agapao denotes loving persons, God, or what is valued, and can describe those who are loved.

The attested uses chiefly express love directed toward God or other people, often in commands and descriptions of mutual conduct. The term also marks God’s or Christ’s love for people, can describe people as loved, and is used for attachment to such things as righteousness, life, public glory, or unjust gain.

1. Loving God and other people · dominant

   Present forms and participles regularly describe love directed to God, fellow believers, a brother, a neighbor, or a spouse. In 1 John 3:18 the APB renders the exhortation, "let us not love in word or in tongue, but in work and in truth," while John 13:34 places the repeated plural form in a command to love one another.

   1 John 3:18John 13:34Galatians 5:141 Peter 2:17Colossians 3:191 Corinthians 8:3
2. God or Christ loving people · common

   Aorist active forms identify God or Christ as the one loving people and connect that action with mercy, giving, or sending. In Ephesians 2:4 the APB renders God as acting "because of the great love with which he loved us," and Galatians 2:20 links the Son’s love for the speaker with giving himself for him.

   Ephesians 2:4Galatians 2:20Ephesians 5:21 John 4:102 Thessalonians 2:16Hebrews 12:6
3. Being described as loved · occasional

   Perfect passive participles describe groups or an individual as loved rather than naming them as the active lovers. In 1 Thessalonians 1:4 the APB renders the addressed brothers as "loved by God," while Colossians 3:12 calls God’s chosen ones "beloved."

   1 Thessalonians 1:4Colossians 3:12Jude 1:1Ephesians 1:6
4. Valuing an object, quality, or outcome · occasional

   The verb can take objects other than persons or God, showing attachment or preference toward what is named. Hebrews 1:9 joins loving righteousness with hating lawlessness; John 12:43 contrasts loving glory from people more than glory from God, and 2 Peter 2:15 says Balaam loved "the wages of unrighteousness."

   Hebrews 1:9John 12:432 Peter 2:151 Peter 3:102 Timothy 4:8Luke 16:13

In the Anselm Project Bible: Across these verses, the APB commonly uses forms of "love" and "loved," including commands, relational statements, and descriptions such as "beloved." Because the APB is a whole-verse translation, its English wording only confirms the clause-level presentation of the term.