Happy Valentine’s Day! When you think of Valentine’s Day you think of love, but did you know that there are different kinds of love? The Bible actually talks about 4 different types: storge (familial/affection), philip (friendship), eros (romantic), and agape (charity). I thought today would be the perfect day to explain each type and give an example from PCC Corner of Hope of how it applies to our work.
Storge, meaning affection, covers many types of familial love, like the love of a parent towards their child and vice versa. It is an instinctual/natural kind of love. At Corner of Hope this is the kind of love that we see and want to help grow on a daily basis between the mothers and/or fathers that walk through our doors with their children. Most of the classes we offer to our clients will only strengthen this bond.
Philia, or friendship love, is sometimes also called brotherly love. These are usually close friends that will speak truth into your life. They are often the friends that will ‘come running’ if you called and needed them. Many of our clients and staff/volunteers will form this kind of love for on another. We will often get evaluations back from first time clients saying that they did not feel judged at PCC Corner of Hope. This only happens because our staff and volunteers have a brotherly love for all those who enter the Center.
Eros, romantic love, is mostly what people think about when we talk about love and Valentine’s Day in particular. This is the kind of love most often talked about and shown in books, songs, movies, etc. Passion, romance, desire, and sex are all important aspects of a healthy marriage, but too many in today’s society focus solely on the sex aspect as being the most important and needed part of a romantic relationship, with many willing to forfeit the commitment of love and marriage for sexual pleasure. At PCC Corner of Hope we believe in the Biblical view of love leading to marriage and then sex. We offer Sexual Risk Avoidance Education not only to our clients, but to churches, youth groups, community organizations, etc. who are interested as well.
Agape love, or charity as often referred to in the Bible, is an unconditional love. It is best shown in the Bible through the example of God the Father sending His one and only son Jesus to give His life for us sinners. Agape love is self-sacrificing or other’s centered. It is not selfish and does not worry about someone’s ‘worthiness,’ it just love them anyway, right where they are at. This is the type of love we should all aim to have toward everyone. We are called by God to love like He loves us, to set aside our emotions and feelings and simply make the choice to love no matter what. This is what we strive for with our relationships to our clients. We accept them to ‘come as they are’ and help them by ‘meeting them where they are at’ instead of putting expectations on them that they may never be able to meet.
