What Does The Bible Say?

Mike Owens
Love never fails.

What Is Love

So, what is love, and how do I know if I love someone or not? This is a very good question, or rather, these are very good questions. To answer these questions, we must first decide what we will base our answers on to insure they are true answers. Today, there are two ways of looking at things: ultimate truth, that is, what is true is true because it can not be false; and relative truth. In the world we live in today, all truth is relative. That is, what is true for me, may or may not be true for you. This idea is based on an evolutionary mind-set, if you believe science has all the answers then this is how you will view the world around you. You don't have to believe in Evolution to think this way, your mind is already set to the evolutionary way of thinking by the public schools. There is another way to say this relative truth theory that simplifies the matter immensely: Nothing Is True.
The Bible, and those who believe it is the word of God, and therefore infallible and inerrant, or reliable, trustworthy, sure, certain, honest, without being devious, without erring, without being wayward, without being aberrant, without inaccuracy, without omission, without being untrue, see truth as being absolute, pure and authoritative, they believe and teach that there is ultimate truth which can answer any questions. We can stand assured because there is truth which can be trusted, truth which is always true, no matter what the current belief is. Without this assuredness, how can anything be relied upon for strength and support and help? Since this study is to find reliable answers to these two basic questions, this is the approach we will be taking: What does the Bible say?
There are those who see three different kinds of love in the Bible: God's love (agape), or the love of choice, the love of rational thinking, the love of sacrifice; man's love (phileo), or the love of affection, the love of emotion, the love of feeling; and sexual love (thelo), or the love of desire, the love of physical expression, the love of passion. There are those who see only one kind of love in the Bible (agape), and anything else is emotion or hunger. Both of these supposedly Biblical arguments are based on the Greek of the New Testament, and center around one verse:
Whoever does not love (agapao) does not know God, because God is love (agape). 1Jn 4:8
In God's Image
On the one hand, we are created in God's image, therefore we have the ability and the need to love. God is a triune Being; or, there are three parts to God, yet these three parts are as one. Man is a triune being: body (that which is physical), soul (that which is emotional), and spirit (the mind and will). Love, spent on itself, is egotism. Love, shared with a second party, can become vain and deprived lust. Love that is accountable to a third party is pure and wholesome.
We have the ability to love because we are made in God's image.
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in His (their) own image, in the image of God He (they) created him; male and female He created them. Ge 1:26-27
We have the need to love because we are not complete on our own.
The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Ge 2:18
There are two basic words (for this discussion) which are translated woman: In Ge 2:7 we read that:
the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
God formed the man ('adam) from the dust of the ground ('adamah) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. 'Adam is the masculine form of the word which means ruddy or red, and is given as a name for the first man. 'Adamah is the feminine form of this word.
Then the LORD God made a woman ('ishshah) from the rib He had taken out of the man, and He brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called `woman, ' for she was taken out of man ('iysh)." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Ge 2:22-24
God made a woman from the rib He had taken out of Adam, and He brought her to the man. Since she was taken from the man, man named her woman, because she was taken out of man. So the man was created masculine ('adam, 'iysh) and feminine ('adamah, 'ishshah).
A Suitable Helper
The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." Ge 2:18
God created woman from the man, so that they would share the same nature and substance. Both are of the dust of the earth, both are created in the image of God, both have the ability and the need to love. He did not create her from man's head to rule over him, nor from his feet to be walked on by him. God made her from his side, to fight along side him as an equal, to be his assistant, his "crown" of glory and aid. God made her from under his arm, to be constantly under his protection, and from next to his heart to be loved by him. God made her to be placed high in esteem before the man, to be avowed openly and publicly in praise which lifts her up.
Three Different Loves
