Secrets of Mind and Reality - MindReality.com

Love with awareness is true love. In order to know true love, we must know the truth about love. There are four main Greek words used for love. They are Agapao, Phileo, Storge and Eros. We know that Storge means affectionate love. It is the kind of love that is expressed through physical touch or energy embrace. You can Storge children and animals. You can Storge anyone and anything you feel affectionate love towards. Eros as we all know is sexual and sensual love. It is emotion of physical attraction.

Now the problem that we have is with misunderstanding of the other two words Agapao and Phileo. The actual meanings of these two most important words have become distorted down the ages. This distortion has resulted in many of the problems faced in humanity, in relationships and in the church. Knowing the true definitions of these two words of love is absolutely critical to living the core of life with truth and power. Truth and love are one, and understanding the truth of love is they key to living true love.
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Agapao is the verb and Agape is the noun. According to The Greenhouse, these Greek words denote the unconditional, divine love of God. God is agape (1John 4:8). It is stated that this is the highest form of love. It is made to seem so hard to achieve and some even say that only God can have Agape and no human can love with Agape. It is a crazy idea and a great deception. No matter how holy it sounds, such people are actually speaking from a place of self righteousness without the truth and are wrong.

Phileo is wrongly defined as brotherly love and human love. It is known to be a lesser form of love than the divine Agapao. This kind of wrong definition has caused people to deemphasize Phileo in their lives and to focus on Agapao as the main thing. This is the reason why people have all the trouble trying to love what they do not wish to love, in a way that they cannot seem to love. It is ignorance and ignorance is the only evil. Knowledge is the only good. When you know, you can love. Knowledge enables love.

Agapao does not mean divine love. John 3:19 “Men loved (Agapao) the darkness rather than the light.” How can divine, unconditional love of God be for darkness? John 12:43 “For they (the Pharisees) loved (Agapao) the approval of men rather than the approval of God.” Agapao simply means to esteem, it is a form of love that is based on will and perception without necessary needing emotions to accompany. You can esteem your enemy and wish him goodwill without liking him. This is loving with Agapao.

Phileo does not represent brotherly love and human love. John 5:20 “For the Father loves (Phileo) the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing.” Phileo cannot mean ‘brotherly love’ or some second rate man’s love. Furthermore how can it be inferior to Agapao when it is generated by God Himself? Revelations 3:19 “Those whom I love (Phileo), I reprove and discipline.” Phileo means to cherish, it is a form of love that is with emotions attached. To Phileo is to like, to delight in, or to be fond of!

Therefore Phileo is a stronger form of love not a lesser form of love, contrary to what the Church has been taught during the past few centuries. Phileo is inclusive of Agape because you must already first esteem something before you can cherish it. There are also different degrees of Agapao! When Simon indicated the one who had been forgiven the great debt would love (Agapao) the lender more, Jesus responded, “You have judged correctly” (Luke 7:36-50). There are also differing degrees for Phileo Love!

Mathew 10:37 “He who cherishes (Phileo) father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who cherishes (Phileo) son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” After Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus came to restore him by asking him three times whether Peter loved him. Jesus used the word Agapao the first two times and Phileo on the third. People think that Jesus’ first two inquiries ask Peter if he has a divine love toward Him and the third was whether he even had brotherly love.

They think Jesus is asking, “Peter, do you even have this lower form of love for Me? It’s clear you do not have Agapao (the denials proved that, as it, and you, failed), so I am coming down a notch and asking you if you even have a brotherly love - a fickle human love - for Me.” And by this Peter is restored? This is such a great joke that the Church has been told with. What really happened was that The first two times, Jesus is asking Peter if he looks at Him as One intrinsically worthy of respect - as valuable.

Peter’s response is aggressive. “Yes Lord! But You are much more than that to me! You know that I cherish You!” But, after Peter asserted this a second time, Jesus then asked “Simon… Do you indeed cherish Me?” This is what grieved Peter. He knew he couldn’t back up his claim after what he had done. Therefore he said “Lord, You know all things - You know I cherish You - You know I adore You - and You know what I am saying is true!” Jesus then restored his soul by entrusting him with leadership work.

Agapao is not the highest form of God’s love that man cannot attain. It is actually the most basic. We are commanded to Agapao all things because it is based on choice and will, whereas Phileo is not commanded because it depends on feeling. Contrary to most Christian’s teaching, love is NOT unconditional, not even Agapao because in order to esteem something, there must be intrinsic value to be esteemed in that thing, whether that value is real or perceived. That’s the Condition for all love that exists.[/hidepost]