What does agapao (agape love) mean? Is it different from phileo?
Agapao (ἀγαπάω) is to love with the will, a chosen, self-giving love, distinct in emphasis from phileo (affection, fondness). "God so loved [ēgapēsen] the world" (John 3:16) is agapao: a deliberate love for the world, not a feeling about the likeable.
What the text states
The emphasis of agapao is a love of the will and the choice, which is why God can command it (“love your enemies,” Matt 5:44) in a way you cannot command a feeling. It matters most in John 3:16: God's love for the world is agapao, a settled, giving love for the whole world, not a warm regard for the loveable. The word that describes God's love for the world is a word you can aim at anyone, which is exactly the point.
The two words are not airtight categories, John uses them interchangeably at points.
Go deeper
Checked 2026-09-29 by Darren. 45 Scripture citations verified against the KJV rows. Every Strong's number in the wave-3 notes resolved against our own strongs_greek / strongs_hebrew and the lemma matched the form in the file. Wave 3. 45 quoted fragments table-passed against the verses table, all pass. 21 Greek and 3 Hebrew Strong's entries cross-checked against strongs_greek (5,523 rows) and strongs_hebrew (8,674). Three notes, none a form mismatch: (1) G2434 hilasmos is glossed in our table as 'atonement... an expiator', usage 'propitiation', so Strong's own wording is softer than the answer's 'not merely expiation'; Thayer and BDAG carry the propitiation sense and the KJV renders it so. (2) G728 is spelled arrhabon in our table (double rho) against the file's arrabon; the same word, a transliteration convention. (3) our table derives skenoo (G4637) from skenos (G4636), while the answer says it is built on skene (G4633); the three are cognate and skene is the LXX's tabernacle word. One reference in the wave-3 verification notes did not exist: Rev 22:24 (Revelation 22 ends at verse 21). Ruled by Darren 2026-09-29 a typo for Rev 22:17 and corrected in the source file. The hilasmos gloss discrepancy was ruled the same day: the answer stands and is not softened.
This answer is the short form. The argument is made at length in Agapao.