Mother's Day Tribute: Honor your Mother
4 Different Greeks Words for Love in the Bible
"Mother’s Day” arrives on May 14th this year. It is a day when opportunity is given to honour wives and mothers. We are commanded in the Scriptures:
"Husbands love (agape) your wives just as Christ loved (agape) loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy .....and blameless” (Eph. 5:25-27). He who loves his wife loves (agape) himself (1 Cor. 7: 4).
There are four different Greek words for "love”:
The first is friendship (philos), the second, eros (sexual), the third, family (Storge) and the fourth, agape (God's love). The first three are conditional loves limited by bad relationships. "Agape love" is unconditional and can be commanded by Jesus to minister to others regardless of how one feels. It empowers to extend the boundaries of the other three kinds of love, which are limited to the number of times a person can forgive - forgiving someone up to 7 times and can be extended to 490 times each day (Matt. 18:21-22)!
"Agape love” is the guarantee to all types of love. It is God's perfect love that enhances the other kinds of love; never degrading people and building them up. It keeps no record of wrongs (1 Cor. 13:5), and is "poured into our 
hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5) only after receiving salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in a new "tongues" language as the disciples received on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 1:8; 2:4; Mk. 16:17).
As defined in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13, verses 4 to 8, (agape) love signifies the romantic side of God and is revealed and demonstrated in Jesus’ ministry throughout the bible.
Also children are told to "Honour their father and mother, that it may be well with them and that they may live long on the earth” (Eph. 6:2-3). With agape love for our wives, and respect for fathers and mothers, we can catch Jesus’ attention while the Holy Spirit offers us guidance.
Paul tells us that our homes are mini-churches (Eph. 5:32) where we can learn to do the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Guided by Spirit-led mothers, we can grow together using the Gifts (of the Holy Spirit) every day; praying in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18), "that you may prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers” (3 Jn. 2). It can be said of a Christian woman, "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.”
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