"I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS": A NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY OF “LOVE”

"I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS":

A NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY OF “LOVE”

By: Daniel McMillin

"WE FOUND LOVE IN A HOPELESS PLACE": RETRIEVING LOVE

Love can be defined in a wide variety of ways in our culture. We use the term intimately to describe the way that we affectionately feel towards people like our family members, our partners (husband/wife) or boyfriend/girlfriend, or our friends, or I love my kids or grandkids. Or we could use it to describe how we feel about certain attributes like I love your smile, or I love this music or song, or I love this art. But we also use the term carelessly to describe things that really appear to devalue those other important things we just mentioned about our relationships. Like, I love this cake, I love this movie, I love my car. Are these examples of equal value of our love? If we are being honest, couldn’t we have used the word “like” to convey what we meant? Do I love my kids just as much as I love my car? Do I love these shoes as much as I love my mom or dad? Do I love this cake as much as my spouse? Nobody answer that one. The answer is, of course, no. Love is more meaningful and valuable. Hopefully, by studying this subject matter, we will allow the God of the Bible, the God who is love, to define love for us since He first loved us and His love abides in us. 

As we begin this subject, I am sure many of you have been saying the same thing as Foreigner did, “I want to know what love is.” Interestingly, the culture has almost completely tainted and redefined love to mean whatever they want it to me. Which is truly sad. This is one of the most beautiful words in the human language and its definition has been dismantled and reformulated to apply to mean “acceptance” of our flaws or immoral deeds. It is simply viewed as a strong feeling that we have as human beings for certain people or things. If we are being honest, love is really just a strong like more than a deep intellectual, spiritual, and emotional experience.  Love is more than a feeling; it is an action! Our aim is to redeem “love” and define “love” with the Bible.

“THE POWER OF LOVE”: “LOVE” IN A GRECO-ROMAN CONTEXT

The verb ἀγαπάω is found frequently in Greek classical literature, while the noun ἀγάπη is not. It is most commonly used in the New Testament.  There are three other words in Greek Literature:[1]

• φιλία (philia) normally refers to a warm, intimate friendship of whatever circumstance.

• ἔρω (eros) is commonly used to refer to physical love between the sexes.

• στοργή (storge) regularly refers to the love of family members for each other.

Love takes on various forms in Greek literature, but the Bible uses ἀγάπη and ἀγαπάω in a unique way.

In the New Testament, there are primarily three Greek words that are translated as “love.”

• ἀγαπάω (agapaō) is used 143 times in the New Testament. It is a verb that means “to love, value, esteem, feel or manifest generous concern for, be faithful towards; to delight in, to set store upon.” (Mounce)

• ἀγάπη (agape) is used 116 times in the New Testament. It is a noun that means “love, generosity, kindly concern, devotedness.” (Mounce) That is, “to have a warm regard for and interest in another; to have high esteem for or satisfaction with something, cherish, have affection for, love, take pleasure in.” (BDAG)

• φιλέω (phileō) is used 25 times in the New Testament. It is a verb that means “to manifest some act or token of kindness or affection; to kiss, Mt. 26:48; Mk. 14:44; Lk. 22:47; to love, regard with affection, have affection for, Mt. 10:37; Jn. 5:20; to like, be fond of, delight in a thing, Mt. 23:6; Rev. 22:15; to cherish inordinately, set store by, Jn. 12:25.” (Mounce)

Each of these terms describes either “God’s love for us, our love for God, and our love for one another.”[2] Love is a very complicated thing once we dive deeper into the meaning of love, especially when we evaluate how we love. We may not notice this until we reflect on how we love, but we love in different ways on different levels of love. For instance, we love God in a way that is different than how we may love our spouse. Both of these loves are reserved and intimate. However, when we love God, it is not romantic. Likewise, when we love our spouse, it does not lead us to worship our husband or wife. This type of love is very different. Also, the way we love people we are very familiar with, whether it is our friends, family, or brothers and sisters in Christ is going to be very different than how we may love our neighbors or enemies. A final point on love is the assumption that love is always positive. Oftentimes, the Scriptures portray the love of money, or the world are evil. Overall, love is a term that varies in meaning depending upon the immediate context.

“WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?”: HOW DO WE MAKE SENSE OF DIVINE LOVE?

