Are you trying to compare the love that God has for you to the love that you have experienced with other people in your life? If you are, you can’t. Understand God’s love cannot be compared to the love of man or woman. The love of man or woman can flaky. Sometimes they may say I love you, sometimes they may say I like you, sometimes they may say I don’t like you, and sometimes they may say I hate you. That’s because the love that we share with others has a lot to do with our feelings and our emotions. Whereas, God is love. His love is not just a feeling and it’s not an emotion. I John 4:8 says that God is love. It is who and what He is.
There are many types of love. There is eros love which is the romantic type of love. It’s the love we have in relationships and it’s the type of love that people tend to focus on. It is this type of love you see a lot of in the world. It’s like everybody wants to be loved by somebody and at times it looks like somebody can really be anybody as long as a person can experience what they consider to be romance, passion, and love. This type of love has went so far away from God’s guidelines that it leads to the downfall and experience of what true love really is because the desire for passion overrules what is right, what is just, and what is true.
Then there is Philia. It is an affectionate and brotherly love. It’s the type of love that long and lasting friendships are born out of. It is authentic and it brings with it companionship, dependability, and trust. This type of love is not found in everyone because everyone is not striving to be authentic. Everyone is not striving to be truthful. Everyone is not sincere in what they say and what they do.
Then there is storge. It is the love that you have or should I say should have with your family. It comes from being familiar or dependent on someone. It’s not really looking for or at a person’s personal qualities. It is not looking for physical and personal attraction but it is a strong bond within a family or with friends because of familiarity. It’s based on what you know, who you know, and what you have become accustomed to.
Then there is agape. This is God’s unconditional love. It is not based on making yourself feel good. In essence it may involve you suffering so that others can experience happiness. It is a charitable love because charity is giving. With agape type of love, you give freely to others without expecting anything in return. Sometimes when it comes to agape love, you may not see the love you give reciprocated back to you. Think about Jesus on the cross. It was love (God) who sent Jesus to the cross to die for us and yet many people in this world who received the love and gift of life from God fail to love Him back by living this life that He has given us for Him.
We will experience many types of love as we walk through this journey called life but the best type of love we can give and receive is agape because it is who and what God is. It is unconditional and unchanging. It’s not based on what we see nor what we will get back.
God and His love is resident on the inside of us and we should freely give it out to those around us. We have what we need on the inside of us to love people unconditionally.
SCRIPTURE MEDITATION
1 John 4:8
King James Version (KJV)
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
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