And the Greatest of these is Love

There is always a crisis. Freedom is under assault. The GOP establishment is trying to ramrod a candidate through who I very seriously doubt is a true conservative. Our president holds our constitution in the same regard as our calves do the straw we bed down their pens with. The personal mandate tears at the very core of our liberty. Government agents patrol the schools to inspect bagged lunches. The unelected bureaucracy issues regulation that carries the full weight of law without any involvement of the legislature, and has reached levels of tyranny that would make King George of England’s ears burn.  Now we are meant to believe that the right to free contraceptives overrides everything else even religious freedom. For these and a thousand other reasons people like me take the time to write every week about different elements of freedom and first principles of the founding of our nation in the hopes of passing on the torch of freedom to one more generation. Often I do so with heavy heart, you see America is the greatest exercise in human liberty ever dared attempted. Of all history here resides the idea that the individual is sovereign and that the powers of the state restricted. We do not always appreciate how few members of Adam’s race have lived free, and we have the honor and responsibility of maintaining it one generation at a time. As much as I believe the hand of God was in the founding of America, I am under no delusion America is ephemeral. Some day people like me will sit and write words to desperately persuade others to save the American dream but will not be heeded In the Revelation 3:2 Christ warns the Church at Sardis words which apply to us today Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

. Their will come a day when all we have built must go the way of all the Earth.

I do not believe this is that day.

Still we should always be mindful of the eternal, of the unchanging and everlasting truths that shape the foundation of the Judeo-Christian ethic. With the passing of Valentine’s Day this last week I am reminded of the words of St Paul: So these three things remain: faith, hope, and love. But the best one of these is love.

God is Love. All we know of love is what we understand of God, all we know of God is what we understand of love. In the Greek language 4 different words are translated “love”. Storge, Philia, Eros, and agape each describe a different aspect of affection. Of all the eternal truths we have forsaken I suspect our understanding of love is near the top of the list. In John 14:9 Jesus said “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” If then Jesus is the perfect representation of the Father, and in fact Jesus is God, then all aspects of human love must be perfectly represented in the life of Christ. It would behoove us to take a moment and remember these things.

Storge- this is the Greek for “natural affection” it is often used for family relations. The Greek word is not used in scripture however family is the first human institution initiated by God and is the only thing sinful man was allowed to keep that was of paradise after the fall (Gen 3) Christ though Lord and King, lived within the structure of the family. You see him at the age of 12, full self aware, debating and instructing the Pharisees and scribes, in Luke 2: 41-51. When his parents sought him out and his mother scolded him the Bible says: 51Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

Later at the end of his earthly life Jesus again demonstrates his love of family when from the agony of the cross he makes arrangements for his mother’s provision.<< John 19 >> New American Standard Bible

---

26When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”27Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

  

Eros- from this word we get the English Erotic, and yes it is usually used to describe romantic love. While Jesus was never in a marital relationship yet he is the perfect example of this type of love. It is the relationship of husband and wife which the Lord uses to describe the love of the Lord to his Church. Ephesians 5:25-33

---

      25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,30because we are members of His body. 31FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband. 

In this we have both the perfect picture of God’s view of marriage and the perfect example of the desire of Christ in how a husband and wife should relate. I think it no coincidence that Christ chose the most passionate of loves to express his love of us. Throughout the Old Testament similar descriptions are used though they often revolve around the infidelity or “whoredoms” of God’s people, but in the Song on Songs or Song of Solomon the Lord reveals both his heart for us and the heart of the man to his lover. True love is jealous. Not the violent stalker jealousy that we picture the “green eyed monster” as but God demands the fidelity of his bride, Eros love is exclusive and unique. This is water drunk from one’s own well and not that of a stranger. The lover is never to be shared and this is the exclusiveness of Love.

There is a Brad Paisley song I probably shouldn’t like but that I really do “I’m still a guy” one line says “And I'll pour out my heart, hold your hand in the car,

 Write a love song that makes you cry.

Then turn right around knock
some jerk to the ground 'cause he [acted inappropriately] as you walk by.”

I see this as an example of Godly jealousy and Godly Eros.

Philia-(brotherly love) “There is a love that is stronger than death and a friend that sticks closer than a brother.” When Jesus asks Peter following the resurrection “Do you love me” he uses the word Agape the first two times, Peter responds “You know that I Love you” he uses the word Philia. The third time Peter is distressed because the Lord drops agape and uses Philia. In other words he meets Peter where he was. Philia demands loyalty, virtue and fidelity, while it is devoid of the passion of Eros it is the appropriate term to describe great loyalty. It would likely be the term for love of country as well. We see Jesus model this love in many ways. He called his disciples not servants but friends. He shared the words of His Father with them, even gave them nicknames. In John 14:28 Jesus notes that his disciples are saddened that he has said He will return to his Father and He says: Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

So we learn from the Lord that true friendship always seeks the best of the friend, even if it is to our hurt this is true of Philia rather it is for family, friend, or flag. If you love someone you will seek the best for them.

Agape- this is the Love of God. It is all encompassing and unfailing. Often translated charity in the King James it is a love from which there is no return, no second thought, this is the love that held Christ on the cross. It is a purely voluntary love, our Lord was under no obligation to go to the cross for us, He did it by choice. “Greater love has no man than this, than to lay down his life for his friend”

I Corithians Chapter 13 defines Agape love thus:

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whetherthere is knowledge, it will vanish away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Notice that love does not condone all things, but there is a necessary morality, a necessary virtue, and yet it is this love that lead the virtuous One to die for the corrupted, the Holy One to die for the defiled. If we are to return this love to God it will be because He first loved us and gave His Life as a ransom for our souls.

May God bless you and cvcause His love to shine in your heart.

Until next time Keep on the firing line.