1 Corinthians 13:7, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Powerful qualifications.  Doesn’t leave any room for confusion.  Wide-eyed surprise, yes.  But not confusion.

ALL things.

LOVE is clearly a key ingredient in our walk with YHVH.  Yeshua said to love YHVH is our greatest command, and also to love one another.  What does that mean?  What is love?

I have heard for most of my life the teachings about the Greek words for love – eros, phileo, agape.  And I have known inherently and by experience and investigation that our English word ‘love’ is plainly anemic in its use.  

We all recognize that ‘love’ is the most profound concept in human interaction.  Yet, in English, its meanings are so diverse and shallow that it almost ceases to mean anything at all. For example, we ‘love’ a certain kind of candy, or a movie star, or a flower, or a vase…

Maybe I am being a little too cynical about this.  Call it literary license, hyperbole, emphasis for effect; but I declare that we cannot deny the drastic diminution of ‘love’ in English; or in western culture in general, I’d say.  It has become mostly tawdry, sentimental, cliché, overwrought; too easily tossed about in our conversations, lifestyles, and popular entertainment.

In Hebrew, the word for love (ahava) contains the root ‘to give’ (hav).  The processes involved in ‘love’ necessarily include giving.  There is a whole other teaching (and more) in the concepts and scriptural instructions about giving.

Suffice it to say, if your ‘love’ involves more receiving (taking) than giving, you may want to invest some effort in understanding what Kingdom love (ahava) is meant to be.

See 1 John 4:7-21.  

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Ed Boring

BYNA Elder

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One Comment

  1. I love all the posts and would give a thumbs up on each one as they are so meaningful. Thank you.

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