Love for Family

  Observe how complex is a mother’s love for her children, which draws everything toward an emotion felt in her inmost parts. Even unreasoning animals, like mankind, have a sympathy and parental love for their offspring. (4 Maccabees 14:13-14, Revised Standard Version)

Storge love is the natural, unforced love which families share with one another. Simply put, it begins with the love that a parent has for their child, but also includes not only the rest of those related directly through blood, but to those we are considered part of our family. God reminds us to love one another, especially other believers, because we are all part of His family.

Interestingly, there is a term in the Bible which refers to the opposite of love. Astorgos means to be without love, devoid of affection, without affection to kindred, hard-hearted, and unfeeling. It is described in 2 Timothy.

 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

(2 Timothy 3:1-5, New International Version)

Yikes! So scary that this sounds like what we have going on in the world right now. Why can’t we instead love one another as God has loved us?

(As a side note, the books of Maccabees probably aren’t in your Bible. There is a whole list of books called the Apocrypha, which didn’t make the “cut” for most versions, but I found them in the Revised Standard Version. I haven’t had the time [or the brain cells] to figure out why this is.)