in this way: pointing to a manner, and by extension a degree, just described or about to be described
This is one of the most common words in the Greek New Testament, and almost all of its work is the same: it points a finger at a way of doing or being something. It says "like this," "in this manner," "so." Sometimes the finger points backward, summing up what was just said ("this is how it happened"); sometimes it points forward to what comes next ("pray like this," then the words follow). Either way the core idea holds steady: a particular manner is in view.
From that single core the word fans out into a few recognizable shades. Most often it simply marks manner. It frequently pairs with a word for "as" or "just as" to draw a comparison, setting up an "as one thing, so the other" pattern that runs all through Paul's letters. When the manner being pointed at is an intensity rather than a method, the same word slides into meaning "so much" or "to such a degree." And when the manner is the state someone is already in, it can mean "just as one is," leaving things unchanged.
Because the word is mostly a pointer, the reader usually has to look at what it points to. Its force comes from the surrounding sentence, not from any color of its own. That is why a single small word can carry weight in a famous line like "God so loved the world" while elsewhere it does no more than tie one clause to the next.