Agape

Phileo

Eros

There are several different Biblical definitions of love, versus the one English word. When we say the word ‘love’, it can mean anything from a ‘fetish’ to a life-long marital commitment. Although the Bible outlines a number of different words for our one word 'Love', there are three primary definitions that are most prevalent.

These three basic definitions of love outline the dimensions of Spirit, Soul and Body (I Thess. 5:23) and the corresponding parts of the Old Testament Tabernacle: the Holy of Holies, the Inner Court, and the Outer Court, respectively.

The highest form of love, correlating to the spirit of man and the Holy of holies is that of Agape. Agape is unconditional. It is typified by Jesus willingly going to the cross on behalf of the sins of mankind. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:16)

This love can also be expressed through us, as believers in Jesus Christ: “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (I Jn. 3:16) This kind of love cannot be generated by man himself in his own power and strength. It can only come through man as he is aligned with the Spirit of God. It’s like the acoustical phenomena of sympathetic vibration. The still object resonates by the energy coming from another source. “God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (I Jn. 4:16) Agape is not originally emotional, although it can encompass emotion. It is centered in the will. It is a moral love, emanating from righteousness, unchanged by surrounding circumstances. It gives regardless of whether or not it is received by the intended recipient. This kind of love encompasses all moral traits and is the cumulative characteristic of all morality and Truth. (See I Cor. 13)

The next kind of love correlates to the soul of man and Inner Court of the Tabernacle. It is Phileo. This kind of love is one of reciprocity and friendship. It requires “a just weight” (Prov. 11:1), an even distribution of giving between the two parties involved. Phileo is successful as long as both parties continue to justly give to one another (in each other’s perception) what is a ‘fair exchange’. When this scenario begins to break down (and it always will at some point, due to human selfishness), the friendship or relationship will be dissolved. The only remedy for this lack of equity is forgiveness, which can only come from Agape. Agape is the ‘lubricant’ that makes successful Phileo possible. Without love and forgiveness, ultimately all Phileo will fail.

Economy is based upon the model of Phileo, and is thus categorically aligned with the Mind of the Soul and the Lust of the Eyes. Phileo always seeks to ‘calculate’ what it is owed. “I did such and such, so they owe me this or that.” Or, “They did this or that for me, now I need to do something for them, so we’ll be even.” This is not morally a bad thing. Even God desires a just recompense between parties: “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight.” (Prov. 11:1) The problem is that Phileo is humanly impossible to keep perpetually. With Agape as the foundation, however, it is possible to function in successful Phileo.

The last and lowest kind of love which correlates to the body of man and the Outer Court of the Tabernacle is that of Eros. Some philosophies consider the human body to be evil; however, the fact that Jesus rose from the dead physically, and even ate food in His resurrected body (Lk. 21:41-43) doctrinally establishes that God does not view the body as evil, but rather the fleshly desires and carnal willfulness against His Spirit. (Gal. 5:19-21)

Having established this fact, Eros (or sexual love) is needful to procreate the human race, which is also God’s desire: “And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth…” (Gen. 1:28) Unfortunately, Eros (which is centered in the Emotion of man), when exalted above Phileo and Agape, produces chaos, disorder, disharmony and wars, both internal and external. The exaltation of Emotion over the Mind and the Will of man is destructive due to its imbalance of the Trinity pattern.

Eros is successful, however, when it is functioning in the Choice of Agape in marriage and the relationship of Phileo in friendship (within that marriage). It is in this divine Trinity balance that Eros can be enjoyed to its fullest benefit through the establishment of wholeness in Family.

(for more on this subject, see My Vision: The Community- A Means of Exchange)

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)

Love / Present

Faith / Past

Hope / Future

Love is present tense. God is love. (I John 4:16) He told Moses, “I Am that I Am.” (Ex. 3:14) God, Himself encompasses the fullness of time, past and future, the same way He manifests Himself through both Word and Spirit, articulation and breath.

Love exists in the present tense and stands as the highest of all three Kingdom attributes, as the Apostle Paul states, “but now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (I Cor. 13:13) The will of the human soul stands as the highest point between the mind and the emotions, choosing which thoughts to accept and meditate upon, while at the same time choosing the response of the emotions to these thoughts. The will makes choices in the present, based upon the knowledge of the past. It could be knowledge as old as the most ancient Scriptures, or as new as the last God-inspired revelation only a moment ago; but faith still draws upon the understanding of the past. For example, the testimonies in Scripture, being of the past, build our faith to receive God’s manifested blessings in the present.

Faith, however, works by love. It is the action of love that brings faith to life. “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26) Faith (past) united to Love (present) is the most powerful motivational force that causes the future, or realm of hope, to open wide with possibility. Hope is the realm of the emotion (speaking of the soul), and as emotion is affected by choices (will) and thoughts (mind), the future responds to those choices and thoughts (past and present seeds, which have been and are being sown).

Both the past and the future are subject to the choices of the present. The present filters what it wants of the past, allowing it to pass into the future. Of the past and future, however, the past holds authority over the future, just as seeds sown in the past must manifest in the future. One would say, “But the future must be greater, because the possibilities are positive and full of wonder, whereas the past is fraught with both failures and successes, but truthfully, mostly failures. The past speaks of death, the future of natural life. How can the past be authoritative over the future?”

The only way to sever the authority of the death and decay the past holds over the future lies in the power of the present (Love) to choose to overlook the failures of the past, draw upon the successes of the past, reject the destructive seeds of the past and to protectively nurture the good seeds sown.

Love alone can take the past and metamorphosize it into a powerful future. This is the power of forgiveness. It is the power of Jesus (the Word) Who was made flesh, living in the death and decay of this realm, but risen in the power of God’s choice, anointed with victory for the future, to reign as King in the fullness of this hope…our “Blessed Hope.”

The Word without the resurrection of Love remains a dead letter, for the “letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (II Cor. 3:6), but as faith is united to love, it is simultaneously broken from the past and brought into the present, creating victory for the future. Without being united to love, however, faith’s future is non-existent, just as “faith without works is dead.” (Js. 2:26) “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” (Js. 1:22)

Inactivity with the Word is disobedience. It is rebellion to the possibilities of its future. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. (I Sam. 15:23) Leaving the Word unacted upon in the choices of the present is demonic and will be judged by God. The rejection of God’s Word (Jesus) results in damnation, because the future is left empty and therefore hope is destroyed. “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17) The Word must be acted upon and that action is Love.

(for more study, see the Trinity Concepts Key)

Trinity Concepts (1.07) Love

Trinity Concepts (1.04) Kingdom Attributes (Time)