Agape: What This Greek Word for Love Means

What does agape mean?

Agape (ἀγάπη) is the Greek word most often translated love in the New Testament. It is the word used for God’s love for the world (John 3:16), for the love Christians are told to have for God and one another, and for the love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13. In New Testament use it usually describes love shown in action and sacrifice, not just a warm feeling. Grounded pronunciation: a-GA-pay.

The related verb is agapaō, “to love.” Both words run through the New Testament, so what they mean shapes how you read nearly every passage about love.

The Greek word

Agape and the other Greek words for love

Greek had several words for love, and you may have heard of four: storgē (family affection), philia (friendship), erōs (romantic or passionate love), and agapē. That list is a popular way to organize them, but it is not how the New Testament sorts love. The New Testament writers mainly use agapē/agapaō and phileō (to love as a friend, to have affection for), and never use erōs at all.

How the New Testament uses agape

• God’s love for us. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And: “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
• Jesus’ command. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). The measure is how Jesus has loved—“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).
• Love for neighbors and enemies. “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you” (Matthew 5:44). See Love Your Enemies.
• The greatest commandment. Loving God and neighbor (Luke 10:27) sums up the law. See The Greatest Commandment.
• A fruit of the Spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace” (Galatians 5:22)—love comes first in Paul’s list.

The cross is the definition

John does not define love with a feeling; he points to an event. “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16). Two verses later he adds, “let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

That is why agape is often described as love that gives something real, at real cost, for another person’s actual good. The cross shows love that did not wait for the other person to be lovable: “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Agape in 1 Corinthians 13

Paul’s famous chapter on love is about agape, which the King James Version renders “charity.” Its description is mostly about behavior: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up” (1 Corinthians 13:4). It lists patience, kindness, truthfulness, and endurance, not emotions. The chapter ends, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Read in its setting, this chapter was written to a divided and show-off church at Corinth. It is not a wedding poem first; it is a correction. Love is what makes gifts, knowledge, and even sacrifice worth anything (1 Corinthians 13:1–3).

Is agape only a choice, not a feeling?

You will often hear that agape is ‘unconditional,’ ‘divine,’ or ‘a choice, not a feeling.’ There is truth in that: the New Testament commands agape, and you cannot be commanded to feel a certain way, so it must include will and action. But it helps to be careful, because the Greek word alone does not settle the meaning. Context does.

• Agape is not a code word for ‘God’s love only.’ People can agape the wrong things. “Men loved darkness rather than light” (John 3:19) uses the verb agapaō, and so does “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world” (2 Timothy 4:10).
• Agape and phileo overlap. John says both “The Father loveth the Son” (John 3:35), using agapaō, and “the Father loveth the Son” (John 5:20), using phileō—the same relationship described with two words. Many popular sermons make much of a difference between agape and phileo in John 21; many scholars think John is varying his vocabulary rather than building a contrast.
• “Unconditional” is not a New Testament word. What Romans 5:8 shows is love that did not wait for us to deserve it. That is the heart of what people mean by “unconditional.”

What agape looks like in everyday life

Jesus’ own stories show agape in motion. In The Good Samaritan, love of neighbor means stopping, paying, and staying with a stranger at a cost to yourself (Luke 10:30–37). In The Prodigal Son, love runs to meet someone who has not yet apologized (Luke 15:20). And forgiveness is agape at its hardest: releasing a debt someone owes you because a larger one was released for you.

A practical test from 1 John 3:18: ask where your love is still only ‘in word’ and where it could be “in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). The Hebrew background of this kind of faithful love is explored in the hesed word study.