Love

Week #1 “Love”

Explain how we are starting a new series. Explain what it’s about

I believe that all of us in this room have, are, or are going to deal with these 3 topics.

My hope through these lessons and time of discussion you can grow to understand God created these feelings, emotions, and desires for us, and wants them to be enjoyed but he has created order and design for these things.

Let’s pray

So tonight we start with love.

Give example of your love for your wife, then your family, “ME”

Explain there are 4 different types of love each with its own very separate purpose.

WE - end each explanation with how WE experience these loves every day.

Storge (Familial Love): Originates from Greek, representing the natural, instinctual affection between family members, especially parents and children. -

Philia (Friendship Love): Originates from Greek, representing deep, platonic companionship, camaraderie, and brotherly affection.

Eros - (Passionate Love): Originates from the Greek god of love and desire, representing passionate, romantic, or sexual love.

Agape (Unconditional Love): Originates from early Christian theology, representing the selfless, sacrificial, and unconditional love of God for humanity

Now the connection between Greek mythology and the Bible is the fact that the Bible’s original language was Greek and Hebrew meaning the language of these types of love were the same language used in the days of Jesus. We are simply taking words from the Greek language

Let’s define these within the Bible…

GOD - This is what God says

Storge -

Romans 12:9–10 “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

1 Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Exodus 20:12 ““Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

This love that we have for family and close relatives is specific.

Philia -

Ruth 1:16–17 “But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.””

Eros -

Genesis 2:24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

1 Corinthians 6:16 “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.””

Agape -

John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Each of these loves are separate units one is very different then the other and serve very different purposes and if we don’t see that things get very tangled very quickly.

Who was here when we discussed Love as one of the fruits of the spirit?

If not here is a refresh. Love is an action verb meaning it requires us to do something not just receive it and feel it…

Countless times in scripture Jesus commands us to love..

Matthew 22:37–39 “And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””

1 John 4:7–8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Let’s break these down...

Storge - Family Love

Take time to share the different types family love in my life

Exodus 20:12 ““Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

Do you love your family?

This is less about what you think about yourself and more about what they think about you.

Are your actions, words, and attitude loving towards your family?

Do you love your family in a christ like way?

1 Corinthians 13:1–7 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Let’s move to the next kind of love…

Philia - Friendship Love

Ruth 1:16–17 “But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.””

Naomi is a newly widowed women who lost her husband and both her sons. Both of her sons were married to women one named Orpah and the other named Ruth. Naomi after losing her husband and son’s decided she would go back home even though she knew the life of an unmarried widow would be a tough life in Isreal. Naomi tells Ruth and Orpah to stay and let her go on her way. Orpah agree but Ruth refuses. Ruth says

Ruth 1:16 For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

Explain how Ruth had lost much also but she continued to stay true to her mother in law

Are you a friend like Ruth?

Compassionate / Empathetic - Naomi lost her husband and two sons, but Ruth also lost her husband…

Loving - Ruth could have stayed where she was use to, but instead left to stay close to Naomi

Willing - Are you willing to show up for your friends even when it’s inconvenient?

Selfless - Are you willing to think of other before yourself?

I think it is notable to mention these are 4 separate units of love...

I can feel multiple of these loves for one person but need to understand the differences and what way God intended me to use each one

Eros - Passionate Love

Genesis 2:24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

Proverbs 5:18–19 “Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.”

God created Sex “Proverbs 5:19”

1 Corinthians 7:3–6 “The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Now as a concession, not a command, I say this.”

Are you enjoying God's gift before it's granted to you

1 Corinthians 6:18–20 “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”

Share how we will talk more about this specific type of love next week…

We will end our time focused on the last of these types of love...

Agape - Unconditional Love

John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Explain how God’s love is truly unconditional and exists whether we want it to or not

We can’t earn God’s love

Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Have you received it?

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

What does youth group, this church, Cleveland, or even Ohio look like if we truly understand love?

Our homes begin to be loving places with mom’s and dad’s present.

Our schools become places students want to be instead of fear to enter.

Our City becomes a place of true love and compassion regardless of race, sexual identity, or social economics.

Are you in?

Are you following Jesus?

Are you loving people unconditionally like Jesus?

Are you a good friend?

Are you a good family member?