Jun P. Espina 4 min read
Updated on November 22nd, 2022
There are four types of love: 1) Philia or close friendship or brotherly love (Rom. 12:10); 2) Agape or selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love (e.g. Christ’s love—John 14:21); 3) Eros (erotic) or physical and sensual love, e.g., between husband and wife (1 Cor. 7:8-9; 4) and Storge or family love (Ex. 20:12). Understanding erotic love is a key relationship builder. In this post, I want to explore erotic or eros love.
Understanding Erotic (Eros) Love is the Key
The love of the opposite sex is very unstable among our youth. Why? Because of the idealism of the young for perfection, fame, money, and good looks. Hence, a long engagement is essential before marriage. The lovers need to first clear up the cobwebs of youthful dreams for a life partner. For proof that it is so, one study shows that a year of relationship before marriage is much better compared to a rush union.
Read Also: Love Requiring Reciprocal Affection
Key Actors in Marriage
Men are the key actors in marriage. Normally, we are the ones courting, proposing, and marrying. But most of us are easily captured by the impressiveness of beauty, money, or fame. A married man, Mark Antony, had a love affair with Cleopatra; Rody Duterte, to four women; and the fat Jewish woman, Monica Lewinski, devastated the peace and moral integrity of Bill Clinton. For beauty, few men don’t care they were the twentieth man of their beloved wife.
But then beauty dies with age, and money and fame are very uncertain. That’s one significant problem with eros love, for it is usually anchored on ever-changing conditions. The lifespan of the love relationship between young people is sometimes gauged by the lovers’ reasons for loving and keeping each other close.
But then beauty dies with age, and money and fame are very uncertain. That’s one significant problem with eros love, for it is usually anchored on ever-changing conditions. The lifespan of the love relationship between young people is sometimes gauged by the lovers’ reasons for loving and keeping each other close.
Read Also: Husband’s Love Kept Forever Because of Her
Erotic Love to Prevent Breakup
How can our young people prevent their love relationships from breaking up?
Well, it’s good for a relationship to end if it is not meant to last forever. Let love turn into icy hatred before marriage. Let it die, for its demise is better than the calamity it will shoulder should it be allowed to survive.
But if one’s love is worthy of survival and growth as an oak tree, by all means, mold and grow it. Your future family—even your community and the country—needs such love. We need true eros love. Our nation depends on it since society always depends on the health of the relationships in the family.
But if one’s love is worthy of survival and growth as an oak tree, by all means, mold and grow it. Your future family—even your community and the country—needs such love. We need true eros love. Our nation depends on it since society always depends on the health of the relationships in the family.
What do we need to prevent an eros love from breaking up? Well, the understanding of eros love always depends on the sense of maturity of the lovers concerned. The legal requirement known as “parental consent” was invented, for we are all aware, based on a survey, that of five marriages of couples below age 20, only one will survive separation.
Our young are sometimes very irrational about their so-called love, only to find it to be the primary cause of their lifelong agony. We, as parents, need to pray for and give wise counsel to our children.
Eros love shouldn’t be dominated by the power of pure feelings with no semblance of sanity in its totality. Remove the conditions of blind love, namely, fame, money, good looks, etc., for it to see its blindness and its purely physical and sexual nature.
Read Also: Happy Family Demands Common Faith in God, Not Just Love
Erotic Love Based on the Christian Perspective
From the point of view of Bible-believing and Christ-worshiping Christians, they want their child to get married to a Christian spouse. Second, they want to be around to give counsel.
The Bible verses that support this belief are many. In sum, the apostle Paul said that Christ’s followers should marry only fellow believers. (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14) Second, parents, particularly the mothers, are required to teach their daughters to “love” their husbands. (cf. Tit. 2:4) Third, the bed of marriage is holy. (Heb. 13:4) Real Christians consider the faithfulness of the couple to be unbroken.
Christians are not perfect. They just have a guide, the Holy Bible, and the Spirit of Christ. Hence, they are different somehow—though imperfect!
Read Also: Cultivate Love Like Planting A Seed
Erotic Love for the Newly Married Couple
What about the eros love of a newly married couple?
Well, sex is vital to the health of any marital relationship. Second is having children; third is compatibility, and fourth is money. We know that unfaithfulness is the number one culprit in any form of divorce; hence, let’s be honest and faithful. My philosophy, which I borrowed from Mary Kay, is “God first, family second, and career third.”
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Romans 12:9.
