What do you think of when you hear the word "love"?
Apple blossoms in April? A boy and a girl strolling down an orchard lane? A beautiful sky overhead? Music (mostly violins) coming out of the sky?
As we use it, the word "love" usually means romantic love, love of one who is "lovable," love which (we fervently hope) will be returned.
There is nothing wrong with that kind of love, except that it doesn't have anything to do with the subject under discussion. There are three different words for "love" in Greek, and unfortunately we have only one English word to cover them all.
When the Greek talked about "romantic love," he used the word eros.
When he talked about brotherly love and comradeship, he used the word philia.
But when a Christian talked about love, he used the word agape (pronounced, roughly, ah-gaa-pay).
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