Agape – is a very well-known word that is commonly translated as love. However, it is more specific than our word love because it means a very specific aspect of love that involves preferring and/or esteeming another above oneself or in contrast to another or above all else depending on context. In light of this, it is often associated with selfless or self-sacrificing love both of which are results of preferring or esteeming another above one’s self.

Now with this in mind one must remember that the word Agape does indicate preference. Therefore, it is not always used in sacrificial terms. However, when used as a verb toward someone it indicates self-sacrificing love because what it is saying is you prefer the person above yourself. When Agape is used as love that denotes preference of someone over your own wants and needs (self sacrificially) it gets an even fuller description by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13.

However, it can also be used as a word of simple preference between two things and in this situation, it does not really indicate a self-sacrificial love at all but rather when choosing between two things and then preferring something (or someone) over something (or someone) else. We see this in Luke in comparing love for God to love for parents. By saying we must agape God to the neglect of our parents what is really being said is we must prefer God even to the neglect of our own parents. Romans has an example of this use as well in Romans 9:13. It can be seen there (as is the case elsewhere both in the New Testament and the Septuagint) that agape can simply be used to denote preference of using someone or something for a specific use to the neglect of another thing.

However, in the New Testament, Agape is most often used in the self-sacrificial way but because it does have instances of use as the preference of 2 options, agape should almost always be translated as a reference to love that prefers, in order to remember that is the source meaning of the word. This could also help the reader understand and be able to distinguish this form of (preferential) love from other types of loves mentioned in scripture such as philo love, eros love, and storge love. Typically, all these words are translated to the same word of love in English translations but they mean very different things. Agape is the love that denotes preference of someone over your own wants and needs (self sacrificial love if you will) or the preference of one thing or person over another in a comparison.