In his commentary on this week’s lesson from Hebrews 13:1-25, “Love One Another,” Mark Rathel points out rather pointedly the wrong teaching that phileo love is a lower level love than agape love. Agape love is “love by choice”, whereas phileo love involves the emotions. God demonstrated both types of love toward humanity.
The word love is so misunderstood, especially given its importance—it’s the royal law of Christ (John 13:34, James 2:8, 1 John 4:21). I recommend a healthy discussion to define love. Otherwise, listeners will have their own definition. Anyone care to take a stab at defining it?
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I don't have any advance degrees and I believe myself to be a simple person, but I think I understand Love as thinking of someone else before you think of yourself. Kind of like making sure your wife has that birthday gift or anniversary gift before you buy a new tool that you feel you need, but really don't. It really is simple yet complicated to explain. This kind of love can only come from a right relation shipt with God.
Thanks Woody. Your idea of "thinking of someone else before you think of yourself" is very Scriptural. Jesus said, "love your neighbor as yourself", and he said, "do to others as you would have them do to you."
That seems understandable when applied to those near us, like a wife, which you mentioned. But Jesus also said, love your enemies. So how does that figure into the meaning of the word love? How do we do that?
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