To love
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Φιλέω (philéō) means to love, cherish, show affection, or value something as dear. Jesus warns about hypocrites who love public prayer because they value being seen, and about scribes who love greetings and seats of honor.
Reader summary
Full entry for φιλέω (G5368) · Open the biblical lexicon
Φιλέω (philéō) means to love, cherish, show affection, or value something as dear. Jesus warns about hypocrites who love public prayer because they value being seen, and about scribes who love greetings and seats of honor.
The BSB source-word alignment has 25 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include loves (6), I love (3), love (3), they love (3), do you love (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 6:5. Its strongest book concentrations include John (13), Matthew (5), Luke (2), Revelation (2).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
Φιλέω (philéō) means to love, cherish, show affection, or value something as dear. Jesus warns about hypocrites who love public prayer because they value being seen, and about scribes who love greetings and seats of honor. In John 12, love for one's life becomes a rival to following Jesus through death toward eternal life. The risen Jesus asks Peter whether he loves Him and immediately directs that affection toward shepherding His sheep.
Revelation places outside the city everyone who loves and practices falsehood, showing that affection can attach to evil as well as good. The verb names attachment, not automatic virtue. Its object and resulting conduct reveal whether affection is rightly ordered toward Christ and neighbor or distorted toward praise, status, self-preservation, and lies.
Φιλέω names affection or cherished attachment. People may love public recognition, social honor, present life, Jesus, or falsehood; each object exposes what the heart values and how that love acts.
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their full reward.
Hypocrites love to pray where people will see them, turning an act addressed to God into a stage for receiving human recognition.
“Beware of the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, and they love the greetings in the marketplaces, the chief seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.
The scribes love marketplace greetings, prominent seats, and banquet honor, and Jesus links their appetite for status with exploitation and severe judgment.
Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Whoever loves life in this world as the supreme possession loses it, while costly discipleship preserves life for eternity through following Jesus.
Jesus asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” “Yes, Lord,” he answered, “You know I love You.” Jesus told him, “Shepherd My sheep.”
Jesus asks Peter whether he loves Him and commands him to shepherd the sheep, making professed affection accountable to concrete pastoral care.
But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Those outside the holy city include everyone loving and practicing falsehood, joining cherished deception to sustained conduct rather than an isolated mistake.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. Emotional, affectionate love of friendship and preference, contrasting ἀγαπάω's love of duty and respect
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 25 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseI love, kiss
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
How this verb appears across 24 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 25 lexical occurrence verses.
φιλέω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Affection can serve worship or idolatry. Public prayer becomes hypocrisy when the worshiper loves visibility more than the Father who hears in secret. The scribes' love of recognition reveals a social appetite that coexists with exploitation. Jesus' saying about loving life confronts self-preservation as an ultimate loyalty; eternal life is found through following the Son along the path of costly service.
In John 21, Peter's affirmation of love is neither left as emotion nor dismissed as inadequate vocabulary. Jesus gives it pastoral work: feed and shepherd My sheep. Revelation's closing boundary shows the darkest attachment, a love for falsehood practiced as a way of life. Churches should ask not only whether people feel strongly but what they cherish and whom their affection serves.
Love for Christ becomes care for His people and truth-shaped perseverance.
Matt.6.5
Φιλέω is a verb of affection, fondness, or valuing and takes a person, practice, or thing as its object. Its semantic range overlaps with other Greek love vocabulary; discourse and collocation establish emphasis.
Scripture commands love for God and neighbor, condemns love of praise and falsehood, and joins faithful affection to truth, wisdom, and concrete care for God's flock.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain