Last month we discussed “Love, A New Command Older Than Time”. During that series, in particular, Jared introduced us to the Godly love of agape. This month we decided to build off of that foundation and explore the other types of love which are philia, storge, and eros. Last week Jared wrote about philia. This week, we are going to explore storge. Next week Christopher is going to write about eros.
As Jared mentioned, philia is prevalently used in the Bible, in its direct usage, description, and themes. Agape is also prevalently used in all of those ways. In contrast, the Greek words storge and eros are not directly used in the Bible, however the descriptions are there, the themes are there. But the specific words aren’t. Today I would like to introduce what storge means, explore some Biblical themes around storge and compare it to some of the other loves.
Storge Defined:
The Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon defines storge love as “cherishing one’s kindred, especially parents or children; the mutual love of parents and children and wives and husbands; loving affection; prone to love; loving tenderly; chiefly of the reciprocal tenderness of parents and children.” This is a rather cumbersome definition. It gives us some information about storge, but does not, in my opinion, really give us a good understanding of the meaning nor how it truly differs from the other loves in a practical sense. Others (C.S. Lewis included) have summarized storge as simply “natural affection”. This fits with some of the Biblical uses, or at least a the variations of storge used in the Bible. This will be discussed later in this article.
C.S. Lewis, in his discourse about the 4 loves, says that this natural affection covers an array of things. It can be the natural affection we have towards our favorite pets. It can even be the affection we have for certain things like our favorite t-shirt, favorite smells like fresh cut alfalfa or leather, or a pickup truck like a 1984 Chevy c-10. Just in case you are interested, that pickup is named the “Black Stallion”. Christopher, Jared, myself, and several other family members drove this pickup through high school as their first vehicle. It is a wonderful truck with a lot of great memories.
But… back to storge. Storge can sit alongside a different love, like eros. An example is when we love a particular place because it reminds us of an experience with someone, we eros. I love Stillwater because that is where Hannah and I first started our lives together and there are so many great memories connected there. Storge can sit alongside philia, we love certain people because we are naturally drawn to them through experience, such as your family or your college friends. The bond of philia extends beyond the shared experiences, but it can be strengthened through experiences. The best example of storge, however, is the care of a mother to a baby. That relationship is a picture of natural love and affection. Storge is all around us and so infused into the human experience, that it is good that we know about it and can recognize it, so we can enjoy the blessings which come from storge.
Storge in the Bible:
There are only 3 Biblical occurrences of storge. As I mentioned previously, these are not precise and direct uses, but rather variations. There are compound uses where storge is a base word. The three occurrences are 2 Timothy 3:3, Romans 1:31, and Romans 12:10.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
(2 Timothy 3:2-3 KJV)
The term in verse three “without natural affection” is the Greek word astorgos. “A” is a negative participle. When added to a word the meaning is the opposite of the other base word. Astorgos is the opposite of storge. The ESV translates it as “heartless”. The NKJV translates is as “unloving”. Romans 1:31 (KJV) is the same wording. Astorgos is translated to “without natural affection”. The context is pretty similar context in the sense that both are describing a depraved person.
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; (
(Romans 12:10 KJV)
The English phrase “Be kindly affectioned” in the KJV is translated from the Greek word philostorgos. This is an example of when storge and philia can be laid beside each other and deepen the relationship. Jared talked about this usage a little bit last week. I am going to table this particular use for now and we will come back to it later in the article.
General Themes in the Bible:
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
(Isaiah 49:15 NKJV)
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
Storge is not specifically used in this verse, partly because this would have been written in Hebrew and not Greek, and partially because love is not specifically mentioned here.
However, I do believe we can see storge in this passage. It is in the relationship between a mother and a nursing child. C.S. Lewi said that this is the best and most pure example of storge. The love of a mother towards her new child is something that naturally occurs. In fact, if a woman has a mental illness associated with her partum experience (i.e. post-partum depression) and does not love her baby, we often call that abnormal or un-natural.
One of the things I like about this passage, is that it puts the theme of storge against the theme of agape. Storge is seen in the care a mother has for her child. She will never forget that child. This principle became very clear and personal to me when my mom was in the hospital with cancer. Despite feeling terrible and having enough to worry about for herself, when we would talk on the phone, she would ask about my life. She wanted to hear about my life because she cared for me. It was a natural love for her to want to hear about her son’s life. In this passage, agape is seen in contrast to say, as unlikely a mother to forget about her child, God is much less likely to forget about His children. The writer essentially says that God will never forget about the people who He agapes. This is a powerfully comforting thought.
I mentioned previously I would come back to the use of philostorgos (the compound of brotherly love and natural affection).
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
(Romans 12:10 KJV)
It is natural to love your siblings. Storge can occur when you are connected through life experiences. Siblings often share many life experiences and form a loving relationship. You see this in Bible, with the love between family members like Martha’s and Mary’s love for Lazarus in John 11. But here is the weird thing about this familial relationship, you don’t always storge your siblings and you don’t have to be connected by physical blood to share storge. It can happen through adoption. When a child is adopted into a family, you can share experiences and develop storge, but never actually develop philia, and especially not agape. OR you can develop all three. I would say that this is the type of relationship, Christopher and I have with Jared. If you don’t know, Jared is adopted. But he is still my brother, and Christopher’s cousin… and Christopher’s brother-in-law. Remember their relationship is “layered” to say the least.
I bring this up to talk about the idea of spiritual adoption. If you look at Romans 8 or Galatians 4, you see a discussion laid out about adoption. It is this spirit of adoption that I believe philostorgos really comes to fruition and is manifested. It is what places Jared’s topic and my topic along-side one another. The spirit of adoption means that we truly become family, not just in word but an engrained belief which shows itself through action. People often say blood is thicker than water. They say this to mean that the physical blood which binds them together as family is stronger than any other that might connect them. But the sense that we are given is that by the spirit of adoption, the blood of Jesus binds us together. That blood is, and should be, stronger than any other. This includes physical blood and the genetic makeup that binds us. This is an area many Christians struggle. We are naturally drawn to our physical family and want to give preference to them. We are willing to give THEM the benefit of the doubt much more quickly than someone who is not family. But my question, is do you real subscribe to the idea that Jesus has linked us together by His blood? That God has adopted us into a family and made us family with our fellow Christians? We call each other “brother” or “sister”, but do we really mean it? Do we mean it as though we have shared some similar life experiences? Or do we mean we are family?
If we are really family, our love should go beyond storge. It extends beyond the shared experience and the natural affections that come from those experiences. If those experiences were stripped away, if we no longer shared face time together, we should still have a bond which extends deeper than storge. As we learned last month, our love for brethren should include philia and agape. That means we give them the benefit of the doubt. It means we are willing to forgive them quickly when they have offended us. It means that we do all of the things 1 Corinthians 13 says love does. Because we are family, and we agape each other.
As we start to wrap up the topic of storge, I would like to challenge you to look for storge in your life. What are the things you love? Your favorite shirt, fresh cut alfalfa, or a wonderful 1984 pickup? Enjoy that love, it is a blessing. After you take the time to enjoy that love, think about how love for that thing, that place, or even that person is different from philia or agape. Think about the relationships you have with brothers and sisters in Christ. Do you love them with storge, philia, or agape? Hopefully, you love them with all three. If not, then maybe you need to change your love and grow in your love for your adopted family.
Tune in next week as Christopher spices things up with his discussion of eros. Until then, God bless and let love abound in your life.
The Brother Cousins 