Love gets thrown around for everything from trucks to chocolate, then expected to carry the weight of marriage, family, and faith. We wanted to get specific. Together we map the four Greek loves—storge (affection), philia (friendship), eros (romance), and agape (self-giving)—and show how each one adds clarity to the way we live, choose, and commit. The key? Feelings matter, but they’re not the whole story. When we only “fall” in love, we surrender agency; when we choose love, we learn to will the good of another.

We start with the everyday warmth of storge, the affection that makes homes and communities feel like home, and name the danger of possessiveness when fear takes the wheel. Then we turn to philia, the thick, chosen friendship our hyperconnected world keeps forgetting. Real friends share a good beyond themselves, tell the hard truth, and make us braver. From there, we face eros without flinching—its beauty, its creativity, and its raw power to idealize or even unmake us. We talk about how traditions try to place eros in a moral frame so desire becomes humanizing rather than consuming.

Finally, we reach agape: the decision to unite our will to God’s wisdom and actively seek the other’s true good, regardless of how we feel. Agape doesn’t cancel affection, friendship, or romance; it councils them. Without it, each love warps—smothering parents, cliques dressed up as loyalty, and romance that becomes a false god. With it, love becomes ordered, durable, and free, capable of forgiveness and courage when life tests our vows.

If this conversation sparked something—made you rethink how you use the word love or how you practice it—share the episode with a friend, subscribe, and leave a review so others can find it. And tell us: which love needs the most attention in your life right now?