Love

I can't say that I've actually spent more than ten minutes learning Greek; in fact, I've spent more time learning German for no reason outside of being able to say “Oh wohen meine haarbürst” which is the first line of Veggie Tales’ Oh Where is my Hairbrush, and I’m not even sure that I’ve conjugated that correctly.

What I do know about the Greek language fascinates me, though. I’m a big fan of the idea of having four words for love. I’ve wanted to write about the love from friends and church family lately, but I couldn’t stop thinking about this idea of four loves, so I’ll just start with writing about those and see where it goes.

Storge is the love that I have for my parents, grandparents, and my little sister. It’s this idea of “you guys drive me bonkers, but I would do anything for you.” It’s the feeling of “I can wail on my sister all I want, but you lay a finger on her, and someone better start singing this 

while I go get my boxing gloves (or rather go to the store and buy a pair since my mom doesn’t think that I’m mature enough to own a pair (which she’s probably right about (I know that Inception jokes have been done to death, but I can’t help it. Brackets within brackets within brackets.)))

Eros is the romantic love that drives people to repeatedly make fb posts which makes me want to throw up. (Part of me is still that little kid that’s easily grossed out or at least dying to make a good vomit joke.)

Phillia is a sort of friendship love, but it’s also caring about strangers. This is the most general word for love which can result in anything from holding the door for someone to taking a friend for coffee. Phillia can also be translated as friendship, but it's more about viewing each other as equals than putting others before ourselves.


Finally, there's agape which I'm sure you all know about, a self sacrificing love which is used all throughout the new testament. This is the love that we're called to have not only for our close friends and family, but for our neighbours, a love that wills us to lay down our lives for a stranger. Whenever I actually get this one right, I know that it can only be God's love through me because I'm just not that nice on my own.