Love is not an emotion...

[Fedusenko]

This was a word study that I did a while back and the below quote from another thread made it relevant to post, but in a separate thread.

It seems that most think of LOVE as a emotion rather than a Loving 'OBEDIENT PRINCIPLE'!

---Elijah

The three words in Greek that are associated to 'love' actually do not each mean love, only one of them does.

Eros is sex. You won't find that word in the bible. Sex is not love. Sex is simply intercourse, though it can hold a variety of values to those performing the sex. You can have love in sex, but you can also have selfishness, dilusionment, anger, hatred, subversion, coerrsion, ect. Eros is not love.

Phileo as in Philidelphia. As in City of brotherly love, but not quite. Look in Strong's Concordance or another lexicon and you will find that Phileo is how you relate to others, cordial, polite, hospitipal. If you are Phileo towards me you are nice to me. You may love me or you may trick me, but they both fall under Phileo. Note that Phileo is a verb like run. You can run to rescue a kitten from a burning house or you can run with a snatched purse. Phileo is the appearance of love through action which can be genuine or not.

Agape is a noun, not only that, but an abstract noun. It covers not only action, but intention, something that phileo and eros do not. Those words can be used to try to describe love, but they are not love as they are just actions. Agape is the tending of the sheep, the sacrifice, the willing servitude. Agape is for the benefit of the other. Agape is love.

The emotion people call love is just the by-product. Your body creates a hook because you have a vested interest. If you work towards anythings well being, you will develop that attachment.

People complicate things by thinking that love is an emotion at all. It isn't. It is a continual action of service towards another. The phrase, "I don't love you anymore." is not a regression of feelings, but a regression of attentive service.

 

[God's_gift]

Agape is a noun, not only that, but an abstract noun. It covers not only action, but intention, something that phileo and eros do not. Those words can be used to try to describe love, but they are not love as they are just actions. Agape is the tending of the sheep, the sacrifice, the willing servitude. Agape is for the benefit of the other. Agape is love.

charity

 

[Jethro Bodine]

Love is desire. Our English language does not have different words to express the different motivations and objects of our different 'loves'--our different desires and the different motivations they represent.

Agape, God's kind of love, is the desire to fulfill the best interests of another person apart from the bias of one's own personal interests and comforts. That is how God 'so loved the world'. That is how we are to love God. That is how we are to love others.

The presence of that kind of love in a person, circumcision of the heart through the Holy Spirit, is the evidence that one has indeed received the love of God in the forgiveness of sins. It is the signifying mark in the flesh of the one who is in covenant with God through faith in the Promised Son. Just as literal circumcision was the mark in the flesh of Abraham who was in covenant with God through faith in the promise of a son.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

Okay, I feel wonderful now that I've reminded myself how far I fall short of the high calling of agape love in the believers life.

 

[Fedusenko]

I disagree with you regarding there different forms of love in english. I believe like many of the words in our language, it has been twisted into something it wasn't. Happy is a great example. It actually means good fortune, not some fleeting emotion. What many call love, I call it infatuation, pleasure, and sex. Love for me has just one meaning, selfless serving others. All other uses are just misuses.

That is my take, anyways.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

I disagree with you regarding there different forms of love in english.

What I mean is in English we use the exact same word 'love' to say, for example, "I love beautiful women", and, "I love God". But the Greek language, as you point out, has different words for 'love' according to the object and the intent of that 'love'.

The choice of Greek word identifies what kind of love (desire) we're talking about, while in the English language that is not evident, because we use the one word 'love' for all the different 'loves' (desires) that there are. I'm pretty sure this is basically what you said in your post. You just didn't understand what I was saying. I was elaborating on your post.

I believe like many of the words in our language, it has been twisted into something it wasn't. Happy is a great example. It actually means good fortune, not some fleeting emotion. What many call love, I call it infatuation, pleasure, and sex.

What got messed up in the English language was using the same word to express what the Greek language uses four words to express. But it's not completely unreasonable when you consider that 'love', any love, means 'desire'. It's just that using the exact same English word 'love' doesn't all by itself identify what kind of desire one is talking about.

