be selfishly driven. For C.S. Lewis in his book “The Four Loves”, he saw affection (storge), friendship (philia) and eros in normal human life, but he saw agape as divine from God, who’s love (1 John 4:8). God wants us to like mercy (Micah 6:8), love justice (Isaiah 61:8), love truth and love peace (Zechariah 8:19). Applying love to those may also inevitably affect our actions, family life, church activities and politics.
