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Monday, February 14, 2011

What is Love

There are FOUR words in the Greek language for love but only ONE word for love in English. What then IS Love? Why did Jesus, after his resurrection, use TWO different words for love when he asked PETER if he loved him?

When we talk of love in our society, we can mean the love of a mate, parent or child; we can mean a deep friendship or "liking" for a person or thing; or we can mean sexual love. Love in the Greek language is expressed by four different words. Only three of these words are used in the Bible.

1. Eros, which is sexual or romantic love.
2. Phileo, which is a brotherly love toward someone we really like.
3. Agape, which is the deepest love, which is based on doing good things for another person.
4. Storgay, which is the love of one's relatives. It is a relatively unknown word that is used only twice in scripture and only as a compound word.