God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
NIV
Let us start with what love is NOT. Love is not an emotion. Love is not a feeling or sensation. The English language has only one word “love” whereas the Greeks used 5 different word for the meaning of love.
- philia = friendship type of love
- eros = desire, sensual and romantic love
- storge = family love
- koinonia = community love
- Agape = unconditional love
Philia refers to the love between friends. It involves commitment and support, a willingness to help, a tighter bond than just acquaintances.
Eros is commonly used to refer to love that includes sensuality, sexuality and romance. It is self and significant other focused.
Storge refers to brotherly or sisterly love, parental love, family loyalty, bonds that are stronger than friendship, that cross generations and create unity within a group.
Agape is unconditional love. This is the only true definition of love.
Agape is God’s love. Agape is God. Agape means covenant. All the rest of the definitions of love are nothing more than feeling, emotions and are a product of the mind. These are not love, because only God is love.
What is love? Love is God, God is love. Love has been in us from the beginning, we were born from love. We were created in God’s image. God does not have love, God is love. When we were born in the Garden of Eden, God gave man power and this power was his choice. He could choose to live from the tree of life (from his heart) or he could choose to live from the tree of knowledge (from his mind). Man chose to live from the tree of knowledge and that choice produced the world system that runs man’s life today. But each and every moment of our life we do have a choice to live from the mind or from the heart.
The world system is a product of the tree of knowledge. Many people cannot see the truth because they are run and ruled by
- World system
- Ego
- Flesh
- Personality
- False belief systems
- Religion
- 5 senses bound thinking
- Time past, time future bound thinking
- Physical Bound Thinking
People live in a world system that cannot know love. The false love that comes from the tree of knowledge is the old emotion that says ” I love you today” but then when tomorrow come it says ” I don’t love you anymore”
Love is a spiritual state of being. Love is an action.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. NIV
Love is a choice, and you will know you made the right choice because you are willing to die for that choice. By that choice you have now entered the covenant.
When you are willing to die for what God puts into your heart, now you have entered into the covenant.
God wants to be in covenant with us. He brought His Son to bring us back to the tree of life, to show us the way home. We have the same choice we had in the beginning; choose life or death. When we choose to enter into the tree of life we enter into eternal life, we enter into covenant with God. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil produced fruit which was the old nature (old mind, old will and old emotions). That old nature is still trying to run our mind, emotions and body. We are not what our old mind tells us we are. Our heart continues to lead us as long as we are willing to die to everything of the old mind/old will of the tree of knowledge.
To understand love you must understand covenant.
The following is an excerpt from How to Know You Are Healed CD series
