Q: #583. Can non-Christians display "agape" love?
A: Before we answer this question, we need to look at two related things. First, we will look at the different Greek words used for “love” in the New Testament (the NT was written in Greek). Second, we need to define specifically what “agape” love is.
In looking at the word “love” in the New Testament, I counted that “love,” or a form of that word (i.e. “loved,” “loves,” “lovest”) is used 206 times. Of those 206 times, the “vast” majority of them (168) used either the Greek word “agapao” or “agape.”
There are a number of other Greek words used for “love” as well. The next two most used in the NT are “phileo” (25 times) and “philadelphia” (6 times).