In English, the context determines what 'love' we are talking about, not the word itself. In English I know what kind of 'love' someone is talking about when they say they 'love' Taylor Swift, or they 'love' pepperoni pizza with anchovies by the object of that love, not by the word love alone.

Love for me has just one meaning, selfless serving others.

I hope not, because God does want us to 'eros' our spouse, and to 'storge' our natural and Christian families. I'm not a Greek scholar by any stretch of the imagination, so the way I used those words may be completely incorrect grammatically, but it gets the point across.

We are to 'love' in all the ways that the Greek language uses four words to distinguish from each other. And we do that in the overall context of 'agape', God's kind of love that "does no harm to it's neighbor" (Romans 13:10 NIV), which means, for example, we do not 'eros' love in a way that causes harm to our spouse.

 

[Aardverk]

The three words in Greek that are associated to 'love' actually do not each mean love, only one of them does.

Interesting post Fedusenko. No wonder the Greeks had wonderful philosophers! Are you Greek?

What about animals who 'love'? Love is far more than a four letter word to all mamals. What is your interpretation of that? Not just parent/child love but across the species as well. For example, dogs and lions get on brilliantly if you bring them up together. They grow as loving friends.

 

[sesantek]

This was a word study that I did a while back and the below quote from another thread made it relevant to post, but in a separate thread.






The three words in Greek that are associated to 'love' actually do not each mean love, only one of them does.

Eros is sex. You won't find that word in the bible. Sex is not love. Sex is simply intercourse, though it can hold a variety of values to those performing the sex. You can have love in sex, but you can also have selfishness, dilusionment, anger, hatred, subversion, coerrsion, ect. Eros is not love.

Phileo as in Philidelphia. As in City of brotherly love, but not quite. Look in Strong's Concordance or another lexicon and you will find that Phileo is how you relate to others, cordial, polite, hospitipal. If you are Phileo towards me you are nice to me. You may love me or you may trick me, but they both fall under Phileo. Note that Phileo is a verb like run. You can run to rescue a kitten from a burning house or you can run with a snatched purse. Phileo is the appearance of love through action which can be genuine or not.

Agape is a noun, not only that, but an abstract noun. It covers not only action, but intention, something that phileo and eros do not. Those words can be used to try to describe love, but they are not love as they are just actions. Agape is the tending of the sheep, the sacrifice, the willing servitude. Agape is for the benefit of the other. Agape is love.

The emotion people call love is just the by-product. Your body creates a hook because you have a vested interest. If you work towards anythings well being, you will develop that attachment.

People complicate things by thinking that love is an emotion at all. It isn't. It is a continual action of service towards another. The phrase, "I don't love you anymore." is not a regression of feelings, but a regression of attentive service.

Nice article. Love is a nature. The bible says God is love. Love is His nature. You can't sperate God and His nature. Now no human beign can actually have this nature except if he gives his life to Jesus.

The God type of love also called agape is the best form of love and it is a nature that can only be obtainable in Christ Jesus.

 

[Timf]

People complicate things by thinking that love is an emotion at all.

If you read the Biblical definition of love (1 Cor. 13) you find that love is essentially selflessness. In this Jesus is the perfect example.

Satan is the ruler of this present world (for now and insofar as he is allowed by God). Among his various schemes is the plan to collectivize the entire world under his control. To achieve this, he needs to erode those institutions that operate as an obstacle. One of these is the family.

There are many eager to replace the family with the socialist state which is often presented as the next evolutionary step mankind needs to take. However, many, particularly Christian, cling to the family as opposed to embracing the new world order.

One of the tactics Satan has used to attack the family is to saturate his media with a concept called "falling in love". This is an invented term specifically used to deceive young people so that they will make bad decisions regarding marriage. It has an additional effect in that if someone can "fall" into love, they can also "fall" out of love and be used to justify adultery, divorce, or other immorality.

Romance novels are like female pornography. Women who seek to "fall in love" often have come to see the combination of sensations associated with desire, anticipation, speculation, and even lust as the experience or verification of "love".

