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The other week, our Wednesday afternoon discussion of Colossians Remixed had a long discussion regarding the definition of grace, particularly in relationship to the difference between between grace and love. Two recent post on grace include: By Grace Alone on Worship Quote of the Week and an Ephesians Devotional on Urbana 2006.

When reviewing grace and love in the New Bible Dictionary here's a summary of what I found:

Grace/favour
Grace is preferred to mercy as a translation of the Greek word because it includes the idea of the divine power which equips a person to live a moral life. Grace has a prominent place in the opening greetings and the closing benedictions of the Epistles, being added to the conventional Jewish greeting of peace. The basis of Paul's doctrine is found in Romans 1:16-3:20. Human beings are shown as sinners, but by grace justified (Ro 3:21-4:25), i.e., God in his grace treats us, though guilty, as if we have never sinned. Faith is the human response to divine grace (Ro 5:2, Eph 2:8). This faith is the gift of God (Eph 2:8). One scholar comments that the religion of the Bible is a religion of grace or it is nothing . . . no grace, no gospel.

Love/beloved
Easily the most common word for every range of its meaning, whether human or divine, the deepest expression of the personality and of the closeness of personal relations. God's love is part of his personality, and cannot be swayed by passion or diverted by disobedience (Hosea 11:1-4, 7-9; this passage is the nearest the Old Testament approaches to a declaration that God is love). Love for God with the whole personality (Dt 6:5) is God's demand; though this is not be understood as meaning merely a punctilious observance of an impersonal divine law but rather as summoning to a relationship of personal devotion created and sustained by the work of God in the human heart (Dt 30:6) . . . joyful experience of communion w/God worked out in daily obedience to his commandments. This obedience is more fundamental to the nature of love for God than any feeling. God alone will be the judge of its sincerity (Dt 13:3).

The relationship between the Father and the Son is one of love (Jn 3:35, 15:9, Col 1:13). The whole drama of redemption, centering as it does on the death of Christ, is divine love in action (Gal 2:20, Ro 5:8, II Cor 5:14). Jesus extended the command to love one's neighbor to include one's enemies and persecutors, though none but the new people of God can be expected to have this attitude, for the demand belongs to a new time (Mt 5:38f), involves supernatural grace (reward in Mt 5:46, credit in Luke 6:32f, more in Mt 5:47), and is addressed to a group of hearers (Lk 6:27), who are sharply differentiated from sinners (Lk 6:32) and tax-collectors (Mt 5:26f).

FYI: I found www.Dictionary.com's definition of grace helpful:
* Divine love and protection bestowed freely on people.
* The state of being protected or sanctified by the favor of God.
* An excellence or power granted by God.

The Bible Dictionary's treatment of love was much more helpful than www.Dictionary.com's simple charity, i.e., a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.