unceasing hardship borne for love’s sake. Love is our translation of agapē, a word not used much before the Christians took it up and made it their characteristic word for love. They had not only a new word but a new idea, an idea we see in the love shown in Christ’s death for sinners (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:10, etc.). ‘Perhaps as good a way as any of grasping the new idea of love the Christians had is to contrast it with the idea conveyed by erōs … erōs has two principal characteristics: