I.  THE VERB.

1.  agapao = to regard with favour, to make much of a thing or a person, on principle.  The cause or ground of No. 2.

2.  phileo = to kiss, to be  fond of, having regard to feeling as distinct from principle.  The demonstration of No. 1.  Hence No. 2 is never used of man's love to God :  this is always No. 1.  Both words are used of God's love to man.  No. 2 is used of the Lord's love for Lazarus (John 11:3, 36) but not in v. 5, where the sisters are included.  See the notes on John 21:15-17;  and on John 12:25.

1.  agape.  No. 2 below, was the common word used by the Greeks, for love; and even this is far lower than the N.T. philadelphia ( = love of the brethren).  Agape is spontaneous love, irrespective of "rights".  The word was supposed to be peculiar to the N.T., but it is found in the Papyri.

2.  philanthropia = philanthropy, or love of man, which did not go beyond giving man his "rights", among the Greeks.  It is used in a higher sense in Tit. 3:4; occurs elsewhere only in Acts 28:2.  Cp. the Adverb philanthropos (Acts 27:3, "courteously").

agapetos = beloved.  The word used of the Lord Jesus by the Father.  See Matt. 3:17; 12:18; 17:5.  Mark 1:11; 9:7.  Luke 3:22; and in Mark 12:6.  Luke 20:13, by Himself.  A special epithet of the Saints in the Epistles.