In the New Covenant Scriptures, Agape stands out as the supreme love of God and first among the fruit of the Spirit. It involves the thoughts and intentions of the heart and mind and personality, and because it is God’s love, it is always created and defined by Him regarding its substance and abiding nature. It is God focused and man focused, always within the light of the Spirit and the commandments of God in Jesus.
Agape means: to place value upon; to regard with affection and goodwill; preferential and discriminating choice; to have affection for; to hold precious. Again, all of these are God-centered and defined by Him. Because they have Jahveh in the first place as ground and object, they have man in the second place. Such is the love and purpose of God.
The prime example of the many place where agape is the focus and command of God is stated in Matthew: When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. And one of them, a scholar of the Law, asked Him a question testing Him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. And the second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.” Both of the words love are verbal forms of agape.
In modern times there is a tendency to separate agape from phileo. That is a false separation. Phileo also means to have affection for; to be fond of; friendship. It is used for such love focused on people, and so has received that emphasis. It is often the first word of compound words in this regard. For example: philadelphia (love of brothers) philostorgos (love of family) philoxenia (love of strangers). Even so, phileo carries the same character and focus of agape and is used interchangeably with it. The prime example of such use is when, after His resurrection, Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him. In John’s narrative (I provide the root word here and in the following examples.) Jesus asked Peter: So when they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love (agape) Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love (phileo) You.” He said to him, “Feed My lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love (agape) Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love (phileo) You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love (phileo) Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love (phileo) Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love (phileo) You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.”
Although both words, agape and phileo, are used interchangeably of the supreme love of God, both of them can have sin as their object of focus and affection. For example, loving (agape) the chief seat in the synagogues and the greeting of men; loving (agape) darkness rather than light; Demas deserted Paul because he loved (agape) the evil age; the love (phileo) of money; love (phileo) of pleasure; love (phileo) being first.
The nature or character of agape and phileo is derived from how the word is used in context regarding its root and object.
The fruit of the Spirit is indispensable to all who make the claim that they follow Jesus, to all who will enter into Paradise. There is no reality to the invented doctrine of Christians vs Born-again or Spiritual Christians, as though Born-again or Spiritual Christians possess the fruit of the Spirit whereas “regular” Christians may or may not, but make the confession of faith that Jesus is Lord accompanied with a minimal degree of submission to God. All believers are born from above and all possess the fruit of the Spirit, of which love (agape) is the leading character and attribute.
I finish by quoting the well-known statement of Paul about the definition of agape:
“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a resounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away my possessions, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Love is patient, is kind, love is not envious, love is not boastful, is not puffed up; it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own things, is not easily provoked, does not keep an account of wrongs; it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”