Agape is the Greek Word for Love

Actually, I once heard a Bible teacher say Agape was a word coined by Paul because there was no word in the Greek at that time which conveyed the kind of love that God alone is capable of having all the time.

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 The word "charity" has come to mean something other than what it meant in the old King James English. It used to be the word for the kind of love that Jesus has for us, full of grace and compassion and long suffering. Now it means giving to the Salvation Army your cast offs that you no longer need, or doing something out of pity, or out of wanting others to commend you for your "charitable works". I've seen this passage sometimes used to beat fellow brothers and sisters over the head with to "encourage" them (it has happened to me personally and I've seen it used on others too) to be more "loving" ( in other words: "don't say anything that will cause me to face anything that will challenge my selfishness and otherwise fleshy sensibilities please"). This is a passage that is personal. It is a passage that the Lord speaks to His own in times of quiet reflection. It isn't something to harass others with to get them in lock-step with yourself, forcing them to be your personal "yes-men" out of their "love" for you. It is to remind us of God's love, and how we often do not measure up to that incredible love that He has for us, and that His Spirit grows in us by His doing.

THE LOVE CHAPTER

1Corinthians 12:30-13:13  Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

  But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity,
                          I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity,
                         I am nothing. 

 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity,

                         it profiteth me nothing. 

 Charity suffereth long, and is kind;
               Charity envieth not;  
                      charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
 Doth not
          behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not
          her own,
is not
         easily provoked,
thinketh no
         evil;
 Rejoiceth not
         in iniquity,

but  
   rejoiceth in the truth;
   Beareth all things,
   believeth all things,
   hopeth all things,
   endureth all things.

 Charity never faileth:

but whether there be prophecies,  
        they shall fail; 
whether there be tongues, 
        they shall cease; 
whether there be knowledge,
        it shall vanish away. 

  For we know
                     in part,
and we prophesy  
                     in part. 
  But when that which is perfect is come,
                     then that which is in part shall be done away. 

  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

  And now abideth  
                      faith,
                      hope,  
              charity, these three;
                                       but the greatest of these is charity.