LOVE
Love is one of the major themes of the Bible. Some will say that love is the major theme. Others will say that Jesus Christ is the major theme and others will say that faith is and so on. Let us set aside our opinion for now and focus on love. I hope that everyone will agree that God is love. According to the Scriptures, His love is AGAPE love. This is defined by the nature of God. John affirms that God is love in 1 John 4:8. God does not merely love, He is love. Everything He does flows from his love. I know that there are some who will not agree that God is a loving God. I have heard people say that if God is loving, why does He let bad things happen? We must realize that God does not cause bad things to happen, it is Satan. That is a whole another subject.
Pronunciation: uh-GAH-pay
Definition: Agape is selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love. It is the highest of the four types of love.
Now, I pose the question, if you have received Jesus into your life, do you have that selfless, sacrificial, unconditional agape love in your life? Is that not what Jesus is portrayed as having? Does that not come with the term “born again” that Jesus mentions in John 3:3 and stated in 1 Peter 1:23. Agape love is the fruit of the Spirit.
Now let us look at the other three types of love.
PHILEO love
Pronunciation: f ih l – eh
Definition: close tender affection. Christians are exhorted to love fellow Christians with Phileo love. Love one another with brotherly affection.
EROS love (Greek term does not appear in the Bible)
Pronunciation: AIR-os
Definition: the physical, sensual love as between husband and wife. This love is portrayed in the Old Testament book of The Song of Solomon. God created male and female. Within marriage sex is used under this definition for emotional, spiritual bonding and reproduction. I must point out that the Scriptures teach us that a man is commanded to love his wife. If he does this, she will respond to that love and that makes for a happy marriage.

STORGE love (Greek term does not appear in the Bible)
Pronunciation: STOR-jay
Definition: family love, bond between mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters.
Our love is usually misdirected. We lose sight of the eternal for the temporal. Our love is usually focused on self to the exclusion of God and others. This leads to idolatry by focusing part or all our love elsewhere. What did Jesus say were the greatest commandments: Matthew 22: 37-39 – Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as you love yourself. Most of us love ourselves. We are love breakers more than law breakers.
The expression of love is going to depend on our relationship with life and it’s circumstances and our relationship with God the Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit. As I watch the news both local and worldwide, I see that love in all forms is missing. All I can say is, COME LORD JESUS.