Taken from booklet "Little Lessons on Love"

(also available in Dawning of Wisdom Part 2)

 

Day 20
Does God's love have any bearing on human love, such as marital love or love for family members and friends? 

    In our English language the word 'love' encompasses all kinds of love. In the Greek language there are different words for the different kinds of love. For example, agape is God's kind of love. It is unconditional and unselfish. It shows interest in the needs of others. Phileo is friendship love, a social love between friends. Storage is the word that describes the kind of love in family relationships and may vary by culture. Eros is erotic or sexual love. God is explicit in His Word about all four of these components of love.

Answer:
    God's love, agape, is the highest kind of love and will purge and purify the other kinds of love. It will make a love relationship between a husband and wife solid. It will help the husband to fulfill his God-given role to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. It will enable the wife to respond with a submissive spirit to her husband's leadership.

Ephesians 5:
22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. he that loves his wife loves himself.
    There is a Christian book that had a title something like, "Husbands, do yourselves a favor and love your wife", implying that when a husband gives himself to his wife, love comes wonderfully back to him.

 

 

Flossie Randels