Definition of Agape and Phileo Love

This comes from Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament Vol.3, #28, pg.62.

‘Phileo’ is a love which consists of the glow of the heart kindled by the perception of that in the object which affords us pleasure.  It is the response of the human [soul] to what appeals to it as pleasurable… The word was used to speak of a friendly affection.  It is a love called out of one in response to a feeling of pleasure or delight which one experiences from an apprehension of qualities in another that furnish such pleasure or delight. ‘Agapao’ on the other hand, speaks of a love which is awakened by a sense of value in the object loved, an apprehension of its preciousness.