Such Is Love
[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
THE word love is perhaps the most popular word in any language. Definitions and interpretations of love are many and varied. In English as well as Japanese, the word love covers many possible understandings of affection, appreciation, and gratification.1 Corinthians 13:7 (NRSV)
The Greek language has at least four words for love. The word epithumia denotes desire or lust, often self-fulfilling and selfish. The word philia means either the kind of love shared with parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, family, and friends, or fidelity and loyalty. The word eros, from Greek mythology, is used for sexual love or desire.
The word for love found in our scripture text for today is agape. This word is used for the kind of love that can recreate and transform us. Agape love has best been defined by and manifested in Jesus, the incarnation of God's eternal love. In the life, teaching, and death of Jesus on the cross, I see the purest form of love -- sacrificial and unconditional love. That's the kind of love our scripture reading asks us to live.
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