Eros
Two characteristics: Love - Of the worthy, attractive, beautiful; Desire - To possess the object of one’s love
Physical love (Eros)
In contrast to epithumia, eros can be painful and it incites our animal instincts. It is emotional love and remains out of our control for the most part. It is the fusion of two souls and bodies converging into a single entity for a limited time. It is when the lover, loving and loved become one. It’s the kind of love that arouses our inner qualities and creative instincts and thrusts us into a world of ecstasy.
We get the English word “erotic” from the word Eros. Eros is the word used to express sexual love or the feelings of arousal that are shared between people who are physically attracted to one another. By New Testament times, this word had become so debased by the culture that it is not used even once in the entire New Testament.
Eros is the fiery passion of sexual love what most people call love. Eros is also romantic love, and according to research, is the main reason people get married. It gets more interesting. Over one half of both American men and women maintain that not being in love (eros) is grounds for bailing out of marriage!
Eros is a multifaceted mixture of anger, sexual urge, joy, and jealousy. It is consummated in searing ecstasy.
Strangely, in the Bible teaching about Christian love, eros is not mentioned in the NT Greek. Maybe it is because the Greeks in Corinth viewed eros as the ultimate religious expression. They thought the highest spiritual experience was the most powerful form of ecstasy. And, what could be more intense than sexual climax?
That is why there existed in Corinth the temple to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. At one time, this fertility cult employed about one thousand priestess prostitutes available to provide the ultimate “religious experience.” Paul referred to this problem in 1 Corinthians 6:15-20.
Bible teaching about Christian love is quite contrary to the Greek notion of the highest form of love – or religion. For Christian love, the highest form is agape.
Eros wasn’t used by the NT writers, like storge, because of its connections with sexual intercourse and romance.
Morlove writes:
‘Basically, eros is romantic love, sexual love...the sex act is the fitting expression of eros; it is the love of the worthy, and it is a love that desires to possess’
The object of eros is considered as ‘beautiful’, ‘desirable’ by the subject, with the accompanying attitude of a compulsion to possess the object.
So, should you go into a china store and there see the most ghastly jug that you find of supreme beauty, you would be expressing the first characteristic of eros love towards it. If you then looked at the label and saw the price, you may not find it as attractive as you first did, but presuming that it matched your value of it, you’d get the Credit Card out and make a purchase, thus possessing the object that you’d fixed your affection on.
‘Basically, eros is romantic love, sexual love...the sex act is the fitting expression of eros; it is the love of the worthy, and it is a love that desires to possess’
The object of eros is considered as ‘beautiful’, ‘desirable’ by the subject, with the accompanying attitude of a compulsion to possess the object.
So, should you go into a china store and there see the most ghastly jug that you find of supreme beauty, you would be expressing the first characteristic of eros love towards it. If you then looked at the label and saw the price, you may not find it as attractive as you first did, but presuming that it matched your value of it, you’d get the Credit Card out and make a purchase, thus possessing the object that you’d fixed your affection on.
Very simply, this is how eros love works.
Eros may be beautiful, as in the Song of Solomon (though there’s also the possibility that the sexual experience here noted was between two lovers and not a husband and wife) where it finds its perfect expression, but because of the connotations too easily associated with it, the NT writers preferred to use agape.
Eros, called ‘love’ by the present generation, is, at its worst, an unquenchable fire that consumes its owner. It seeks to find self-satisfaction in its object but the failure to possess only enflames the desire more. This side of eros cannot be satisfied and will destroy the man who gives free vent to its leading.
Marriage is often based upon an expression of eros love. A man sees a woman who is, to him, an object worthy of his attention and he goes about seeking to possess her in marriage (or, outside marriage). When the ‘attraction’ wears off (or when his ‘attraction’ is centred in another - and, believe me, the day will come when that does happen), so does his desire to possess and the marriage or relationship breaks down. Eros isn’t an adequate foundation for marriage if it’s the only type of love present.
Eros was not the word used for ‘the love of God’ because of the twin concepts that lay behind it. God didn’t send His Son into the world because He found mankind attractive and desirable to possess. On the contrary, sin had driven a wedge between Himself and man and His face was turned away from us.
It was probably also not used because of the sexual connotations that had become integrated into its Greek usage. To have used the word (even if the Church had meant something different to its regular concept) would have been to offer a concept of God to the unsaved that was both false and misleading.
Eros love is needed to make a marriage. Eros is the fulfillment of the physical sexual desire that a husband and wife show toward each other. It's when "...the two ...become ONE FLESH" (Matthew 19:5).
