I looked this word up in my little New Testament Word Study (by Spiros Zodhiates...I recommend it) and I became somewhat enthralled with this entry (#26 agape). Let me replicate the definition for you:
Agape; love, a word found only in revealed religion. Translated charity (1 Cor. 13:1) meaning benevolent love. Its benevolence, however, is not shown by doing what the person loved desires but what the one who loves deems as needed by the one loved; (e.g. For God so loved the world that He gave ...John 3:16). He gave not what man wanted, but what man needed as God perceived his need, namely His Son who brought forgiveness to man. God's love for man is His doing what He thinks best for man and not what man desires. It is God's willful direction toward man. But for man to show love to God, he must first appropriate God's agape, for only God has such an unselfish love.
I pray that God allow me to love those around me with this sort of love. Love that really looks to their best interests and not my own interests. I don't want to love people to the end that their relationship serves me and my purposes. I want to love people to the end that they know God and become more like His Son, Jesus Christ. That would in turn serve my longer-term purposes of being in fellowship with fellow Christ-followers and with Christ Himself. I want to love like this. I want you to love like this. I want to help others love like this. I want you to help others love like this. May God pour out His mercy that we be men and women like this. Thanks for reading.
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