One of the things English readers lose when they read any translation is some of the richness and depth of the original text. Many people fight about which translation is best (and you can read what I think about translations here) but in reality, they are all translations and lose some of the original understanding, no matter how good the translation is.

One way this happens is with the word Love. In English, we have one word for love, and based on context we infer how deep or what kind of love it is. Because saying “I love tacos” should be a different type of love than “I love my husband.” And in the Bible there are important differences to understand not just in types of love but in how modern English speakers understand the word love. So take a look at Biblical love.

Love in the New Testament

In Greek, you see people talk about 4 different Greek words for love:

1. Agápe (ἀγάπη) – Unconditional, selfless love. This is the Love used by Christians to refer to God’s Love for mankind.
2. Éros (ἔρως) – Romantic, passionate love. It typically refers to the physical attraction or desire between lovers.
3. Philia (φιλία) – Affectionate love, often translated as “friendship.” This love is based on shared experiences, loyalty, and companionship between friends.
4. Storgē (στοργή) – Familial love. It refers to the natural affection between family members, such as between parents and children or between siblings.

So as you can see there is a lot of room for confusion if all the above are written as love in English. Thankfully, only three of these are used in the New Testament, and prominently, just two: Agape and Philia.

1. Agápe (ἀγάπη) – This is the most common word for love in the New Testament and is often used to describe God’s unconditional love for humanity. The cultural shift that Christians brought to this word is that it was applied to how God feels about us. Usually, this word was used to describe human love towards the gods, but it wasn’t reciprocal. This is one of the things we take for granted how revolutionary it was that Christians were saying God agape’s us, and that is the only way we can truly agape, is because he agaped first.
2. Philia (φιλία) – This word describes affectionate love or friendship. It’s used to represent the close bond between friends or brotherly love. This is the version of love used for how Christians should treat other Christians and the word Jesus used when he refers to us as his friend.
3. Storgē (στοργή) is also not commonly found as a stand-alone word in the New Testament, but the concept of familial love is present.

And when we start looking at not only what the word for Love means, but also which type of love that scripture is talking about in certain areas, we get a more accurate understanding of what it means to Love like Jesus.

The Definition problems

Because we have one word for love as English speakers, when there are two words with two meanings being combined, it’s easy to get confused on which is which. In this case, if we confuse the way we are to treat other Christians with the way we’re to treat everyone, a lot of confusion can happen which leads to barriers.

A great example of this is in John 21 when Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves him. On the surface, as English speakers we can draw a parallel with Peter having denied Jesus 3 times and then Jesus asks Peter to confirm that he loves Jesus 3 times. But there is something else going on in that passage. Because the first two times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him, Jesus uses the word Agape, and Peter responds with Phileo. On the third time asking, Jesus changes to asking Peter “do you Phileo me?” and Peter responds with “You know I Phileo you.”

It wasn’t till I was writing this post that I learned Jesus was using a different word than Peter the first two times. And there are a lot of guesses at what these differences mean, and they may mean nothing or a lot of things. But the point is you can’t wrestle with what it means if you don’t know what the original text says.

The Cultural Problems

Then there’s the Cultural problem. The word love has run rampant in our current culture, so we probably could use some additional words for it. Our culture seems to give two definitions to the word love. One is a sexual connotation, and one is a complete acceptance with no questions or barriers. We seem to have completely forgotten the friendly and familial love entirely.

When this is how you view the word love, it makes it difficult to actually understand passages with the word in them, making the original text so important when looking at the word love.

So to clarify Biblical love further we have to look at what the Bible says Love is, esp. Agape love, which is what is talked about in the two greatest commandments. So let’s look at 3 verses

I John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

this verse tells us that you cannot define love without God because God is love. So from a Christian worldview, you cannot understand what real love is without God at the center of the understanding. From here, we would say if God is not the center of your life and love then it’s not love.

I Corinthians 13

This shows us how love acts. So when we are told to Love God and Love our neighbor, this is what this means, be patient and Kind, don’t boast don’t envy or be angry, don’t look out for your best interest, rejoice in truth not unrighteousness.

Luke 10:27

Once you have your understanding of Love centered on God, and what he says love looks like, then it’s a question of who do you have to love. Jesus summed up it all up in Luke 10:27:

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength and with all your mind’ c and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

And it’s very important that we get it in that order. Love God with you’re whole being, and then once you have your understanding of love centered on God, go love people. “progressive Christians” get this backward. They really want to love people, but they forget the only way to love people well is by loving God first and defining love by his standards.

How do you know you’re loving the right way?

Once you’ve got everything in the right order to understand what Love is and how to love, you might wonder how you know if you’re doing it right. With our culture saying you can’t “judge” people or tell them their “truth” is wrong, you might wonder how to know for sure.

It’s all based on the fruit. If someone’s version of love has anger, selfishness, lacks self-control or self-discipline, cares more about self than others, and is burdened by anxiety, worry, depression, and dread, I’m going to say that isn’t really love. It’s more like a copy that’s been copied over and over until it’s kind of hard to even tell what the original was. That’s what the world is trying to sell you. Rather, love should look like the description in Galatians.

Galatians 5:22-23 Fruit of the Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.

This shows us what the fruit of love is. If we center God in our lives and then act as God leads us to act in that love, here is the fruit you should see in yourself or someone professing that they love Jesus. So if you do not see an increase of these fruits in someone’s life over time, then I would question if they are talking about real Godly love when they use that word.

What now?

So how do you read your Bible with this understanding? In the Bible I notate in, I usually write what type of love it is when I see the word, that way when I’m reading to read or in a learning environment, it’s clear to you what type of love is being talked about. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, I recommend the Blue Letter Bible app. It’s free and has an interlinear section that lets you see the original text and how it’s connected across scriptures to really dig into what you’re missing in the Bible.

What do you think? Did you realize what the word Love really meant in the Bible? What original text do you want to look into more?

Stay Weird,