What is love? What is true love? Four types of love and the most special

There are four kinds of love - well, at least in the Greek. And they say French is romantic! :-)

The first type of love in the Greek language is the word eros. This word is more appropriately called lust because it only deals with the outside.

We say this not just about people but about things. We say I love pizza but we don't have anything more than and attraction based on our favorite foods. Some pizza, if enough yucky stuff is put on it, might not be very appealing. It could still taste good though. Others might look really good, but tastes really bad if someone doesn't make it right. This just shows what the Bible says. Man looketh upon the outward appearance, but God looketh upon the heart.

When we say we love pizza, it doesn't cause too many problems. But when we use that eros love to describe how we feel about another person, it can often leads to disaster. Even if it doesn't, broken hearts still take time to mend. And, God doesn't want that for us.

God wants us to have a wonderful, close relationships that lasts forever, because He loves us. So while there are people who joke that they would marry chocolate, it's not really something when was marry. And yeah, when they say that, I found it's a good way to lead into explaining about not following youthful lusts. I often joke that blend you look at your crush, ask your self if you would still love that person when you were both in your nineties, wrinkles up like prunes, with no hair or teeth, and probably other physical problems. If not, you should not be with that person.

Another way to put it is, be so lost in your love for God that your mate needs to seek God with all their heart to find you.

The next type of love is phileo. This is the root of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love. BFF, which stands for best friends forever, is a good way to describe this kind of love. The Bible refers to it as a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, the way that Jonathan was with David.

This type of love is very deep, but it is not as deep as family love, let alone God's love. Yours truly recalls growing up with grandparents who were best friends as well as a married couple. That is the way a couple should be. That is why the comments above about making sure you are best friends with the person who will be your future mate are so important. The love a couple must be more than just about outward things.

The next kind of love is storge. That is what families should be. Obviously, a husband and wife are not related until they are married. Unless you were a Hapsburg Royal in the early modern era, but we won't get into that. The point is that this is another reason a couple should be such close friends before considering marriage, so they can easily build that storge relationship.

Families should love each other unconditionally. God created us to be loving, caring people who help each other and help young people grow and learn in a safe environment of unconditional love.However, by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so that deth passed unto all men, for that all have sinned.(Rom.5:12) People choose to turn against God sometimes, and that hurts people. Thankfully, God provides help through others. Quite a few people have been known to be an "emotional family" for others, or siblings known to be the emotional parent for a younger sibling, or something similar.

Storge love means family members should always be there for each other and be willing to give anything for each other. One example would be how an uncle, when one of his kids was in the hospital, took time to stay with him rather than take advantage of a special golf outing with Arnold Palmer he'd had the chance to go on.

Those with phileo love give for each other do give for each other, but even that love is not as deep as the giving a family should do. That married couple's love should grow each year, so the phileo and eros work together to create a deeper storge love each day - but only storge allows one to truly love unconditionally, to truly stay together "for richer or poorer, for better or worse, in sickness and in health, till death do you part." Only that storge love allows a couple to care for a severely handicapped child his or her whole life. And so on.

There is, however, a love even deeper than that.

It is called agape love.(Pronounced "a-gah'-pay)

Agape is the kind of love God has for us. While that family love grows over time, God's love is there for us even when we don't know Him. First Corinthians 13, called "the great love chapter of the Bible," is filled with wonderful things about love. It truly does bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things. And, while that's what family love should be, God's love is special because he loved us like that before we even knew Him. In fact, while we were His biggest enemies.

God gave us freedom to choose so we wouldn't be mindless robots who just did thigns automatically. He wanted us to choose whether to follow good or evil. So, man chose evil and sin came into the world because people chose to disobey God? They chose to turn against Him and do mean, hurtful thigns to each other, to themselves, and to Him.

We do that, too. Yet the Bible says, "We love Him because He first loved us."(1 John 4:19) It was "while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."(Romans 5:8) God Himself loved us so much that though we rejected Him, He still came to this world in flesh, Jesus Christ. he was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, yet suffered and died to take the punishment for our sins, His blood was shed to atone for what we ourselves had done. And, he rose from the dead the third day! He is alive and always making intercession for us.

it is by faith in Him and Him alone - calling on Him to save you from your sins - that any of us enter His perfect heaven, where there is no pain, no suffering, no tears, no sin can be there. Nobody has seen, heard, or even imagined the wonders that await us. And, you can simply call on Him right now to forgive you and saved you from your sins, trusting that he took the punishment for your sins. Here is a good summary. 

But, God not only will save you and get you to Heaven, Jesus came that we might have life and life more abundantly.(John 10:10) Eternal life with Him begins the moment you believe in Him and call on Him, trusting Him to save you. He will be a constant guide, comforter, helper, friend, and so much more.

That is true love. He will never leave you or forsake you. You can e-mail our show with questions - I know this might be read anywhere in the world so if you want we can even try to help you find a good church. But, most importantly, a relationship with Jesus is forever. He lives in each believer through the Holy Spirit. And, any holes in your heart that have come from past problems, you can be sure He will fill with His unconditional love.

Because God's agape love is true love, the best love there is. It is the definition of real love.