There has been a lot of talk this past week about love. In
light of the Supreme Court decision, many in the broader culture are celebrating
what they see as a triumph for love in the establishment of marriage rights for
homosexual couples. They are also using various arguments based upon what they
understand as principals derived from love to urge those who are not
celebrating the decision to change their minds. Meanwhile, many Christians are trying
to ensure they are not seen as unloving, while doing their best to express support
for a biblical understanding on the issues. In various conversations, I have
heard believers try to distinguish their understanding of love with what the
culture is talking about by using the term “agape love”.
Agape love, we are told, is the highest form of love. It is said
to be a self-sacrificial love and devotion. It is understood to transcend physical
desires and is the highest expression of pure love. It is the kind of love God
demonstrates though the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As such, “agape love” is understood
as a technical term for a kind of love that is uniquely identified with perfect
and divine love.
This understanding of agape love as a type of “super love”
is not new. It has been around in Christian circles for a very long time. The
special status of agape in part comes from the fact that the Greek language has
many words that can be translated by the single English word love. Depending
upon the context, each of these may carry a slightly more specific connotation
than the general term love and agape can have the meaning of selfless and pure love.
Greek contains a word that is often related to sexual desire
(ερος / eros) and another
often associated with what we would call friendly affection (στοργἠ / storge). The Greek
terms for love we find frequently in the Bible are phileo (φιλἐω) and agape (ἀγἀπη). It is often argued that phileo is a
warm affection similar to what brothers might experience. It is said to involve
a tender care and fondness. This is not an affection we would have for an
enemy. We are told, however, that agape love is much higher and noble. It is supposedly
the sacrificial kind of love that we are called to exhibit even to those who
persecute us, etc.
Many preachers have milked these distinctions to emphasize
the differences between mere feelings of affection and the transcendent love
that God has for us, and we are to have toward others. The problem with this,
as DA Carson points out in his book Exegetical
Fallacies, is that the word agape is not actually a technical term for a
higher form of love. We recognize that most words have a range of meaning (called
a semantic range) and agape is no different. It is sometimes used for the kind
of love many Christians associate with it, but not always. Even in the Bible,
the word is used in various ways.
For example, in 2 Timothy 4:10, Paul uses the word agape to
describe the love that Demas had for the world which led to him abandoning
Paul. The word has sufficient semantic range that when the Septuagint
translators were working to produce a Greek copy of the Hebrew Bible, they used
the word agape to describe the incestuous lust Amnon had for his sister Tamar
(2 Sam. 13:4). In the same way, the word phileo is used at times to describe
the type of love that many often associate with agape. For example, it is the
word used to describe the love the Father has for the Son in John 5:20.
I think we are right to emphasize the pure, holy, selfless
love of God as the standard to which all love should be measured. I am also
sympathetic with believers looking to define concepts of love and affection in
a biblical way. We should just be careful about making technical distinctions
based upon biblical language that the writers themselves did not intend. As
always, we need to pay attention to context in order to understand how a particular
author is using his or her terms. All of the Bible, however, points us to the love of God in Christ. In Him we see all the fullness of love personified, agape and otherwise.
