The hues of love

The world today says that love can be categorised in many different ways, but the four major ones are ‘Agape’, ‘Storge’, ‘Eros’ and ‘Philia’.  Don’t worry; all those words are just Greek phrases which mean very simple things really.  The study and category of love all has its roots in Greek.

Agape means the purest kind of love that is found in the love that God has for mankind

Storge mean the love that exists between parents and children

Philia means the love that exists between friends and relatives

Eros means the love that exists between lovers.

Expects say that human love can be understood in these forms and that how we express that love is different depending on who that love is targeting. For example, you can’t love your mum the same way you love your wife or your brother the same way you love your friend.  Those kinds of love are different.

The bible talks about love, one way.  Isaac never met his Rebecca before they married, but bible tells us that on sight they took to each other.  Jacob took one look at Rachel and wanted her.

Amnon took one look at Tamah and wanted her, but after he had her he hated her with the same intensity he loved her.

If love is what the bible says it is, then why did Solomon advise us not to awaken love before its time, for it's as strong as death.  It takes a hold of you and there is nothing you can do about it.

That is why I think that Songs of Solomon is an equally important part of the bible as all the other books.  God wanted us to know something important about love.

All kinds of love starts with Agape and ends with Agape because without God's love, love won’t exist because let’s face it, Satan wouldn’t know what to do with love if you gifted it to him so that tells me that love is of God.  But God also needed us to know that love has many different dimensions to it and Songs of Solomon was just one of the ways God used to show us.

Love is a beautiful thing, whichever way or dimension you express it, and it can be all consuming and very potent.  Songs of Solomon 8:6-7, warns about how powerful and potent love is.  It can take over a person and consume them like death, sweeping everything in its wake and leaving us powerless to it.  God does not scorn love that takes your breath away just because that person just walked into the room.  He enjoys it as much as when a child gives her daddy butterfly kisses and says ‘I love you daddy’ or like David and Jonathan, a love friendship that is just as deep. Love, all kinds, is pure because God is in it all, and the guideline he gave us to conducting love is found in 1 Corinthians 13.

He gave us that guideline because he knows, like Solomon discovered that love as powerful as it is, can lead men astray when not conducted properly, for it is as strong as death.  Love has the potential of evoking strong jealousy and obsession just as much as it has the tendency of evoking a sense of duty, responsibility and protectiveness.

So as lovers, lets us love as God wants us to love his way - the first 1 Corinthians 13 way.



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