Love isn’t necessarily easy to define. In fact, the Greeks have, depending on who you ask and how you are counting, as many as eight different words for love, each to try to define a type of love, or a way to love:
- Eros – Romantic, passionate love
- Philia – A friendship type of love
- Agape – A selfless type of love, the unconditional love of God
- Storge – The love of a family member
- Mania – An obsession. Becomes stalking or co-dependency
- Ludus – A playful or flirtatious type of love
- Pragma – A long-term, enduring love based in commitment
- Philautia – The love of oneself
Agape is the word that John uses when he speaks of how God revealed his love to us:
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10
This is the definition of love, the love that God had for each of us. His love was to sacrifice himself so that we might live.
And he demonstrated this love without us loving him. We didn’t love him, but he loved us. He gave himself for us. What an incredible love that is!
Jesus came to be an atoning sacrifice. To atone means to make amends or to reparations. That is what Jesus did. His sacrifice is a sacrifice that was offered by God on our behalf so that, if we put our faith in him, we can live. Our relationship with God can be repaired. We can have amends made for us. Jesus bore the weight of the punishment on our behalf, an incredible expression of agape love.
This truly is the love of God for each of us.