Eros Love
What is the biblical form of love in eros? And why did God create such a sensual type of love? Occasionally, talking about passionate, sensual love makes some people uncomfortable. I think the reason some people are uncomfortable about the eros type of love is mainly either because we don’t understand it or because we don’t understand God’s reason for such a type of sensual love.
Our Heavenly Father created all the things we see and experience in this world so that we may cherish them and enjoy them, and one of those things is the expression of love between man and wife. “Eros love is part of God’s design, a gift of his goodness for procreation and enjoyment. Sex as God intended it is a source of delight and a beautiful blessing to be shared between married couples” (Learn Religions; Jack Zavada). God is so intricate and careful about everything He creates and provides. Because He is so careful and intricate with His creation, as believers we must embrace His way of expressing sensual love between husband and wife. He didn’t create us to be alone in this world just as Genesis reads: “And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:22-24, ESV). God gifted eros love between man and wife to us as an expression of becoming one when loving one another as husband and wife.
In the Bible, eros love is affirmed as a way of honoring God with not only our hearts, actions, and minds but also with our bodies. “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:15-20, ESV). Part of accepting Christ into our hearts and into our lives is honoring our bodies in order to honor Him. As mentioned before, God was very intricate and careful when He created this world. Part of carefully creating the world involved creating considerable features and direction that God planned not only for our good but His glory as well. Think of how much love and consideration God had for us when He created the world for us to live in; He even knew our desires as human beings so deeply that He also orchestrated the type of love that is eros. God neglects nothing.
Eros has also been known as the Greek god Eros (similar to the mythical creature known as Cupid). In Greek mythology, Eros is identified with fertility, desire, and sexual love. However, in Greek mythology, Eros was also known to purposely confuse people by making them submissive to sexual desires amongst each other. There was reckless passion among people the more he toyed with their fleshly desires, making them undisciplined and misdirected. God, however, isn’t a trickster. God loves us with such purity, kindness, and consideration. He knows the act of eros love is to be honored and respected. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-7, ESV). I cannot get over how truly loved we are by our Holy Father. He is attentive, and He knew what He was doing when He offered us eros love in marriage. His love and His truth are our guides when mirroring Him in our everyday lives, including the way we express love as husband and wife. Just as His love for us is powerful, kind, careful, and gracious, so should we be in the way we love in marriage.
Resources:
https://www.learnreligions.com/what-is-eros-love-700682