1 Corinthians 13

'If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.'

The word love that is used now-a-days is mostly used to describe close cosy feelings of ecstasy and sexual passions.  This is 'Eros',  a necessary kind of love that in the right circumstances ought to grow in to the self-giving love 'Agape'.  Agape sometimes translated as charity is the love that is spoken of here.

We see this love at work when we manage to work alongside and treat lovingly those who are unloving and unlovable, they may have nothing apparent that would draw out natural feelings of care towards them, yet in keeping the command to 'love our neighbour as ourselves' we honour God and demonstrate Spiritual love.  This is easier to undertake when we remember the love with which Christ has purchased us and when we compare ourselves to Him rather than one to the other.

'O love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee:
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow 
May richer, fuller be'

God's love is often described as a shore less, bottomless sea.  Once we set  sail on that ocean, we feel the fresh air of the Spirit blowing  life into us.