What is Love?
The greatest love a man can show is to lay down his life for his friends.
Key words
- Nuance: a very slight difference in appearance, meaning, sound, etc.
Linguists explore the nuances of language.
- Virtue: a good moral quality in a person, or the general quality of being morally good
Patience is a virtue.
- Kindle: to cause strong feelings or ideas in someone
Great literature kindled their imaginations.
- Go to great lengths: to use a lot of effort to get or achieve something
We went to great lengths to make sure the votes were counted correctly.
- Selfless: caring more for what other people need and want rather than for what you yourself need and want:
The selfless act of strangers has helped to keep these children going.
Read the article to find the answers
- Which Greek root word describes love with different positive and negative nuances?
- What kind of love is 'philadelphia'?
- What does Jesus say to Nicodemus about love?
- How is agape often translated in the King James Bible?
Love
In English, people can love their mothers, money, movies and more. The word love is used in many different ways and has many definitions in the dictionary. Most movies about love are about the romantic love between a man and a woman, a love that is not possible between a man and money. The single English word love covers many different kinds of relationships.
God is described as love and he commands us to love one another. Love is mentioned hundreds of times in the Bible, and since the Bible was written in Greek, it would be a good idea to go back to the Greek to understand it. Philos is one Greek word that describes love, but it has various positive and negative nuances, and is sometimes used for words with opposite meanings, such as generous and selfish. In ancient Greek, agape was used less than philos, but also had a more general and less specific meaning compared to the way it is understood by most Christians today.
Philos
Philos is an adjective that means beloved, dear and friendly. There are 33 words for love based on the root 'philos' in the Bible, ranging from philagathos, which means loving good and promoting virtue, to philautos, which means loving oneself in a selfish way.
Not all kinds of love are good. Philargyros, the love of money, makes people greedy, while philadelphia, brotherly love, makes people kind. And philia, or friendship, can be good or bad, depending on who you're friends with. Jesus told his disciples:
I have called you friends ... the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me ...
Agape
Agape, like philos, can be both good and bad depending on what you love. Jesus told the Pharisees, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, that:
... people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
Agape is not as versatile as philos and does not serve as the basis for as many related terms. Agapetos means 'beloved' or 'dear' and is often used to refer to Jesus as God's beloved Son. Agapema, meaning 'a gift of love' or 'a token of affection', was used in ancient Greek culture to describe gifts given out of love or kindness.
Agape appears frequently in the Epistles, where it is used to describe the good will kindled by the Holy Spirit and the charitable 'love feasts' where the poorer Christians mingled with the rich who provided the food. In the King James Bible agape is often translated as charity.
1 Corinthians 13
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Discussion questions
- Do you have any questions about any of the vocabulary or grammar in this article?
- How many words does your language have for love?
- Of the 33 Greek words based on 'philos', how many do you know?
- What do you love?
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