Laying the Foundation: Meanings and Definitions of Love and Charity

The Greeks divided the idea of love into six different words—each with its own meaning and importance. The highest form of love—pure love, or selfless love, was termed “agape”. This was a love that one extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers. Agape was later translated into Latin as caritas, which is the origin of our word “charity.” Many Christian writers, such as C.S. Lewis, refer to charity as “gift love” for reasons we will explore in future lectures.

The King James version of the Bible translates “agape” to “charity” in some passages and to “love” in others. It is important to know the root of a passage so that the appropriate meaning can be applied; whether the word was translated into charity or love.

Some modern translations of scripture have left off from translating the word “agape” to “charity” and only translate it to “love”. For the purposes of these lectures I am using the term “charity” throughout so as to not confuse the meaning of charity as identified in this and future lectures with other, shallower, definitions of love.

For comparison, the other five words the Greeks used which are also translated into love are:

Eros meaning a sexual passionate love

Philia meaning a deep friendship or brotherly love

Ludus meaning a playful, flirtatious love

Pragma meaning a longstanding, enduring love such as seen in a long-term marriage

Philautia meaning a confident love of the self (not narcissistic self-centered love)

Agape, charity, as we see in scripture, eclipses these all-—incorporating the best parts of each and expanding them far beyond any of these lesser definitions of love.

Therefore, through this site regardless of the use of the term charity or love (as I will use many scriptures which translate agape to love); please understand that the intent is always to reference agape–the pure love of Christ.