It seems we live in a time where love has been cheapened. We throw the word around loosely and many times it has no real meaning when it is used.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. NKJV

13And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love. Amplified Version

The Greeks actually had four words for love: (1) storge- this is like family love, its a natural love thats is not dependent on things we normally associate as being worthy of love. Its loving your kids, or mom and dad, an uncle of aunt, just because that are who they are. (2) eros- sexually love, or sensual love, perhaps men are looking more toward the sexual part of this type of love while women are looking more toward the emotional connection . Did you know this kind of love is not mentioned in the Bible. (3)phileo- brotherly love, where we get Philadephia, "the city of brotherly love", and (4)agape- Godly love, or unconditional love, Christians view this as the way God loves mankind and it was displayed when Christ willing died on the cross for our sins.

Looks at an example of the four different types of love:

(1) storge-- love for family-- I am sure you know or have heard of a mom or dad who have left their kids for whatever reason. But as usually time catches up to all us, the kids grow up and the parent finds themself without home or family. The kids take them in, provides shelter, food, clothes, etc. There are a lot of homeless people, people in dire finincial need, so why did these kids do this, because it was mom or dad. They did nothing to merit the love, it was natural.

(2) eros-- This one shouldn't be hard for most of us. Most have lusted, or desired the opposite sex, something kicks in at a certain age and instead of wanting to hit the other we find ourselves noticing things that we like. Men are normally just after the sex part, women are more in it for the emotional aspect so I am told, I do wonder about that sometimes. In my opionion, this really doesn't fall in the category of love, but lust and desire. Real love between a man and a woman, a willingness to sacfice self for the well being of your mate.

(3) phileo-- brother love, friend's love-- Greatest story I have ever heard was between two men, their names were Jonathan and David. Jonthan was the son of a king, David was the son of a sheperd. David rose up to be a mighty warrior and Jonthan's dad became very jealous of him and tried on several occasions to kill him. But Jonthan protected David and saved his life despite his dad's unjust jealously and envy, it takes love to go against your dad, even if the dad is wrong.

(4) agape-- unconditional love-- The picture I posted was atop the coffin of one Mike Monsoor, a Navy EOD Technician, he threw himself on top of a grenade in Iraq to save his fellow SEAL's. The figures you see on top of the coffin are gold tridents placed there by other Navy Seals at his funeral. The Bible says, no greater love than a man lays down his life for his friends, the ultimate sacrifice.

Love is not cheap at all, maybe if we get back to what it really consist of, our relationships won't be so shallow.