J.I. Packer’s “Knowing GOD”

7  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12  No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13  By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. 15  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16  We have come to know and have believed the love which God has [d] for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Aristides describing Christians to Emperor Hadria in the Second Century:

They Love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hurt them, If they have something they give freely to the man who has nothing; if they see a stranger, they take him home, and are happy, as though he were a real brother. They don’t consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit, in God

Rom 5: 1-5: Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

(meaning you are a Christian) 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. (We have this relationship because of the work of Christ) 3  And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, (God transforms us) because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (God’s love has been poured on us by the Holy Spirit, we experience it, Gods love for us is a settled matter and a regular ministry of the Spirit to those who receive Him)

Greek has four words commonly translated into English as Love.

Eros – Romance: is a word that is not found in the New Testament. It is passion seeking satisfaction

Storge – Affection: is used in the New Testament in its noun form, with the letter "Alpha" prefixed which negates the word. It is the love of parents for children and children for parents, of husband for wife and wife for husband, of close relations one for another

Philia – Friendship: is used 45 times in its various forms of verb and noun. This is an unimpassioned love, a friendly love. It is a love that is called out of one's heart as a response to the pleasure one takes in a person

Agape - Unconditional Love: is used in its verb, noun, and adjective forms used about 320 times in the New Testament. It is a love called out of a person's heart by "an awakened sense of value in an object which causes one to prize it."

4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails;

Leon Morris states: “The Love we are dealing with here is a love for the utterly unworthy. A love which proceeds from a God who is love. It is a love lavished on others without a thought on whether they are worthy to receive it or not. It proceeds from the nature of the lover than for any merit in the beloved.”

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the [b]saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.