Love: Family, Friends, Tribe, and Nation

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

Love and duty are matters of concentric circles — to the closer is the greater duty and the greater love owed. In the previous episode in this series, we covered the facets of self-sacrifice love (agape) and charity (caritas); in this episode, we cover familial and brotherly or fraternal love, emotional (amor) and intellectual (dilectio) love, and piety (the historical, proper sense) and paternal love — three pairs, as it were. We call these facets, because it is not that love can be dissected and broken down into constituent parts; rather, it is that love is expressed in different ways between different people at different times. The love a husband has for his wife is not the same as the love a man has for his nation.

If we are commanded to love, then we must certainly understand what it means to love. We must know whom (and what) we must love and what is the nature and scope of that love. The world would deceive us by calling that which is not — and often even that which cannot be — love ‘love’. As Christians, we are commanded to be wise, and love — to whom it is owed and how it must or must not be expressed — is assuredly a matter of wisdom.

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See Also

Further Reading

Parental Warnings

“Homosexual fornication” and “sodomy” are used as descriptors for an example around the 40:00 mark, but the matter is not discussed in detail or explicitly.

Transcript

The transcript for this episode can be found here

Other transcripts can be found here

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Love: Sacrifice and Charity

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

Love is a multifaceted thing. Sometimes this complex nature can be masked in English by the use of the umbrella term “love” (or even by the exclusion of concepts that really fall under that umbrella — e.g., “friendship”). In this first episode in our (planned) three-episode series on love, we discuss agape (i.e., self-sacrificing or sacrificial love) and caritas (i.e., charity), their interrelationship, and some of their connections to other facets of love (e.g., storge [i.e., familial love]).

Love is a matter of who is doing the thing, whom is receiving the thing, and what the nature and scope of the thing is. The love — more accurately, the scope and nature of the love — you owe to your wife (agape, eros) is not the same as the love you owe to your siblings (agape, philia) or to your nation (pietas). Love is a matter of wisdom, one that has fallen into neglect in Christian discourse.

All that is called love is not.

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Show Notes

See Also

Further Reading

Parental Warnings

None.

Transcript

The transcript for this episode can be found here

Other transcripts can be found here

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God’s Gifts, Man’s Duties

Hosts

Woe

aka Eschatologuy

Whether our gifts are many or few, great or small, God has most assuredly prepared beforehand opportunities for us to use those gifts to serve our neighbors. We, in fact, have a duty to use what God has given us for the good of our neighbor. All that we have we hold in trust as stewards, for all comes from God and all belongs to God.

It is through our good works that we demonstrate, both to ourselves and to the world, that we have a living faith. There are no hard and fast rules or mathematical formulae to determine precisely what one should do with what one has been given — these are matters of wisdom. But we know the basics: Faithfully pursue your work, come to the aid of family and neighbor, and render good works when and where God provides you the opportunity.

The Christian life is not found in pilgrimages or hair shirts or in putting crosses on every surface in one’s home. The faithful Christian baker makes good bread; the faithful Christian shoemaker makes good shoes; the faithful Christian woman keeps a good home; a faithful Christian man diligently pursues his calling — whatever it may be. These are not matters over which to be anxious or about which to fret or worry; God knows what we need and he knows what our neighbor needs, and He has so ordered things that our neighbor can aid us and we can aid him. The Christian life is lived out in many thousands of small interactions, all undertaken with thanks for the good gifts, all of which flow from God.

»17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.«
— James 1:17 (ESV)

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Show Notes

  • Previous episodes:
  • Some recommended Scripture passages:
    • Matthew 6:25–34
    • Matthew 25:1–13
    • Romans 12:3–13
    • Romans 14:1–12
    • 1 Corinthians 4:2
    • 1 Corinthians 12:1–11
    • 1 Corinthians 15:58
    • Ephesians 2:10
    • Colossians 3:18–4:1
    • 1 Peter 4:7–11
    • James 1:16–18
    • Luke 12:35–48
    • Luke 16:1–13
    • Proverbs 3:27–28
    • Proverbs 16:3
    • Proverbs 22:29
    • Ecclesiastes 9:9–10

See Also

Parental Warnings

None.

Transcript

The transcript for this episode can be found here

Other transcripts can be found here

Current Sponsor(s)

Coming soon?

Comments?

Join the discussion on Telegram, visit the feedback form or comment below.