Second of Four Greek Words for Love
The Written Word
The response to last week’s post was encouraging. To begin with this week, I would once again note that the written word refers to words put in writing, whether God’s words (the Bible) or the written words of this blog or my books. And my approach will be to develop a “brainwave” that will hopefully be of interest to my readers. I started last week with a series on the four Greek words for love.
Revisiting the Four Loves
As previously mentioned, three of the four loves are found in the New Testament. Last week we looked at eros. Although eros does not appear in the New Testament like the other three, I felt that understanding its nature had value. Readers appeared to agree.
The other three loves are storge (family love), philia (affection or friendship), and agape (a selfless, sacrificial love of choice).
Here are links to several of articles on the four loves: truthortradition, faithgateway and mcleanbible
The Second of the Four Loves
Storge, as with eros, is not chosen as second in order because it is more important than philia or agape. It is important in its own right but is not as important as the latter two. Furthermore, storge is not used on its own in the New Testament, but rather as a compound with other Greek words that expand on its meaning. Also, the negative form of the word, astorgos, is found in Romans 1:31, the idea being without family affection, hard-hearted, unfeeling. The negative form also appears in II Timothy 3:3 as heartless or without family affection. The passage tells us that a lack of storge will increase in the end times, which is certainly food for thought.
The Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon defines storge as “cherishing one’s kindred, especially parents or children; the mutual love of parents and children and wives and husbands.”
I drew some of my information from the following article: thoughtco
And for instance, a compound form of storge is found in Romans 12:10 where we are told to love each other with brotherly affection.” The Greek word here is philostorgos, a compound of philia and storge: Love one another with warm family love. And truth be told, family love endures differences and the ups and downs of growth and development, the successes and failures. Family love laughs together and cries together. Furthermore, family love puts up with a lot of stuff! And so it should be in God’s family, in every church family.
So I ask myself, do I have a lack of storge or do I philostorgos, love biological family and my church family with a warm family love? Frankly, I do not always succeed as well as I would like. Loving as Christ would have us love is a challenge!
The Written Word: Wrapping it up!
When it comes to family and church family, storge should be my goal, and not just a ho-hum goal, but rather something I am actively working to improve and exercising in my relationships. In many ways storge not only connects with philia, which we will look at next week, but also with agape love (we will look at that in two weeks).
As always I would greatly appreciate your comments on this article.
The Written Word: A Captivating Tale!
This week I am introducing another book worth putting on your Christmas giveaway list, and perhaps the list of items you would like for yourself. It is a small book, one of my Quick Read Books, and it is my best seller—loved by young and old alike!
Tales of a Church Mouse weds well with this week’s theme of family love, especially as it relates to the church family.
In this captivating book Jason Anthony Mouse narrates twelve fascinating tales that give amusing and yet thought provoking insight into the challenges we as sinners saved by grace face in the church family setting.
Have you ever thought, “I sure wish I could have been a bug on the wall to hear and watch what was going on in there”? Well, Mrs. Fernfeather, Mrs. Peacock, Deacon Brown, Hilda Shoeloose, Highbore Boles, Granny Grupper and many other unforgettable characters are seen through the eyes of Jason Anthony as he scurries about the church, hiding behind a book, under flowers, in a pocket, and behind a cow in a manger scene stable, while observing interesting and telling events and conversations. These fun stories’ unique characters struggle with misunderstandings, misguided attitudes, yet in the end are brought to a change of heart.
The fun stories in Tales of a Church Mouse challenge, inspire, and are wildly entertaining—possibly because they strike so close to home! So, if you love fun fiction, let Tales of a Church Mouse take you on a new and fascinating journey into a world of church life clothed in the garb of a delightful little mouse. And Jason says, “Hey, I make a great gift, even for a stocking stuffer.”
My Books
I write a broad spectrum of books, this kind of fun anthology, fantasy, pirate stories, fairytales, allegories and some non-fiction. All of my books can be found at Amazon (including for Kindle) and Barnes & Noble. Do take the time to check them out.
Again, your feedback is welcome.
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