The apostle John gives one of the best explanations of love in 1 John 4:7-21. but one of the greatest gems of that chapter is the statement that “God is love.” Notice what John is not saying; he does not say that God is “loving,” but He is “love.” God is the standard of love because God defines love by His nature. Love is consistently used to describe God’s attribute and activity of love. “God is love and has demonstrated that love in everything that he does.”[3] That is, “from God’s very being the activity of love springs, and all God’s activity is loving.”[4] 

The Bible is the self-revelation of a God who is love and acts lovingly. “The love theme of the Bible, can only be defined by the nature of God. John affirms that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). God does not merely love; he is love. “Everything that God does flows from his love.”[5] Gerald Bray offers a precise definition for divine love:

“God is love. Everything we know about him teaches us that, and every encounter we have him expresses it. God’s love for us is deep and all-embracing, but it is not the sentimentality that often goes by the name of love today.”[6] 

Often, we approach the topic of love from an inside-out approach where we try to discover love from inside ourselves. However, the Bible shows us that we need to turn to God to find love itself. Bill Mounce wrote, “A biblical definition of love starts with God, never with us (1 Jn. 4:9–10).” In one sense, love cannot be bound or confined to words. Love is expressed fully by God’s nature and deeds. Augustine said, “The measure of love is to love without measure.”[7] Love is not meant to be limited or restricted. Instead, our love is to be generous and liberal since that is the type of love that God possesses. “The love of God is,” as Storms said, “the benevolent disposition or inclination in God that stirs him to bestow both physical and spiritual benefits upon those created in his image (and is thus in this respect synonymous with grace), the most exalted of all such benefits is God’s selfless gift of himself to his creatures in Jesus Christ.”[8] D. A. Carson identifies five distinguishable ways the bible speaks of God’s love:[9]

• Trinitarian love, that is, the love of the Father for the Son (John 3:35; 5:20) and of the Son for the Father (John 14:31).

• God’s providential love over all of his creation.

• God’s saving love toward the fallen world (John 3:16).

• God’s love for His elect (Eph. 5:25; 1 John 3:1).

• God’s provisional or conditional love toward His people.

The best proof of the “love” (ἀγάπην) of God is the death of His Son, who died for us while we were lost in our sins (Romans 5:8). “God’s love leads to our salvation.”[10] God’s love is undeserving. God the Father sent God the Son for His “love” (ἠγάπησεν [root word: αγαπαω]) of the world to grant to each of us “eternal life” (John 3:16). God’s love gives life. Paul exhorts every Christian to walk in love (ἀγάπῃ) as Christ died to love (ἠγάπησεν), that is, by giving His life as a sacrifice on our behalf (Ephesians 5:2). God’s love is sacrificial. “God’s love toward people, seen throughout the Bible, is unselfish and unmerited, epitomized in love for sinners, who deserved nothing except wrath. Instead, God sent Christ to die for them (Rom. 5:6- 11; 2 Cor. 5:14- 21). God’s love serves as a basis for human love.”[11] 

“LOVE LIES”: THE “LOVE” FALLACY IN JOHN 21:15-17

It is important to offer a disclaimer lest we fall subject to the root fallacy that often is a consequence of word studies (root fallacy presupposes that every word actually has a meaning bound up with its shape or its components. In this view, meaning is determined by etymology; that is, by the root or roots of a word.”[12] The root word agape does not always mean “good” or “sacrificial” love.

In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the word agape is used to describe Amonon’s incestuous rape of his half-sister Tamar in 2 Samuel 13:15 (LXX). In the New Testament, the word agape is used to describe Demas’ love for the world (2 Tim. 4:10). However, in the New Testament, that is certainly the most common understanding of agape since that is a major theme throughout the New Testament. We see that this is how God is described, and Jesus loves, and so when we are told to love like God or Jesus, we are commanded to love in that manner. But that is mostly because it is a term that is defined by its context. Words only have meaning within the confinement of a sentence, paragraph, book, etc. The best way to define our terms is to read words within their context. 

JOHN 21:15-17

Some use this encounter with Jesus and Peter to say that Jesus uses the word agapao (ἀγαπάω) to ask, “Do you love me selflessly, unconditionally?” and Peter continues to respond by using the term phileo (φιλέω) to say, “I love you like a friend.” However, it should be noted that Jesus and Peter spoke Aramaic, not Greek. And so, we must bear in mind that we are using words that have been translated from one language to another. In John 5:20, John describes the Father’s love for the Son by using agape and phileo “without any discernible shift in meaning.”[13] Are they words with different meanings (shift) or different words with the same meaning (synonyms)? “In Jesus’ conversation with Peter, he appears to be varying agapao and phileo for purposes of style, not meaning.”[14] A word can frequently be used to mean one thing and then used in another context to mean another. A word is defined by its context and usage. It is best to allow the Bible to define words within its own context primarily and then to use additional resources to grow in our understanding of certain words. 

