Philia

Occurrences in Scripture

As a noun, philia occurs only once in the New Testament, in James 4:4: "know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?" The word rendered "friendship" here is philia. The cognate verb phileō ("to love," "to kiss") and the noun philos ("friend") appear in many passages.

• John 11:3: The sisters of Lazarus send word to Jesus: "Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick."
• John 5:20: "For the Father loveth the Son."
• John 15:13-15: Jesus calls his disciples no longer servants but "friends."
• John 21:15-17: The risen Jesus asks Peter three times whether he loves him.
• 1 Corinthians 16:22, Revelation 3:19
• James 2:23: Abraham is called "the Friend of God."

Compound words are also built on the same root. Philadelphia, meaning brotherly love, appears in Romans 12:10 and Hebrews 13:1, and philoxenia, meaning hospitality, appears in Romans 12:13 and Hebrews 13:2. Conversely, the root also appears in words for misdirected attachment, such as "the love of money" (1 Timothy 6:10).

Background

In ancient Greece, philia referred broadly not only to friendship but also to the bonds among family members, associates, and fellow citizens of the same city. The philosopher Aristotle treated philia at length in the Nicomachean Ethics.

Meaning in Scripture as a Whole

The New Testament uses words from both the philia family and the agape family to express the relationship between God and humanity as well as love among people. The Gospel of John describes the Father's love for the Son with agapaō in 3:35 and with phileō in 5:20. In John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," the word for "friends" is philos and the word for "love" is agapē. Words from the two families can thus be interwoven within a single sentence. James, by contrast, warns that "the friendship of the world" stands in conflict with one's relationship to God.

Interpretation and Debate

In John 21, Jesus uses agapaō in his first two questions and phileō in the third. Peter answers all three times with phileō. Interpreters are divided over the significance of this difference.

• The distinguishing view: Some hold that in the third question Jesus came down to Peter's level, or that the two words differ in meaning.
• The non-distinguishing view: Others regard the difference as stylistic variation, since the Gospel of John frequently alternates between the two verbs. They point out that other words in the passage also alternate, such as "sheep" and "lambs," and "feed" and "tend."

Because Korean Bibles such as the New Korean Revised Version (Gaeyeok Gaejeong) translate both verbs as "to love," the distinction is not visible in the Korean text.

It is often said that "agape is God's unconditional love, while philia is human, conditional love." This, however, is not a definition the text itself provides. Agapaō is also used of misdirected love, as in "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world" (2 Timothy 4:10) and "men loved darkness rather than light" (John 3:19). For this reason, some scholars note that the quality of love cannot be determined from the word alone. The fourfold classification of love became widely known through C. S. Lewis's The Four Loves; of the four, eros does not appear in the New Testament.

In the Korean Church

Sermons on John 21 frequently explain the difference between agape and philia. In addition, some congregations take their name from Philadelphia (Revelation 3:7), one of the seven churches of Asia. The place name Philadelphia is understood to share its root with the word meaning "brotherly love."