# G0026 - agape **Strong's:** [G0026](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g26/) · BLB lookup **Pronunciation:** ag-ah'-pay **Part of speech:** feminine noun **Root:** from *G0025 - agapao* (ἀγαπάω, "to love") **NT occurrences:** ~116 (notably absent from Acts, Mark, James in the noun form) ## Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG) 1. **Affection, good will, love, benevolence**, the broadest sense. 2. **The love of Christians toward Christians** (covenant love within the believing community). 3. **God's love toward humanity**, sacrificial, unconditional, initiatory. 4. **Christ's sacrificial love** for sinners ([Romans 5:8](/codex/romans-5-8/); [John 15:13](/codex/john-15-13/)). 5. *(Plural)* **A love-feast**, early-church communal meal ([Jude 12](/codex/jude-12/)). ## Theological force, the *agapē* / *philia* / *eros* contrast A frequently-cited (and often overdrawn) distinction: - **ἀγάπη (agapē)**, willed, committed, sacrificial, often unconditional love. The choice to seek another's good regardless of merit or reciprocity. - **φιλία (philia)**, affectionate friendship-love, often mutual, based on shared regard or kinship. - **ἔρως (erōs)**, passionate, desire-based love (rare in NT). - **στοργή (storgē)**, natural family affection (rare in NT, frequent in classical Greek). C. S. Lewis's *The Four Loves* (1960) is the popular treatment. **Caveat**: NT usage shows considerable overlap. *Agapē* is sometimes used of less-than-noble loves (Demas "loved this present world," [2 Timothy 4:10](/codex/2-timothy-4-10/)); *phileō* is used of God's love ([John 5:20](/codex/john-5-20/), "the Father loves the Son"; [John 16:27](/codex/john-16-27/)). The vocabulary is not always rigidly partitioned. The deeper point: *agapē* in Christian usage acquires the distinctive sense of *covenant love* through theological appropriation of pre-existing Hellenistic vocabulary. The decisive theological claim: **God is *agapē*** ([1 John 4:8](/codex/1-john-4-8/), [16](/codex/1-john-4-16/)). Not "God experiences love" but "God *is* love", love is constitutive of the divine nature, not merely a divine attribute. This grounds the eternal mutual love among the Trinitarian persons: the Father loves the Son ([John 3:35](/codex/john-3-35/); 17:24), the Son loves the Father ([John 14:31](/codex/john-14-31/)), the Spirit is the love-bond (Augustine, *De Trinitate* 15), the divine being is love-in-action ad intra, before any creation existed. ## Notable verses ### God's *agapē* toward us - **[John 3.16](/codex/john-3-16/)**, "for God so loved (*ēgapēsen*) the world that He gave His only begotten Son" - **[Romans 5:8](/codex/romans-5-8/)**, "God demonstrates His own love (*agapēn*) toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" - **[Ephesians 2:4-5](/codex/ephesians-2-4-5/)**, "because of His great love (*agapēn*) with which He loved us" - **[1 John 3:1](/codex/1-john-3-1/)**, "see what kind of love the Father has bestowed on us" - **[1 John 4:9-10](/codex/1-john-4-9-10/)**, "in this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" - **[1 John 4:19](/codex/1-john-4-19/)**, "we love, because He first loved us" ### *Agapē* as God's nature - **[1 John 4:8](/codex/1-john-4-8/)**, "the one who does not love does not know God, for God is love (*ho theos agapē estin*)" - **[1 John 4:16](/codex/1-john-4-16/)**, "God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God in him" ### The love command - **[Matthew 22:37-40](/codex/matthew-22-37-40/)**, the great commandment: love (*agapēseis*) the Lord your God; love your neighbor - **[John 13:34](/codex/john-13-34/)**, "a new commandment I give you, that you love one another" - **[John 15:12-13](/codex/john-15-12-13/)**, "greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends" - **[Romans 13:8-10](/codex/romans-13-8-10/)**, "love is the fulfillment of the law" ### The hymn of love - **[1 Corinthians 13:1-13](/codex/1-corinthians-13-1-13/)**, the locus classicus on *agapē*; "love never fails"; "the greatest of these is love" ### Christ's love - **[Galatians 2:20](/codex/galatians-2-20/)**, "the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me" - **[Ephesians 5:2](/codex/ephesians-5-2/), [25](/codex/ephesians-5-25/)**, "Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us"; "husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church" - **[Revelation 1:5](/codex/revelation-1-5/)**, "to Him who loves us and released us from our sins" ### Love within the church - **[John 13:34-35](/codex/john-13-34-35/)**, "by this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" - **[1 John 3:14](/codex/1-john-3-14/), [16](/codex/1-john-3-16/)**, "we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren" ## Patristic / scholarly note Augustine (*De Trinitate* 8.10; 15.17-19) develops the doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the *love* between Father and Son, the personal bond of mutual *agapē* ad intra in the Trinity. This becomes the *Western* Trinitarian model (Augustine → Anselm → Aquinas → Reformed); the *Eastern* tradition emphasizes the Spirit's procession from the Father alone (filioque controversy). Either way, *agapē* is constitutive of God's eternal being, not a contingent property. Anders Nygren's *Agape and Eros* (1932/1953) made the agapē/erōs contrast famous in 20th-century Protestant theology, arguing that *agapē* is uniquely Christian (descending, gracious, unmerited) over against pagan *erōs* (ascending, desire-based). Critics (e.g., Pope Benedict XVI's *Deus Caritas Est*, 2005) have argued Nygren overstated the contrast: God's love includes both gracious initiative (*agapē*) and desire-for-the-beloved (*erōs* in a purified sense). C. S. Lewis (*The Four Loves*, 1960) gives the popular treatment that has shaped Anglophone Christian thinking on love. ## Verses in this codex _See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._ ## See also - *G0025 - agapao*, the cognate verb - G5368 - phileo, "to love" (affectionate) - [H2617 - hesed](/codex/h2617-hesed/), Hebrew "loyal love" (LXX often renders with *eleos*, "mercy"; closely related theologically to *agapē*) - [John 3.16](/codex/john-3-16/), locus of God's *agapē* toward the world