Agapetos describes a person or group addressed or identified as held in affection, including children, brothers, and a son.

The term consistently marks people as held in affection: most often a writer addresses a group before exhortation or instruction, while other instances describe particular children, brothers, coworkers, and a son in relational clauses.

1. People held in affection · dominant

   Vocative plural forms address groups immediately before appeals or instruction: in 1 Corinthians 10:14 the APB renders an appeal to flee idolatry, and in 1 Peter 2:11 it renders an urging to abstain from desires. The adjective also identifies individuals and family-like relations, as in 2 Peter 1:17's son, Colossians 4:7's brother and servant, and 1 Thessalonians 2:8's statement that the recipients became so regarded.

   1 Corinthians 10:141 Peter 2:112 Peter 1:17Colossians 4:71 Thessalonians 2:83 John 1:1

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly presents the term as "beloved" in direct address and in descriptions such as "beloved Son," "beloved brother," and "beloved children." These renderings fit the surrounding clauses, but the translation does not itself provide word-level alignment.