Answer: The Greek word agape is often translated "love" in
the New Testament. How is "agape love" different from other types of
love? The essence of agape love is self-sacrifice. Unlike our English
word
"love,” agape is not used in the Bible to refer to romantic or sexual
love. Nor
does it refer to close friendship or brotherly love, for which the Greek
word philia
is used. Nor does agape mean charity, a term which the King James
translators
carried over from the Latin. Agape love is unique and is distinguished
by its
nature and character.
Agape is love which is of and from God, whose very nature is love
itself. The
Apostle John affirms this in 1 John 4:8:
"God
is love.” God does not merely love; He is love itself. Everything God
does
flows from His love. But it is important to remember that God’s love is
not a
sappy, sentimental love such as we often hear portrayed. God loves
because that
is His nature and the expression of His being. He loves the unlovable
and the
unlovely (us!), not because we deserve to be loved, but because it is
His
nature to do so, and He must be true to His nature and character. God’s
love is
displayed most clearly at the Cross, where Christ died for the unworthy
creatures who were "dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1),
not
because we did anything to deserve it, "but God commends His love
toward us
in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
The
object of agape love never does anything to merit His love. We are the
undeserving recipients upon whom He lavishes that love. His love was
demonstrated when He sent His Son into the world to "seek and save that
which
was lost” (Luke
19:10),
and to provide eternal life to those He sought and saved. He paid the
ultimate
sacrifice for those He loves.
In the same way, we are to love others sacrificially. Jesus gave the
parable of
the Good Samaritan as an example of sacrifice for the sake of others,
even for
those who may care nothing at all for us, or even hate us, as the Jews
did the
Samaritans. Sacrificial love is not based on a feeling, but a determined
act of
the will, a joyful resolve to put the welfare of others above our own.
But this
type of love does not come naturally to humans. Because of our fallen
nature,
we are incapable of producing such a love. If we are to love as God
loves, that
love—that agape—can only come from its true Source. This is the love
which "has
been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us” when
we
became His children (Romans
5:5). Because that love is now in our hearts, we can obey Jesus who
said,
"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have
loved you,
you should also love one another” (John 13:34).
This new
commandment involves loving one another as He loved us sacrificially,
even to
the point of death. But again, it is clear that only God can generate
within us
the kind of self-sacrificing love which is the proof that we are His
children.
"By this we have known the love of God, because He laid down His life
for us.
And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers” (1 John 3:16).
Because
of God’s love toward us, we are now able to love one another.
1 John 4:8 (NIV)
8 Whoever does not love
does not know God because God is Love.
