What is agape love?

What is agape love? We are going to answer that question. The Greek word agape is often translated as love in the New Testament. How is agape love different from other types of love? The essence of agape love is goodwill, benevolence, and a willful delight in the object of love.

Unlike our English word love, agape is not used in the New Testament to refer to romantic or sexual love. Nor does it refer to a close friendship or brotherly love, for which the Greek word phyla is used.

Agape Love in the New Testament and the Greek Word for Love

Agape love involves faithfulness, commitment, and an act of the will. It is distinguished from other types of love by its lofty moral nature and strong character. Agape love is beautifully described in 1 Corinthians 13.

Outside the New Testament, the word agape is used in a variety of contexts, but the New Testament gives it a distinct meaning. Agape is used to describe the love that is of and from God. God is love. God is not merely love.

He is love itself. Everything God does flows from His love. Agape is also used to describe our love for God. A servant's faithful respect to his master and a man's attachment to things. The type of love that characterizes God is not a sappy, sentimental feeling that we often hear portrayed.

God loves because it is His nature and the expression of His being. He loves the unlovable and unlovely, not because we deserve to be loved, but because it is His nature to love and God must be true to His nature.

God's Love Displayed at the Cross

Agape love is always shown by what it does. God's love is displayed most clearly at the cross. God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, you have been saved. We did not deserve such a sacrifice, but God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God's love is unmerited, gracious, and constantly seeking the benefit of the ones He loves.

We don't deserve His lavish agape love. God's demonstration of agape love led to the sacrifice of His own Son for those He loves. We are to love others with agape love, whether they are fellow believers or bitter enemies.

Loving Others with Agape Love

Jesus gave us the parable of the Good Samaritan as an example of sacrifice for the sake of others, even those who are against us. Agape love modeled by Christ is not based on a feeling, rather it is a determined act of the will, a joyful resolve to put the welfare of others above our own.

Agape love does not come naturally to us. Because of our fallen nature, we are incapable of producing such a love. If we are to love as Christ loves, that love, that agape, can only come from its source.

This is the love that has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us when we became His children. This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

Because of God's love toward us, we are able to love one another. That answers the question, what is agape love? Be sure to research this question further on our website, gotquestions .org. Also, click subscribe and check out these other questions.