We must nurture and protect ALL of these different kinds of love in our marriage. Negligence of any kind of love leaves a gaping hole in our relationship. Love is the bedrock of every successful marriage. For marriage to be blissful, love must be expressed in its three dimensions as follows: Agape, Phileo and Eros.
Eros love(Proverbs 5:19) is about sexual intimacy in marriage and it is a very important ingredient to the success of a marriage. It is an art that must be learned and developed because an atmosphere of a loving relationship must be created before the sexual act else it becomes an abuse of the partner.
The three dimensions must be available in every marriage for it to be successful. A marriage without agape love will be chaotic and quarrelsome. It is a marriage on a wrong foundation that will crash when storms arise. A marriage without phileo love has no friendship and no personal intimacy in it. A marriage without eros love is an open invitation to adultery whereas a marriage with eros alone is an abusive relationship that will be short-lived because sexual passion alone cannot sustain a marriage.
When all types of love operate in a marriage, the marriage is complete. A picture of a complete marriage is a husband and wife who lay down their life for each other (agape love) no matter how many times the other offends them or causes them to have ill feelings. They both have tender affection toward each other (phileo love). They enjoy each other's company because they're best friends. Because they enjoy each other so much, they hug, kiss, hold hands and do nice things for their mate (storge love). Because their hearts are filled with agape, phileo and storge, a warm passionate desire arises within both of them to enjoy each other sexually (eros). Now, that kind of God-centered marriage will weather ANY storm.
In essence, eros love is "physical", philos love is "mental", and agape love is "spiritual". Thus, it is made up of the three fundamental elements of man: physical, mental and spiritual.
Eros may be beautiful, as in the Song of Solomon (though there’s also the possibility that the sexual experience here noted was between two lovers and not a husband and wife) where it finds its perfect expression, but because of the connotations too easily associated with it, the NT writers preferred to use agape.
Eros, called ‘love’ by the present generation, is, at its worst, an unquenchable fire that consumes its owner. It seeks to find self-satisfaction in its object but the failure to possess only enflames the desire more. This side of eros cannot be satisfied and will destroy the man who gives free vent to its leading.
Marriage is often based upon an expression of eros love. A man sees a woman who is, to him, an object worthy of his attention and he goes about seeking to possess her in marriage (or, outside marriage). When the ‘attraction’ wears off (or when his ‘attraction’ is centred in another - and, believe me, the day will come when that does happen), so does his desire to possess and the marriage or relationship breaks down. Eros isn’t an adequate foundation for marriage if it’s the only type of love present.
Eros was not the word used for ‘the love of God’ because of the twin concepts that lay behind it. God didn’t send His Son into the world because He found mankind attractive and desirable to possess. On the contrary, sin had driven a wedge between Himself and man and His face was turned away from us.
It was probably also not used because of the sexual connotations that had become integrated into its Greek usage. To have used the word (even if the Church had meant something different to its regular concept) would have been to offer a concept of God to the unsaved that was both false and misleading.
Eros love is needed to make a marriage. Eros is the fulfillment of the physical sexual desire that a husband and wife show toward each other. It's when "...the two ...become ONE FLESH" (Matthew 19:5).
We must nurture and protect ALL of these different kinds of love in our marriage. Negligence of any kind of love leaves a gaping hole in our relationship. Love is the bedrock of every successful marriage. For marriage to be blissful, love must be expressed in its three dimensions as follows: Agape, Phileo and Eros.
Eros love(Proverbs 5:19) is about sexual intimacy in marriage and it is a very important ingredient to the success of a marriage. It is an art that must be learned and developed because an atmosphere of a loving relationship must be created before the sexual act else it becomes an abuse of the partner.
The three dimensions must be available in every marriage for it to be successful. A marriage without agape love will be chaotic and quarrelsome. It is a marriage on a wrong foundation that will crash when storms arise. A marriage without phileo love has no friendship and no personal intimacy in it. A marriage without eros love is an open invitation to adultery whereas a marriage with eros alone is an abusive relationship that will be short-lived because sexual passion alone cannot sustain a marriage.
When all types of love operate in a marriage, the marriage is complete. A picture of a complete marriage is a husband and wife who lay down their life for each other (agape love) no matter how many times the other offends them or causes them to have ill feelings. They both have tender affection toward each other (phileo love). They enjoy each other's company because they're best friends. Because they enjoy each other so much, they hug, kiss, hold hands and do nice things for their mate (storge love). Because their hearts are filled with agape, phileo and storge, a warm passionate desire arises within both of them to enjoy each other sexually (eros). Now, that kind of God-centered marriage will weather ANY storm.
In essence, eros love is "physical", philos love is "mental", and agape love is "spiritual". Thus, it is made up of the three fundamental elements of man: physical, mental and spiritual.
