What Kind of Love...

What is love? The dictionary defines love as: a strong positive emotion of regard and affection, being enamored, having a great affection or devotion. When you look at the definitions given in the bible, they somewhat differ, and not only that but there are also different kinds of "love". The most common one that everyone has and is not very hard to feel is, phileo. Phileo is the love based on "familiarity and direct interaction". When you know someone it is not hard to love them. You love them for who they are, and then there are those that "do not deserve" to be loved or there is no connection on which to love them. This is where God asks us to dig deep and show the agape love that is only possible through Christ. Agape is described as, non partial, self sacrificing, regardless of our circumstances. Can we still follow God's commandment love thy neighbor as yourself if we have a different kind of love for each person? What did God mean when he said love thy neighbor as thyself? When I asked what it means to love thy neighbor as thy self, I think we have to first examine how we love ourselves. People generally love themselves regardless of the stupid things that they do. There are some who have such a hard time with this concept of self love and I believe that this is where they make the decision to end there lives. If you cannot love yourself for you are, you cannot love another. Not even through Christ, simply because Christ is love, and them that are in Christ have the love of Christ in them, by this shall all men know that you are his. If you love yourself, you will respect the body you live in. By loving yourself you can then love others, through Christ with agape. What kind of love? The love of Christ that cause us to love, as an action not a noun, agape, self sacrificing and non partial.