UNDERSTANDING LOVE FROM THE GREEK LANGUAGE

In the English language there is the one word love. Because of that, few are aware that there are different meanings to the words in the bible translated into English as love. In the Greek language, the language of the New Testament, three different words translate into the English word love. By understanding them, one can better grasp what kind of love to strive for in marriage. The first word is eros. It forms the root of our English word erotic. It is the of love discussed in this article up to now. Of course drop is an important kind of love. Author H. Norman Wright defines eros in his book Pillars of Marriage, as love that seeks sensual expression. It is romantic, sexual love. It is inspired by the biological structure of human nature placed in mankind at creation. Eros is not wrong but it is a kind of love that should never act alone. Unfortunately it is the only love many people ever experience but romantic sensual love is only part of the God given concept of TOTAL love. The second kind of love comes from the Greek word Philia. Again you may recognize the meaning for example, the name of a city of Philadelphia means the city of BROTHERLY LOVE. Philia is friendship, companionship, the physical as well as emotional sharing of time and interests. It shows a desire to cooperate. Mr Wright suggests the difference between eros and philia is that eros is a face to face relationship while philia is a shoulder to shoulder relationship. When applied to marriage it depicts a husband and wife working together, parents and children and brothers and sisters working together. A friend is someone whose company you prefer. Someone you want to be with. Every good marriage has philia love- husbands and wives to be with each other. There two words do not tell the whole story of love.