The four main forms of love:
Storge-love between parents and their children
Philia-love between friends
Eros-love between men and women
Agape-love for the well-being of someone whether you like them or not
The Bible Dictionary states that love is "The highest, noblest, strongest kind of love." How is that? Because it is "not merely affection" but "the pure love of Christ."
So which category does this form of love fall into?
Charity is loving others like Christ loves us. How much does Jesus Christ love us? He lived a perfect life, then was tortured and crucified so that he could save a bunch of people who lived imperfectly. Some of these people hated him and participated in executing his death. Is it even possible to love people as purely as he does?
Christ's love is not fleeting. It is eternal. Our relationships on this earth have the opportunity to be directed by the same kind of love that caused Christ to lay down his life for the sinner. Because love is eternal, if we choose it to be. Yes, love is a choice. There are no "soul mates." There is no "one and only." You may be more prone to like one person over another but ultimately we choose to love people. You can test this. Pick a person you don't love or even like. Pray for them earnestly by name for a month. Then check your feelings for them. You will grow to love them, because you are choosing to make them a priority, you are choosing to care about them.
In the end, shouldn't we choose to love everyone?
No comments:
Post a Comment