Agape — Unconditional Love

There are four Greek words for love. Agape is the one the New Testament uses for God's love toward the world and commands toward others. Not affection, not friendship, not desire — but the deliberate, unconditional choice to seek the good of another regardless of what they give back. 'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son' (John 3:16). Not 'the good people.' The world. And then Paul stretches it to the breaking point: 'For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Romans 8:38-39). The inventory is total. There is nothing outside it. 'We love because he first loved us' (1 John 4:19). 'Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails' (1 Corinthians 13:7-8).