O Father of Jesus,

Help me to approach thee with deepest reverence, not with presumption, not with servile fear, but the holy boldness.

Thou art beyond the grasp of my understanding, but not beyond that of my love,

Thou knowest that I love thee supremely, for thou art supremely adorable, good, perfect.

My heart melts at the love of Jesus, my brother, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, married to me, dead for me, risen for me;

He is mine and I am his, given to me as well as for me;  I am never so much mine as when I am his, or so much lost to myself until lost in him; then I find my true manhood.

But my love is frost and cold, ice and snow’  Let his love warm me, lighten my burden, be my heaven;

May it be more revealed to me in all its influences that my love to him may be more fervent and glowing;

Let the mighty tide of his everlasting love cover the rocks of my sin and care;

Then let my spirit float above those things which had else wrecked my life.

Make my fruitful by living to that love, my character becoming more beautiful every day.

If traces of Christ’s love-artistry be upon me, may he work on with his divine brush until the complete image be obtained and I be made perfect copy of him, my master.

O Lord Jesus, come to me,

O Divine Spirit, rest upon me,

O Holy Father, look on me in mercy for the sake of the well-beloved.

Beloved, let us love one another for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.  I John 4:7,8

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiationfor our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.  No man hath seen God at any time.  If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.  I John 4:10-12

As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.  John 15:9,10

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.  John 14:21

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.  Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.  These things I command you, that ye love one another.  John 15:12-14, 17

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  There is none other commandment greater than these.  And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.  Mark 12:30,31,33

And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.  God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.  And this commandment have we from him.  That he who loveth God lvoe his brother also.  I John 4:16, 21

The Lord hath, appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love:  therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.  Jeremiah 31:3

For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have love me, and have believed that I come out from God.  John 16:27

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  John 3:16

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38,39

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.  John 13:34,35

“there is not one inch of creation of which Christ doesn’t say ‘Mine,’”

AGAPE (ah-gah-pay)

In the New Testament it is the main word used for LOVE.  There are three words in the Greek which are used most of the time for love.  The two which are the most common are eros, which relates to sexual love; philos, which relates to brotherly love and AGAPE, which was the least used in the Greek and least specific in its meaning.

The word eros does not appear in the New Testament, which I find interesting.  Philos does appear in the New Testament.

Among the early Christians, agape refered to the unearned love Gad had for humanity.  It was a love so great that God was willing to send His one and only Son to die on our behalf.

Later Christian writers started to broaden the usage of agape as a word that specifically denoted Christian Love or charity.

In the New Testament there are numerous examples of agape that generally expand on the meanings derived from acient texts, denoting brotherly love, love of a spouse or child, and the love of God for all people.

The Christian usage of the term agape come mostly from the canonical Gospels account of the teachings of Jesus Christ.