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CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – I hope you haven’t forgot: it’s Valentines Day.
Perhaps you’ve heard the cliche that the Greeks have different words for different kinds of love: Eros is the Greek word for romantic love, like between a boyfriend and a girlfriend – the kind of love were celebrate on Valentine’s Day.
Philia is brotherly love, like the warm feelings you have for a close friend.
Pragma is the word for mature love, perhaps between a couple that’s been married for many years. Their love may no longer be expressed physically, but is shows towards the kindness between them.
Storge is a love of obedience, like the way a child loves their parent, or perhaps how you feel about a boss that you deeply admire.
And there is Agope, a selfless unconditional love. That is the closest word the Greeks have for the love that God extends to us, his followers. Now remember as the Greek language took shape, they didn’t know Jesus Christ. They believed in the characters of mythology. And the Greeks thought of their Gods as indifferent to the human condition; their Gods acted in the cosmos, far above and beyond human beings Gods represented parts of the human condition. They were explanations for things that happened on earth.
So on this Valentines Day, consider that there is no word that adequately expressed God’s love for us. No one knows the fullness of God’s grace. We are offered unlimited forgiveness if we bring our sins to him. He is the God who sent his son Jesus to an unimaginably brutal death for our salvation. Words are feeble to express that kind of love.
Consider the Christian hymn that says:
What kind of love is this,
that gave itself for me?
I am the guilty one,
yet I go free.
What kind of man is this,
that died in agony?
He who had done no wrong
was crucified for me.
That is God’s love for us. It should be celebrated on Valentines Day.
Chris Conley
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