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No single Koine word corresponded 1-to-1 to the English word "like".
2 Corinthians 9:
In the NT, G25-agape love usually meant a noble kind of love but it had other nuances particularly outside of the Bible.
BDAG ἀγαπάω:
There was another word for "love": G5368, φιλέω, phileó. BDAG:
You don’t have to like her to love her. Really?
Right, you don't have to emotionally like her to nobly love her self-sacrificially. That's true. However, I would not completely divorce the liking aspect from agape or phileo. I would not emphasize that liking dimension either. It is not the primary or defining characteristic of agape love. If I agape-love her self-sacrificially, that itself would give me some pleasure, so I must have liked her in some way.
For the Father so agape-loved me that he gave his one and only Son, that if I believe in him, I shall not perish but have eternal life.
2 Corinthians 9:
God likes a cheerful giver. God is fond of a cheerful giver. God finds pleasure in a cheerful giver.
In the NT, G25-agape love usually meant a noble kind of love but it had other nuances particularly outside of the Bible.
BDAG ἀγαπάω:
Contemporary English Version, Mark 10:
Ἀγαπῶ μῆλον means I love apple. There is nothing noble about that.
There was another word for "love": G5368, φιλέω, phileó. BDAG:
John 21:
Both agape-love and phileo-love carried a nuance of "like".
You don’t have to like her to love her. Really?
Right, you don't have to emotionally like her to nobly love her self-sacrificially. That's true. However, I would not completely divorce the liking aspect from agape or phileo. I would not emphasize that liking dimension either. It is not the primary or defining characteristic of agape love. If I agape-love her self-sacrificially, that itself would give me some pleasure, so I must have liked her in some way.
For the Father so agape-loved me that he gave his one and only Son, that if I believe in him, I shall not perish but have eternal life.