“SOMEBODY TO LOVE”: THE SOURCE AND SUBJECT OF “LOVE”

“What is every love? Does it not consist of the will to become one with the object it loves?”[15] All love is rooted in and originates from God. In other words, all love is ultimately divine. You cannot take God out of the picture of love since He is love. Love is true only in light of God, who alone is love. Love is more than an emotion; it is a person—or, more accurately, love is three persons. The Triune God is love; the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Spirit, and vice versa, for all of eternity. Jesus ultimately defines love through the incarnation and His declaration of the greatest commandments: love God and love your neighbor (Deut. 6:5). Loving God and your neighbor are inseparable commands. Ultimately, love, as Simpson suggests, “defines our relationship with God and dictates how we should treat others.”[16] 

“THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE”: WHAT DOES PAUL MEAN WHEN HE SAYS “LOVE”?

Love in Pauline theology is heavily developed and instructive, especially in 1 Corinthains 13 which is often referred to as the “love chapter.” In 1 Corinthians, Paul describes love as the mark of the Christian life. it is “the heart and soul of the Pauline ethic.”[17] Throughout Paul’s writings, he demonstrates how love is the bond that holds all Christian values together (Col. 3:14), love fulfills the law (Rom 13:8–10; Gal 5:14), love is the goal of the Christian life (1 Tim. 1:5), love always remains (1 Cor. 13). The Christian faith is rooted in love (Eph 3:17), characterized in a love for others (2 Cor 5:14–15), and is given by the Holy Spirit (2 Tim 1:7). Finally, love is a fruit of the spirit.

How does Paul use “love” in Galatians 5:22? Paul’s statements are located within a broader context of justification by faith and in a local context with a series of attributes of those who have been justified and are being sanctified. Paul describes these attributes as the “fruits of the Spirit,” and he contrasts them with the “works of the flesh.” significantly, Paul chooses “love” as the first fruit of the Spirit for its evident value as well as its necessity in light of the fruits since the other fruits are a product of the first fruit of love (“Paul saw all the other virtues of this list as included in and springing from this first-listed virtue.”[18] Moo suggests that love is listed first because love is central to the “new-covenant ethics” and is the “most important bulwark against the factional infighting that seems to be racking the Galatian churches.”[19] 

How do we understand love as a fruit of the Spirit? Morgan helpfully explains: “The Spirit communicates God’s love to us; the Spirit communicates God’s love through us back to God; and the Spirit communicates God’s love through us toward others. The love we give ultimately flows from, reflects, and is defined by God’s own love.”[20] 

In light of Galatians 2:20, “love is rooted in the reality that the Son of God has loved us and given himself for us.”[21] Previously, in Galatians 5:6 and 13, Paul discusses “love” within the context of faith in contrast to the works of the Law of Moses. In verse 6, Paul focuses on the relationship between faith and love when he suggests that “faith” works “through love.” In addition, he exhorts them to “serve” each other “through love” in verse 13. In Galatians 5:22, Paul uses agape to describe “self-sacrificial concern for others that manifests itself in action.”[22] To conclude, love is something that should penetrate our hearts and be reflected in our lives with others. Augustine beautifully wrote, “He who is filled with love is filled with God himself.”[23] 

 END NOTES

[1] Longenecker, 260.

[2] Morgan, Galatians, 485.

[3] Schaefer, 494.

[4] Hoehner, “Love,” 506.

[5] Schaefer, 494.

[6] Bray, The Attributes of God, 17.

[7] Augustine.

[8] Storms.

[9] Carson, On Distorting the Love of God.

[10] Morgan, Galatians, 483.

[11] Hoehner, “Love,” 507.

[12] Carson, 26.

[13] Carson 30.

[14] Ward.

[15] Augustine.

[16] Simpson.

[17] Schreiner, Galatians, 349.

[18] Longenecker, 260.

[19] Moo, Galatians, 364.

[20] Morgan, Galatians, 485.

[21] Harmon, Galatians, 327.

[22] Harmon, Galatians, 327.

[23] Augustine