Articles
There is More to Love Than Fairy Tales
Fairy tales and their romanticized version of love captivate the hearts of people around the world. Fairy tales involve grand gestures, heroic actions, happily ever after’s, and many aspects of romance that bring forth the warm and fuzzies. When thinking of love, do you think of Godly love or a fairy tale’s version of love? Romans 8:38-39 describes God’s powerful love when it says, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV)”.
Biblical love is more than experiencing butterflies in our stomach or feeling the emotion of happiness. Godly love requires putting Him and others first through our actions. In Romans 5:8 we are given the ultimate example of God’s love for “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (ESV). The love God has for us is unconditional, selfless and sacrificial. This type of love is known in the Greek as agape love. This is the most powerful type of love because it entails giving your all—even if it isn’t being reciprocated. Agape love is the love we are commanded to give to others in 1 Corinthians 13. God’s love for us as His children is our motivation to show others the agape love described in 1 Corinthians 13 (1 John 4:19). A person can show the greatest of love by their deeds, but if their motivation is one of selfishness and not Godly love then it was a wasted effort. Agape love is about the unconditional spiritual motivations behind physical actions.
Another type of biblical love that has a deep rooted spiritual focus is phileos love. Phileos love is best described as a close friendship or companionship. Companion is a Latin word whose meaning comes from the words “com” (together with) and “panis” (bread). Thus, a companion is someone you trust enough to break bread with at your own table. Jesus uses phileos companionship to describe the relationship He has with His followers in John 15:14-15. Our relationship between others and Jesus is like that of a triangle. Jesus is the top point of the triangle, we are on one side, and the other person is at the other. The more we and others strive to get closer to Jesus then the closer we are to each other. Physical actions are great contributors when building the close bonds necessary for phileos love. Yet, it is the spiritual actions that help those bonds be unbreakable.
