.
Before attempting to discuss God's love it's first necessary to determine
which of His loves we're talking about because there are two varieties of it in
the New Testament.
One variety is phileo (fil-eh'-o) which describes fondness and affection. This
is the kind of love that's felt, i.e. it's sentimental and speaks of longings and
attachments; for example:
"The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me, and have
believed that I came forth from the Father." (John 16:27)
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be
called children of God!" (1John 3:1)
The other kind of love is agape (ag-ah'-pay) which may, or may not,
include the sentiments of fondness and affection but always exemplifies
benevolence; defined as the disposition to do good, .e.g. kindness,
consideration, generosity, courtesy, lenience, tolerance, patience, sympathy,
assistance, civility, friendliness, etc. In a nutshell, agape love is nice to
people without particularly liking them; for example:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
In other words; it's very possible that God cares about certain people, but
doesn't particularly like them; in point of fact He might be quite inclined to
discard their body, soul, and spirit in the lake of brimstone depicted at Rev
20:11-15 where numbers of folk will be terminated by a mode of death akin
to a foundry worker falling into a kettle of molten iron.
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