Thurs Inspiration

Morning Inspiration with Pastor Merritt

I believe there is one kind of love that will help people to stay in love after they fall in love. It is the kind of love that I believe is given by God and comes from God. It is found in what is known as, “The love chapter.” - I Corinthians 13. In that chapter, God weighs in on what loves, how love acts, and when love is real.

I am convinced that what a lot of people call “love” has nothing to do with love. You are going to see that in this most beautiful chapter on love ever written in human history.

There are actually three Greek words in scripture for the word “love.” One word is the word, “eros.” As you can imagine we get the word “erotic” from that. It was one of the two most common terms used in the culture in Paul’s day who wrote this thirteenth chapter. It refers to expressing your feelings for someone through the act of sex. Let me emphasize there is nothing morally wrong with eros in the right context. As we are going to talk about later this year, every marriage needs a very healthy dose of eros - a passionate, emotional, every lusty appetite for the one you are married to. As too many couples find out, eros love doesn’t last forever.

There is another word used for love, which is “philos.” We get the word “Philadelphia” from that which means “brotherly love.” That love stands for the kind of warm affection that is shared between family or close friends. That word is not as emotionally charged as the word “eros.” It has more character to it. This was the word that would have been more commonly used in that day to refer to “loving family or people which whom you were close.” Again, your spouse ought to be your best friend, but if you only love your spouse as a friend that is not the kind of love that will hold a marriage together.

The word that Paul uses no fewer than nine times in this chapter is the word “agape.” It is a word that is rarely found outside of scripture, because the meaning is so unique to the kind of love that we are to have that comes directly from the heart of God. This is the kind of love that always seeks to give and never to get. This is the kind of love that always puts the other person first. As you are going to see, unlike the erotic kind of love or the philo kind of love this is the kind of love that never fails.

What we are going to find from this chapter is real love stays in love.