Eros love

Ephesians 5:1- 3 

‘Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; 

and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a 

sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet smell. 

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints’

Eros love is love that is shared between lovers. A man and a woman; a husband and a wife.  It is simply put, sexual love.

This kind of love is what most of us are used to as love.  This kind of love exhibits itself in various forms,

1. Attraction : A strong emotional or physical pull to another

2. Lust; An intense desire or appetite, usually sexual towards another

3. Fondness :  A subtle yet potent liking towards another

4. Like:  this word is commonly used today to replace love.  Today people would rather say I like this person rather than I love this person.  Perhaps it is less committing than love but the bottom line is that like is not the same as love.  The dictionary definition of like and love are not the same and thus should not be confused or interchanged casually.  Like means to take pleasure in someone.

Solomon’s beloved said, ‘don’t awaken love before its time, for it is as strong as death’. Obviously the kind of love Solomon was writing about was eros love.  Attraction, lust, like, all these emotions have the potential to overwhelm and consume a person. It has the tendency to steal a person’s breath, and like Amnon make you feel physically ill because that feeling is not returned.

Solomon wrote that if only his beloved were his sister he would have kissed her in public. This kind of love makes you want to forget conventions and norms, it has overthrown kingdoms and destroyed men.  Samson fell because of this kind of love, a man that killed thousands of men and lifted city gates, was destroyed because of the love of a woman.  Bible says that Solomon forgot his God because of the strange women he loved.  David killed a man so he could have his wife.  Love is as strong as death and it can sweep a person up and consume him/her.

Truth be told what distinguishes this kind of love from any other is the element of attraction and lust, and as Christians we cannot hide from the fact that you cannot marry someone and be physically intimate with them if you don’t lust after and are attracted to them.  Lust like any other emotion can lead us to sin if we don’t master it.  If lust becomes the master of us, then when it says go kill, we will.  Lust is strong, it has destroyed many stronger and more dignified than you and me, it is my prayer that as we learn about love this month, we will learn to not confuse love with lust.

We shouldn’t forget that we can lust after someone and not actually love them.  To check if what you feel is the real deal, check your feelings by 1 cor 13.  Are you able to be all that it says you should be when you love?  Remember, love will not fade but everything else eventually will.  In loving, let us be patient and not rush in being consumed by lust. Let us like Paul advised, be imitators of Christ as we love and not give in to lust that leads to all manner of sexual sin.

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