By Phebe Telschow, C.S., St. Louis, MO
Ah, love. Poets, musicians, artists, filmmakers, philosophers, theologians, and just about everybody else has been trying to define love for a long, long time. The Bible and Mrs. Eddy help readers to understand that God is Love that indeed God is our ever-present, all-powerful, all-wise Father-Mother.
The ancient Greeks didnt recognize one God, let alone see that God is Love. Maybe thats why they ended up with so many different terms to describe the kinds of things that they thought of as love. A number of these terms for love were used in the original text of the New Testament because much of the original text was written in ancient Greek and later translated into English.
Lets take a quick look at three ancient Greek terms for love that appear in the New Testament. As we go, open your Science and Health to pages 115-116 and look at Mrs. Eddys Scientific Translation of Mortal Mind and see if you can relate each of these terms to a particular level in that translation. That may lend additional clarity to the definitions below, and help to lead thought from a purely physical concept to a more spiritual view of love.
ros (έρως rōs) is generally used to describe physical passion or sensual so-called love and longing. You might recognize ros as the root of our modern word, erotic. (Can you see the connection between this term and all the things that Mrs. Eddy lists on the First Degree on page 115?)
Philia (φιλία phila) usually refers to the kind of love you have with your family and friends. Philia is full of morality and is the kind of brotherly love that includes compassion and loyalty not only for family, but also for community, and humanity in general.
Agpe (αγάπη agpē) Agpe is usually regarded as the word that describes a more spiritual kind of love. Agpe is how/what we feel when we have a good clear understanding of Gods love. We can best express agpe with what Mrs. Eddy would call unselfed love which she puts alongside a spiritual understanding of God as essential for effective prayer and healing. (See Science and Health, p 1:1).
You may have heard that old story that says, Give someone a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime. This old story kind of illustrates the difference between philia and agpe. Philia is essential and meets human needs in very helpful and practical ways. Its the kind of love that rightly impels good deeds and makes us so happy to share good things with our neighbor.
But agpe is what we feel when we really understand that God is the one infinite, and ever-present, completely trustworthy source of all love. Agpe is the kind of love that helps us see that good doesnt actually need to come through or in the form of matter, i.e. through a person or a thing or any kind of physical sense. Rather, all good actually comes directly from God to each one of His beloved children in the form of spiritual understanding and right ideas that help, heal, uplift, comfort, guard, guide and truly bless.
To be clear: in the same way that theres only one God, theres only one Love. God gets expressed in lots of different ways, and so does Love. Being aware of what caliber of love were looking at helps us more clearly identify and understand the presence, power, activity and effect of the Love that is God.
Speaking of the caliber of Love, you will see an unmistakable and descriptive thread of Gods tender mercies running throughout the lesson this week. As you read, you might find it interesting to keep a running list of the things that divine Love is doing: i.e. how it tenderly Mothers and Fathers all of us, how it comforts, and provides mercy, ensures justice, and so on. It should be a pretty long list by the end of the week! Leave some room to also make note of what it takes for us to fulfill the law of Love. Youll notice lots about that in this lesson as well.
Start your list of what divine Love is and what it does with the beautiful description in the Golden Text and the Responsive Reading. As always, be sure to take the inspired word of the Bible (S&H 497:3) and resolve things into thoughts (S&H 269:14) as you read those scriptural texts. When you read the Bible and Mrs. Eddys writings, remember youre not just reading words, youre reading the meaning.