This love which makes us like God is expressed in three different ways: God's love (agape), or the love of choice, the love of rational thinking, the love of sacrifice; man's love (phileo), or the love of affection, the love of emotion, the love of feeling; and sexual love (thelo), or the love of desire, the love of physical expression, the love of passion. Since the Bible is God's word and infallible, and since there are three different words translated as love (in the New Testament; the Old Testament has only two basic words: dowd and 'ahab), there must be three different kinds of love.
Two Different Natures
On the other hand, when we become Christians, we have two distinct natures warring within us: Our own natural and sinful nature (emotions (phileo) and hungers or desires (thelo), and God's nature as exhibited in Christ (agape). Since God is love (agape), and all love (agape) comes from God, then everything else (phileo, or thelo) must be from our sinful nature. Therefore, agape is the only true love, everything else is something else. Might I add here, agape is the only true love, since it is God's love, everything else is something else because it is the sinful love of man, or tainted with the sin nature.
Either Or
Most people see life, and therefore love, as an either-or proposition. Either this must be true, or that must be true. On the matter of love, and the Bible's definition of what that love is, I see it as a combination of both these views, with a "good" and "bad" side: Love and Lust. we are created in God's image, therefore we have the ability to love, (this love is given to us by God just as our spirit is given to us by God, once we become Christians, God gives us a greater ability for this love by infilling us with His Spirit), and this love is expressed in three different ways: Love of choice, love of affection, and love of desire. Since we also have two distinct natures warring within us: Our own natural and sinful nature (emotions and hungers), and God's nature as exhibited in Christ (agape), and since God is love (agape), and all love (agape) comes from God, therefore we must exhibit God's love through and above our sinful natures, and we must use God for support of this love.
What we have then is not several types of love, or love versus emotions or desire, but LOVE exhibited in three different fashions. As stated above; God is a triune Being; or, there are three parts to God, yet these three parts are as one. Man is a triune being: body (that which is physical), soul (that which is emotional), and spirit (the mind and will). For us to truly love another, we must include all three parts of our nature. The difference between man's love and God's love is not (agape) verses affection (phileo), or desire (thelo), but Love versus Lust.
Love is expressed towards the other person, choosing to put the other person first, caring for the other person, wishing only the best for the other person. "What can I do for you?". Lust is expressed towards ME, choosing to put ME first, caring about ME, wishing only the best for ME. "What can you do for ME?". Love is born out of the nature of God, with pure and righteous motives. Lust is born out of our selfish, sinful natures, with self-satisfying motives.
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. De 6:5 (comp. Mt 22:37; Mk 12:30; Lk 10:27)
The reason I have chosen this view is because I have taken both the Old Testament and the New Testament into consideration. Any belief we have derived from the Bible must take into consideration all pertinent verses and examples. If we take only what suits us, only what agrees with our beliefs, then we do an injustice to the Bible and make it a lie. If the Bible doesn't agree with our beliefs, then it is our beliefs that are in error and must be corrected, not the Bible.
The Greek and Hebrew scholars who first translated the Old Testament from the original language into the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint or LXX (The Seventy)), did not see three different types of love, or love, affection and hunger, they only saw love. The verse above is one of the verses quoted in the New Testament. Here, the word for love is 'ahab; in the New testament, the word is agape.
In the Old Testament, the main word for love is 'ahab; which is translated by both the Greek words agape and phileo.
Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love ('ahab), and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." Ge 22:2
Must we assume here that Abraham only loved his son Isaac through his choice and reason (agape)? Is Abraham really sacrificing himself here for his son? Or, are we to assume that affection (phileo) is meant here? "Isaac, whom you have great fatherly affection for ('ahab)". Perhaps we can consider the following:
Nevertheless, Haman restrained himself and went home. Calling together his friends ('ahab) and Zeresh, his wife, Es 5:10
A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends ('ahab). Pr 16:28
A man of many companions ('ahab) may come to ruin, but there is a friend ('ahab) who sticks closer than a brother. Pr 18:24
We also see the word chashaq; which is translated by the word thelo.
Therefore, we are not looking at love as a deliberate choice versus affection or desire, but love versus lust.

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