Christians are seldom aware of the damage Satan has already caused through his perversion of language and ideas. They send their daughters off to college not fully appreciating the predators waiting for the arrival of freshmen girls like lambs to the slaughter. It would be interesting to see what percentage of freshmen girls have "fallen in love" by Columbus day, pregnant by Christmas, dumped by Martin Luther King day, and had an abortion by Valentines day.

Christians should be on their knees every day in prayer crying our for wisdom and discernment. If we walk in truth and teach our children to walk in truth, we can draw from the source of truth the light we need to make our way thought this world of increasing darkness.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

...dumped by Martin Luther King

I had to do a double take on this, lol.

For a minute there I had to wonder if Martin Luther King really was an agent of satan sent to break girls hearts.

 

[Fedusenko]

In English, the context determines what 'love' we are talking about, not the word itself. In English I know what kind of 'love' someone is talking about when they say they 'love' Taylor Swift, or they 'love' pepperoni pizza with anchovies by the object of that love, not by the word love alone.

You are not loving pepperoni pizza, though I have said that too about pineapple pizza, but you are wanting it. And you don't love Taylor Swift, but enjoy her music. BTW, I hear she is a class act from the guys that shoot her music videos (even more so than her mother).

If our nation can agree on only one deffinition of love, such as the one I ahve provided, then there will be less divorce, less mistaken marriages, less evil. We won't have illegal immigrants coming from mexico, we won't have illiterate children, we wont have tv daycare.... Try this, ask a true Amish what love is and how he is different from the rest of America....

 

[Fedusenko]

Interesting post Fedusenko. No wonder the Greeks had wonderful philosophers! Are you Greek?

What about animals who 'love'? Love is far more than a four letter word to all mamals. What is your interpretation of that? Not just parent/child love but across the species as well. For example, dogs and lions get on brilliantly if you bring them up together. They grow as loving friends.

I am not Greek, but I have been told that I do have their nose!

You make a great point about animals. They are capable of love in ways that far surpass many people I have met in life. It is true that when animals don't see each other as competitors they change how they interact. A great example of love through animals are a colony of Japanese Macaques. They will groom each other. If a mother looses a baby the others will comfort her.

 

[Fedusenko]

Nice article. Love is a nature. The bible says God is love. Love is His nature. You can't sperate God and His nature. Now no human beign can actually have this nature except if he gives his life to Jesus.

The God type of love also called agape is the best form of love and it is a nature that can only be obtainable in Christ Jesus.

I have seen the most enduring and honest love in all types of people, even those who do not know YHWH. I don't know you, nor do I know what you have witnessed in life, but there is a beautiful world that I think you are discounting.

His nature... His decision? His tendency for making the same type of decision? You say nature, what is that?

 

[Fedusenko]

charity

Charity made in a secret place, right?

 

[Jethro Bodine]

If our nation can agree on only one deffinition of love, such as the one I ahve provided, then there will be less divorce, less mistaken marriages, less evil. We won't have illegal immigrants coming from mexico, we won't have illiterate children, we wont have tv daycare.... Try this, ask a true Amish what love is and how he is different from the rest of America....

The answer is, in all our doings, in all our desiring, let it be governed by 'agape' love. For example, even when we have 'philadelphia' love we do even that love under the guidance of 'agape' love.

"22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love (philadelphia) of the brethren, see that ye love (agape) one another with a pure heart fervently:" (1 Peter 1:22 KJV parenthesis mine)

Or in the god-given exercise of our 'eros' love, we are not to indulge it in a way that wrongs another person:

"4...each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; 6 and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister." (1 Thessalonians 4:4-6 NIV)


'Agape' love is the preeminent rule of law for the born again follower of God. All that we do and say and think is to be filtered through 'agape' love, which is the desire to serve the best interests of both other people, and God: "Love (agape) does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law" (Romans 13:10 NIV).

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love (agape)." (Galatians 5:6b NIV)

 

[Jethro Bodine]

Nice article. Love is a nature. The bible says God is love. Love is His nature. You can't sperate God and His nature. Now no human beign can actually have this nature except if he gives his life to Jesus.

The God type of love also called agape is the best form of love and it is a nature that can only be obtainable in Christ Jesus.

