Defining Biblical Love

October 5
Proverbs 13:24 tells us something rather significant, “He who withhold his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.” Love is an elusive term mainly because we have been given some bad theology for so long. We are told there are three words in Greek we translate into the one word “love” in English. Actually there are four concepts in Greek that we use the word love to describe: lust, familial fondness, friendly fondness, and love. What we choose to call love making is nothing more to the Greek than lust. Even when we have appropriate sex with our spouses, it is the result of a animal sexual drive we do it. It is commanded and good in the relationship between a man and woman, but it is still not love in any biblical sense of the word. It should be done with tenderness and with the idea in mind that it is my responsibility to give sexual pleasure to my spouse as it is hers to give sexual pleasure to me. Our special fondness for those of our immediate family is not love in the biblical sense either. It is a special fondness because we share the same blood. It is a fondness that carries with it responsibilities not required to be manifested toward others. Those whom we consider friends should be the recipients of a special kind of fondness and resultant actions toward them also. Interesting enough, Jesus taught that “LOVE” that which we can only manifest if we are “born-again,” regenerated, new creatures must be manifested toward all persons. But agape is love based on the nature of the one doing it, not the recipient of it.

The reason it is so critical we understand the difference in these emotions we should be manifesting biblically in our lives is so we can steer clear of the psychological babble to which we have been exposed for so long. We are told parents who love their children will not use corporal punishment as a form of discipline. God’s word tells us the opposite. Actually, if you read the above verse, you learn the one who does not use corporal punishment appropriately hates his son. Therefore, the great multitudes of obscene arguments used by contemporary child psychologists to convince us we must not ever strike a child, are nothing more than the blind, ignorant, uninformed, ungodly ravings of mad men. If you love your child, you will swat his behind when he is young while he is appropriately influenced by such discipline, so that when he is old, that kind of discipline will not be needed. That is what God has to say on the subject. Now all you have to do is decide whom you choose to follow. Have a blessed day in His care.