How Should We Love God? Here are the 4 Greek Words for Love

So today's episode is episode number 3 of our series on love. So we've gone over what's in our hearts and making sure that we are posturing our hearts towards God. We've also gone over how God loves us. So if you haven't checked out those episodes already, make sure you go check them out. Today I wanted to go into how we should love God, so I'm going to get into all of that and pair it with some scripture.

First I want to say a quick prayer. LORD, I pray that you lift up every single person reading this right now. Please open up our eyes, our ears, our hearts, and our minds to you LORD. Please open up our hearts to receive the love that you have for us and to love you with every bit of our hearts LORD. I thank you for everything you've done and I am beyond grateful for you. I love you with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Let's get into some scripture:

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all of your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." -Proverbs 3:5-6

"Love the LORD your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." -Deuteronomy 6:5

"Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." -Matthew 22:34-38

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith." -1 John 5:1-4

So in these verses here, we can see that we have to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds, and that when we love God the Father, we will also love Jesus Christ. We cannot fully know God if we don't know and believe in Jesus and the love that we have for Jesus and God the Father has to be an all-consuming love. Whenever we do love God, we will want to obey his commands. We will want to love others, that is a command that Jesus gives us, and we will want to do the will of God the Father. implement the teachings of Jesus, follow Him, and obey Him.

So let's go back into the book of John, and read a story about Jesus reinstating Peter. This is something that my pastor preached on several weeks ago and this is one of the reasons why I decided to do this whole series about love, because of that sermon. There have been so many other things I've been seeing about love and heart posturing, and God's been putting it on my heart to do this series about love with you guys. But this right here, this passage on Jesus reinstating Peter, is great and it reminds us of the type of love that we should have for Jesus.

"When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."

-John 21:15-17

So earlier in the book of John, we see that Peter had denied Jesus three times. So now in this passage here, he reinstates him by asking him three times if he loves him. Something that I never realized until my pastor had preached this sermon about it, and it opened my eyes, is the meaning behind the word love whenever Jesus asks Simon if he loves him. So like I went over last week with the Greek word love, there are different words for love in Greek. So there is Agape love, a divine, sacrificial, selfless love that we went over last week and that's how God loves us. There is "Philia" or "Phileo" love, a close friendship or brotherly love. There is Eros love, which is passionate, romantic love. Then there is Storge love, which is a family love. So there are four different Greek words for the word love.

So now, whenever we think about it and translate it this way, it makes a lot more sense. So Jesus asks Simon Peter in verse 15, "Simon, son of John, do you truly agape me more than these?" He asks if Peter loves him with a sacrificial, selfless divine love, that's what he's asking him. And when he says more than these, he's talking about the other disciples. Peter responds, "Yes, Lord, you know that I philia you." He is basically saying that Jesus knows that he loves him as a brother, he has that close friendship love with him. So the way Peter thinks of love and the way Jesus asks him about love, are two different types of love. There is the divine, selfless, sacrificial love that God has for us and the brotherly close friendship love that many of us have for others, and many of us may have for God. It is hard to posture your heart to have that agape love, but it's not impossible when you have Jesus in you. It is impossible to have agape divine love if you don't have Christ in you, because the most amount of love you would be able to have is a brotherly love or a family love. You can't have an agape love if you don't have Christ in you. As Christians, we're able to have that agape love, and that is the love that we need to have for Jesus.

So again, Jesus asks him for the second time, "Simon son of John, do you truly agape me?" And Simon says, "Yes, Lord, you know that I philia you." And then Jesus says, "Take care of my sheep." The third time Jesus says, "Simon, son of John, do you philia me?" And Peter was hurt because he asked him for the third time and then he said, "Lord, you know all things you know that I philia you." So what my pastor was saying, and it makes so much sense to me now, that Jesus was trying to show Peter the type of love that he has to have for him. He can't just have that philia love, that brotherly close friend love. He has to have agape love. There were going to be so many things that were going to happen in Peter's life after Jesus left and went to heaven, which we see in the Book of Acts, different things that happened in Peter's life. Peter was going to have to have that sacrificial love for Jesus. He was going to have to have that divine agape love to truly spread the gospel to others, to be able to make other disciples, and to be able to just do the will of God.

I want you to take a moment to reflect:

How do you love God?

Do you love God with an agape, sacrificial, selfless, divine love? Do you love God more than anything in this world? Would you give up your life for the gospel, for the mission, for God? Or do you just love God as a close friend? Do you have that brotherly love for God? Do you love him so much but you wouldn't give up your life for him? I want you to take a few moments today and just reflect on that.

Truly be honest with yourself. Dig deep and think in your heart, how do you truly love God? What would you give up for him? What would you do for him? What are you doing now for him? Deep down, how do you love him? Do you love him with that agape, divine, selfless, sacrificial love? Or do you just have brotherly love for him? Do you just love him a lot, but not enough?

If your answer is the latter, if you just have that brotherly love for him, then it's important to dig deep, to pray, and ask God to reveal that agape love in your heart, and to be able to figure out what's standing in the way from loving God more than anything. Have God remove those things in your life that are stopping you from loving him with an agape love. It is so important to pick up your cross every day, denying yourself and your sinful desires to follow Jesus, seeking to live and have a heart like him, and truly loving and desiring God every day and seeking him every day.

So that's it for today's episode. Our last episode is going to be about how we should love others, so make sure you stay tuned for that

I love you guys so much.

Never forget to choose faith over fear.

-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)

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