Love

Most of us have heard that there's two kinds of love: family and friend kind of love and romantic love. Although I've heard many people say it, it doesn't really satisfy me intellectually. From a Christian standpoint, God is love (I'm assuming we agree on this, otherwise this part is up for discussion). But if there are two types of love, which is He? The Bible uses both examples of family love (God the Father) and romantic love (church being His bride) to describe God's love. So, perhaps there are not multiple types of love. Maybe there is only one. Bringing us to the main question, what is love?
Againg, most of us have heard that love is not a feeling. If love were a feeling it would probably pass and come back time after time like most feelings do. I think love is a choice to further the ultimate happiness of another person (also, this part is up for discussion). For the sake of explaining my thoughts, I'll continue this rant with my explanation of what love is.
Now, if there is only one type of love why are our relationships so different with someone people even though we claim to love them? My theory, if love is a choice to further the ultimate happiness of another, then maybe the actions made as a result of this choice are different according to the object you have chosen to love.
For example, a young man might go on a date with his girlfriend. When she is scared of the movie they saw or frustrated with issues in her life, the guy might hold her and try to comfort her. Then the guy gets home. His father is frustrated over bills and afraid ends might not meet. Does the young man hold his father and try to comfort him? Let's hope that the guy offers to get a job and help earn some money in the household instead.
Anyway, that's my view. Feel free to discuss and disagree. I thought this would be cool to discuss.

That's a really good thing to think about. Paul uses a rare word for love in the Greek language when talking of it in a letter: agape [ah-gop-ae]. It's basically an unselfish love. There was no other word in the entire language that would accurately describe the kind of love Paul was trying to communicated. I think agape love is the kind of love we have for everyone, whether family, friends, boyfriend or girlfriend, and that sort of thing. I just think it's displayed in different ways. Example:

You love your Mom and Dad, and show them by the little and big things you do for them.
You love your friends in the same way, but there's a different sort of loyalty.
You love your boyfriend or girlfriend the same way also, but it comes out in different expressions.

Basically it covers everything, without including romance. I guess that's the category that "family or brotherly love" would fall under. Then there's the romantic love, that usually has to do with emotions or feelings. You don't have that kind of love for your family, or even your friends, but it's usually reserved for boyfriends and girlfriends. Now that I've basically repeated everything Esther just said (>.>'), I will conclude by saying this:

I think that God has both loves in Him. He says throughout the Bible that He is a jealous God, and His passion for us is described many times as well. But, He also cares deeply for us, with a Fatherly love. So what I guess I'm saying, is that maybe there's third love called a "godly love." As for whether or not we can possess it, I really don't know, but God definitely does. Did I make any sense at all? I hope so. It's easier to understand than it is to explain.

Yes, but I think that 'third love' is really what love is. I don't think there are these multiple loves, I believe God demonstrates the one type of 'love' to its fullest.

True. Maybe I'm just not mature enough mentally to understand it completely. It's a very deep and thought-provoking topic.

Think of it this way: if love is working towards the ultimate happiness of another person, then that is your goal when you love someone. It doesn't matter how they're related or not related to you, you try to ensure their ultimate happiness. You simply go about different ways of doing it with different people.

That's just like what we've been talking about in Sunday School! ^^

Exactly, starts out complicated, but it's really not.

Right, you can boil it down to such a basic definition, and that's really awesome. I just love well, love!