What is love? There are four Greek words for love that are important for Bible students to understand. Most times, the Greek words for love used in the Bible are simply translated “love” but in the Greek text they mean different things. When this happens, unfortunately the true deeper meaning of the word is lost in the weak translation.
The four Greek words for love are agape, phileo, eros and storge. Three of them appear in the Bible. If we are going to deeply understand the Bible and the biblical world, it is important that we understand what these words mean and how they differ and where they are used in the Bible.
Definitions of Greeks Words for Love
Agapeo: Unconditional love; the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation
Phileo: Love between friends
Eros: The sense of being in love; romantic love
Storge: Love of family; Parent/child, siblings, cousins, etc. In a very close family, agape is felt as well.
Let’s take a closer look at each of the four different types of love.
Agapeo
The Greek word that refers to the love of God, one of the kinds of love we are to have for people, is agape. Agape is the very nature of God, for God is love (1 John 4:7-12, 16). The big key to understanding agape is to realize that it can be known from the action it prompts. In fact, we sometimes speak of the “action model” of agape love.
In this example, you can clearly see how using the simple word “love” has obscured the true deeper meaning of their conversation.
Why did Jesus use agape and Peter use phileo? Jesus was asking Peter if he loved him with the love of God, a love that may require sacrifice. After all, Jesus had just gone through horrendous torture for Peter’s sake (and ours), something he did not want to do but did anyway because of his agape love.
In contrast, Peter avoided possible torture by denying Jesus. Jesus twice asked Peter, “Do you agape me? That is, are you willing to do things for my sake that you do not want to do?
Peter, on the other hand, still felt the sting of having denied Jesus, and was hopeful that their friendship was intact. In his mind, he may have been wondering if Jesus held Peter’s denial against him. Would he still treat Peter as a close associate and companion? Peter was not sure where he stood with Jesus, so he was trying to let Jesus know that he was still a true friend, and had phileo love for Jesus.
The third time Jesus spoke to Peter, he came to Peter’s level and asked if Peter were indeed a true friend (phileo), which grieved Peter. Nevertheless, it was important, because Jesus knew what Peter did not know, that Jesus would ascend into heaven leaving Peter and the other disciples to carry out his work on earth, which would require that they all be his good friends and do his will even when it meant hardship.
Eros
The Greek word for romantic, sexual love or passionate love is eros; and we get English words such as “erotic.” When eros was used as a proper noun, it referred to the Greek god of love. The Greek word eros does not appear in the biblical text, so we will not spend time on it in this article, but it has had such an impact on English and our view of sexual love that it is important to mention.
Eros love is the type of love celebrated by the USA holiday known as Valentine’s Day. Eros love is a very important component between a man and a woman that leads to a holy union of marriage, subsequent procreation and the formation of deep long lasting bonds of strength and trust.
Storge
The fourth Greek word we need to understand is storge, which is the love and affection that naturally occurs between parents and children, can exist between siblings, and exists between husbands and wives in a good marriage. It occurs in Romans 12:10 in the word, philostorgos, which is a compound word made up of philos (the noun form of phileo) and storge.
Romans 12:10 is a very important verse, directing us to be very loving and kind to each other. Romans 12:10 (Expanded translation) “As to your brotherly love, let there be deep friendship and family-affection toward one another.”
Conclusion
If one is going to have a wonderful Godly life, obedient to the voice of God and have rich fellowship with other Christians and those who are close to God, he or she will need to exercise all kinds of love.
- We need agape love because some of the things that God requires of us are not fun or easy, but need to be done.
- We need to have phileo love because we need true friends to stand with us, people who are emotionally connected to us and with whom we can share our deepest thoughts and feelings.
- Eros love is important for starting a family and in the formation of deep, longs lasting bonds of strength between a husband and wife in marriage.
- Lastly, we Christians and other followers of God need to have storge love between us, a deep family affection that comforts us and helps us feel connected to our immediate genetic family as well as all our extended spiritual family.
We sincerely hope you have enjoyed learning about the four types of love and the Greek words that represent them in this free bible study article.