Each year in February, many people begin to start thinking about all things love. This, of course, would be because of the popular holiday known as Valentine’s Day which of course falls every year on February 14. While people typically celebrate this holiday with boyfriends, girlfriends, or their friends and associate the holiday with earthly forms of love, there is another form of love that can be celebrated on this special day: agape love.

So, what exactly is agape love? It’s a Christian concept of heavenly love. However, this is a very broad definition of everything that agape love truly stands for. In the Bible, agape love commonly refers to God himself and the love he has for his children: a form of eternal, unchanging, constant love despite all other factors. The reason that agape love is so much different than any other form of love is because of sincerity. God’s love is not mushy, it’s not sentimental, and it’s certainly not imperfect like human forms of earthly love. The term “agape love” simply can not have a straightforward definition because it is impossible for one to fully comprehend the amount of love that God suppresses for mankind.

In the Bible, one simple verse can entirely sum up God’s agape love for us. John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world that he sent His* one and only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” There is simply no better way to describe everlasting love than to sacrifice one’s life.

Too often, people indulge in society’s views of love and the sappy romance movies and romcoms; yet, they fail to recognize what love actually is. Agape love is the real “true love.” There is no one that is better at demonstrating love than God Himself. In verses such as John 13:34 or Matthew 5:44, it is described how God wants us to show agape love to others, just as He did for us. While it is simply impossible for us as Humans to demonstrate the same amount of unconditional love God has for us due to our nature, it is important for Christians to shine their light on the world by means of being a positive light to others. We should love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). 

While a basic definition of agape love is to describe it as the highest and purest form of love different from any other kind, the force of agape love is one that we as humans will not be able to comprehend until we meet the creator of agape himself, Christ. The most important thing to recognize about agape love is that no matter how much human and earthly love we feel we may have for someone or something; it will never even come close to being equal to the amount of agape love that Jesus Christ demonstrated for us.

This is why on Valentine’s Day, it is important for followers of Christ to recognize and reflect on agape love. Yes, romantic, parental, and friendship forms are all important, but nothing is more important than the agape love that makes all the earthly forms possible. On the day of celebrating love, we should celebrate the best kind, and that’s the agape kind that only God can fully give. We can do this by spreading His news, His story, and most importantly, by allowing our love to be reflective not of the world, but of God. This year and every year, God is asking, “Will you be my Valentine?” It’s simply up to us to decide.

*Any first letter in a word referring to God is often capitalized in Christian culture