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This picture of 1 Corinthians 13 and 14 is from my Greek New Testament Bible.  The highlighted words are what agape looks like in Greek.  This word is used over 260 times in the New Testament.

The dictionaries and biblical scholars define love as a feeling of deep affection or devotion to a person, people or thing.  We express this feeling when we say, “I am in love,” or “I love that…!”

The strong feeling of deep affection or devotion is how we describe love.  It is not adequate to explain agape.

From a human point of view we define agape as unconditional love in contrast to our conditional love.  That makes sense.

What if we looked at agape from God’s point of view?  It makes a world of difference.

He says that He is Love (1 John 4:8,16).  He does not go into depth about Love but to say that it simply is and that it is in us, though now corrupted by sin.  He does say that His Agape is faithful (Psalm 89:4) and everlasting (Jeremiah 31:3).

This is a very comforting thought, isn’t it?  It explains why God loves us and everything that God did for us, like sending Jesus to take away our sins and all that He does for us, like that He will never leave us or forsake us.

You can find out more about God’s Love in chapter six of “Agape – A New Theology.”  It is titled, “This Is What God Means When He Says Agape.”  Don’t forget to look at my “Aha!” moments in Part Two of the book.

Love is more than deep affection and devotion.  Love is a quality in us that is given by God which we can feel.  God says that His Agape is faithful and everlasting Love.  And that Love is all around you and in you.