Third of Four Greek Words for Love
The Written Word
Numerous people viewed last week’s post, but I did not get much feedback. Two weeks ago we looked at eros, the love shared between lovers. Last week we looked at storge, the love shared within a family. Also, for those who may not have read the previous blog posts, I would once again note that when I refer to the written word, I am referring to words put in writing, whether God’s words (the Bible) or the written words of this blog or my books, etc. And my desire in writing this blog is to pique your interest and stimulate your mind.
Revisiting the Four Loves
As previously mentioned, three of the four loves are found in the New Testament. Eros is not. Besides eros there are storge (pronounced store’-gay), which is family love; philia (pronounced fill’-ee-uh), which is affection or friendship; and agape (pronounced a-ga’-pay), which is a selfless, sacrificial love of choice.
And once again, here are links to several articles on the four loves: truthortradition, faithgateway and mcleanbible
Third of the Four Loves
Philia is not chosen as the third love as relative to order of importance. Each love is important in its own right. As we will see next week, from a biblical perspective agape is the highest of the loves. Not necessarily more important, but certainly the highest, although I have heard one Bible teacher argue that philia is the highest. After reading next week’s blog you can let me know your opinion on the matter.
Philia is defined as “affectionate regard, friendship”, usually “between equals.” Strong’s Greek Dictionary defines it as, “to have affection for (denoting personal attachment, as a matter of sentiment or feeling).” It is the love of intimate friendship, of warm fuzzies, of shared enjoyment. It is often expressed in terms of, “You know, I really like so-and-so,” or when using it to refer to a thing, it would be like the expression, “I love chocolate!”
