A Dynamic Defense for Your Marriage

While many are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13, also known as the love chapter of the Bible, too few realize that there is a special gem of blessing within the Greek regarding love as they read its verses. I, and others who attended in the 1970’s Northeast Bible Institute (NBI), Green Lane, Pennsylvania, were introduced to some of these jewels by our instructor in Greek, the late Hobart Grazier.

Brother Grazier taught a whole course on the epistles to the Corinthians, and because NBI was an Assembly of God school, there was special emphasis upon the gifts and operations of the Holy Spirit as described in 1 Corinthians.

The twelfth chapter of 1 Corinthians essentially describes the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the fourteenth chapter places a focus upon the correct operation of the gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy. In the midst is the thirteenth chapter where the Holy Spirit insists that the operation of the gifts be done in love.

In the New Testament, two Greek words are used for our word love. One is phileo (fill-lay-oh) and the other is agape (ah-gah-pay). I discussed these words, along with eros, some months ago in my article titled, A Little-known Element for Endurance in Marriage.

There I note that agape must be the primary love in marriage. Agape comes from one’s will, and not their emotions. It has also been described as unconditional and sacrificial. Agape is sometimes translated in the King James Version as charity. Though charity to many today means giving, centuries ago it conveyed the idea of love from one’s will.

Stego: A Dynamic Force of Agape Love

While 1 Corinthians 13 was primarily intended to promote the proper operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, much of what it says can be applied to marriage. Quite helpful is the first phrase of verse seven, that love “bears all things.” The word for bear is from the Greek word, stego, pronounced stay-goh.

According to Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon it can mean the following:

1. To protect, to keep by covering, to preserve.

2. To cover with silence; to keep secret; to hide, conceal.

3. By covering to keep off something which threatens, to bear up against, to hold out against, and so to endure, forbear, bear.

Its usage in verse seven leans heavily toward the third description. I recall brother Grazier stating during class that when the Greeks wanted to give a boat a good water seal, they would “stego” it with tar or pitch, outside and inside.