The word love in English has many different meanings in Greek which is the original language of the New Testament. Agape love is one of them which is the highest form of love, God’s love. Parental love is “sturge”. Friendship love is “phileo” and propagation or sexual love is “eros” and dependent love.

In order to differentiate and understand God’s love, we need to understand the other love’s which are from God but a lower form of love. Remember this, these love mentioned here are also from God but has been polluted by the errors of mankind.

Dependent love
The love a child has for a parent. This is important for the development of a child. Child development is believed to be up to 5 to 6 years old. A child who did not experience parental nurturing will have a hard time later in life. They become dependent too much on other people. They will always be looking for that love that was missing when they were kids. They easily put blames on others instead of looking for a solution or looking for alternatives. They will complain blaming the company they work for or even the government. This is the reason why the people of God are commanded to take care of their orphans. Children need to experience the love of the parent which will be explained below.

Because of this dependent love, Jesus said about little children in Matthew 19:14, “the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.” 14But Jesus said, “(A)Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for (B)the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (NASB)

Dependent love is the same love we should feel about our Father in heaven who will always be there for what ever we need.  Like a child longs for their parents, we should not outgrow that love for our God, the Father.

Eros love
This love is created by God to propagate species, the sexual attraction between male and female. This is so strong at puberty, presumed to be 14 for male, 12 for female. This is why we still remember our first love when we were teenagers. This kind of love is exciting and full of energy. People who misunderstand this love and did not develop to the higher form of love become sexual addicts, and then sexual predators. Adults in the misuse of this love are in pornography. Business exploiting people because of this love are in producing products to promote sexual lust. This love makes it clear that homosexuality is a perversion of this love. Propagation of species cannot be done between two males or between two females. Can love between two same sex exist.? Yes. See the next definition, “phileo”
love.

Phileo love
This is friendship love. This is also ‘philadelphia’ love which also means brotherly or sisterly love. This is the love that can exist between two men and between two women. When developed, this is a wholesome love where there is kindness, respect, honesty, and integrity. When you love your friend, you don’t want to hurt them. You want to maintain their respect and their trust. When developed, friends will give their life and liberty to protect their friends. This is the reason why gang membership among the youth is hard to break. The friendship is more important than anything else. Their common goal is to protect their friends.

This should be the relationship between couples before marriage. If the marriage is done as God designed it, there should be no problem adjusting from “Phileo” to “Sturge” love

Another form of this love is when the object of love is not directed to a fellow human being. This could be love of country, love of our job or profession, love of animals, love of things or activities (developing hobbies).

“Storge” Love
“Storge” love is the love of the parents to their children. Woman’s compassion to their children starts at the womb. This is the reason why women like Sarah Palin, vice presidential candidate of the U.S., is so popular.  She showed her “storge” love by carrying her baby to birth even though she knew the baby will be a mongoloid. “Storge” love makes fathers work hard for their children and support the family. This love should not change, period. Parents should give to their children because love is giving. This love is designed by God for parents to support their children until they can function on their own so that when the parents get old, the children will support their parents. Human being limitations put conditions on this love. Poor parents cannot support their children anymore, even if they want to. America and other developed countries’ society put the age of 18 as the age when their children should leave and be on their own. Parents high or low expectations on their children, pervert this love. Children should be allowed to grow into the God given talent they are born with. Parental love will nourish that talent. There is only a very fine thin line that separates “storge” love from agape love.

Agape Love
The best manifestation of this love is when Jesus died on the cross for our sin.  Man cannot save himself.  God has to come down from heaven and manifest himself as a man to save us.  John 3: 16 says, “For God so love (agape) the world (us) the He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God has to defeat Satan, the source of all evil in the world, by showing His agape love for mankind.

By what Jesus did, we have a glance on what our love should be for our God Almighty.  It is obedience to God and it is submitting our will to the Father.  It is a decision and doing what we need to do in spite of the circumstances.  Agape love is following Jesus.  Following Jesus is knowing His commandment.  Knowing his commandment is reading His book he left to us, The Bible.

God’s love is the unconditional love. I love you period, no buts, no ifs, no conditions. What if you make mistakes? God still loves you. God’s love is constant, it does not change. God love is always giving. The object of God’s love is you and me. That is the reason why He created the world. This world is for you and me. Let us go back for a minute on “sturge” love. Can you imagine a parent who has this love but also has unlimited resources. I remember my love for my first grandchild. I told myself I am going to give her everything she needs and what ever she ask for. When she was about three years old, she was with her mom and her grandmother in a department store. She asked for toys but both of them said no.

Then she told them, “I wish my grandpa is here”. God will give us everything we need because of His agape love. God can afford everything that we need. He is not limited by lack. Don’t we wish for our God to be here? But he is here within us. How do you look for somebody who is within you?

God gave us the Book to know about that agape love. God gave us the Bible to know Him and His Son who is the personification of the agape love.

Please start reading the Bible. If you don’t have one, buy one. This is the best gift you can give yourselfin this life. Read the Fundamentals of Bible Study.

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