Yes.

When we give our lives to Christ we become a new creation. We get a new nature that grows up into the image of Christ, his agape love.

"...if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)

"3...(God) condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law (agape) might be fully met in us... (Romans 8:3-4 NIV parenthesis mine)

The crucifixion of the old sin nature, and the giving of the new nature of agape is what now moves us to keep God's law "love your neighbor as yourself". Without it our best efforts at the obedience of love are still as filthy rags.

God's love, his agape love has the very peculiar attribute of it being unconditional. IOW, not based on the merit of the one who receives it. An attribute not readily found in humans, and certainly not something by which humans are characterized by:

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." (Luke 6:32-36 NIV)

 

[Fedusenko]

You say agape love, but that is like saying love love. But then you say phileo love. Phileo is not love, but can be an aspect of love, but not love in of itself because it is just a display, an action, the intent can be anything. It is being friendly, but my intention of being friendly can be good or sinister.

It might seem like I am splitting hairs, but the subtle differences have tremendous consequences.

 

[Comprehender]

This was a word study that I did a while back and the below quote from another thread made it relevant to post, but in a separate thread.

The three words in Greek that are associated to 'love' actually do not each mean love, only one of them does.

Eros is sex. You won't find that word in the bible. Sex is not love. Sex is simply intercourse, though it can hold a variety of values to those performing the sex. You can have love in sex, but you can also have selfishness, dilusionment, anger, hatred, subversion, coerrsion, ect. Eros is not love.

Phileo as in Philidelphia. As in City of brotherly love, but not quite. Look in Strong's Concordance or another lexicon and you will find that Phileo is how you relate to others, cordial, polite, hospitipal. If you are Phileo towards me you are nice to me. You may love me or you may trick me, but they both fall under Phileo. Note that Phileo is a verb like run. You can run to rescue a kitten from a burning house or you can run with a snatched purse. Phileo is the appearance of love through action which can be genuine or not.

Agape is a noun, not only that, but an abstract noun. It covers not only action, but intention, something that phileo and eros do not. Those words can be used to try to describe love, but they are not love as they are just actions. Agape is the tending of the sheep, the sacrifice, the willing servitude. Agape is for the benefit of the other. Agape is love.

The emotion people call love is just the by-product. Your body creates a hook because you have a vested interest. If you work towards anythings well being, you will develop that attachment.

People complicate things by thinking that love is an emotion at all. It isn't. It is a continual action of service towards another. The phrase, "I don't love you anymore." is not a regression of feelings, but a regression of attentive service.

Interesting - thanks for sharing this.
My romantically obsessed heart is only beginning to realize that often romantic love is very selfish... it's all about the hope of what someone can do for us - how they can "make" us feel. A friend of mine told me he loved me, as he loves everyone, which kindof offended me because I wanted to be special & to know exactly what he loved about me. Now I realize that love is more about the capacity of the lover than the lovee.

It reminds me that involvement is conditional, love isn't.
I see love, as in God is love, the basis for our & our universe's existence - as attraction... A motivating force that keeps us striving for what we think is best in our unique potentials.

Love (God) never fails because it's based on God's will - which we often don't know, but have faith in... "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can & wisdom to know the difference."

 

[Fedusenko]

You should quote love when used as romantic 'love' as even that isn't love in it's unadulterated state, but something we have confused in our language. There can be love in romantic 'love', but like you said, there can also be selfishness in romantic 'love'.

It would be more accurate to call romantic 'love' simply romance. Plus, it's less key strokes!

 

[Elijah674]

I see all mankind lost without being re/born with Agape Love. (Born Again) Even the lost sinner did not go down hill all at once, meaning that there was no way back except by God offering the PLAN of re/birth + Phil. 4:13 & 2 Cor. 12:9 Power & Grace.

Power from God, he still had some love. Yes, the morals were still from the creator and he might never give God the credit, but His they were & are!

So as stated before, TRUE AGAPE LOVE IS A RECREATED MORAL PRINCIPLE. And is recreated only as seen in Acts 5:32's 'CONDITIONAL' surrender & then is a WORK IN & OF MATURITY.

--Elijah