The Life You've Always Wanted: Part 1
February 5, 2023Pastor Patrick presented agape love as the first Fruit of the Spirit in our current series, "The Life You've Always Wanted." A video of the message is here. Our Conversation Starter for this week is here.
There are about a dozen Hebrew words used in the Old Testament for love (as in Greek, eros, philos, etc.), but the one that seems to relate the most to agape is aheb or ahab (אָהַב). Another word is hesed (also chacad, checed), which also involves a focus on helping others and God's unfailing love, but we'll get to that one when we deal with kindness. I could not find any word for "love" in the Old Testament that means exactly the same as agape which is a self-sacrificial love only God can provide.
Click here for an in-depth look at aheb/ahab and hesed.
Aheb is used in many places and in many ways in the Torah. For instance, Abraham aheb-s Isaac (Gen 22:2) and his wife (Gen 24:67), Rebekah aheb-ed Jacob (Gen 25:28), Israel aheb-ed Joseph (Gen 37:3), you shall aheb your neighbor as yourself I am God (Lev 19:18), because the Lord aheb-ed you (Deut 7:8), and in the Sh'ma (Jewish centerpiece of daily prayer) to aheb your God with all your heart, mind, and soul (Deut 6:5). As you can see, aheb covers a wide number of types of love.
I found it interesting that there was a King Ahab, spelled from the same Hebrew root. Even more interesting is that the Bible depicts him as wicked. The cognitive dissonance would be like having an evil "King Love" today.
I asked myself, is there a "love chapter" in the Old Testament on a par with 1 Corinthians 13? Lo and behold, Psalm 103 was offered up by Pastor Joe McKeever. His article is here. The text of Psalm 103 is here.
I don't remember ever hearing about the 4th Greek type of love that Patrick mentioned this morning, storge/STOR-ghay, which he said meant affection. It's meaning and uses are fairly wide spread according to its Wikipedia entry, here: "Storge is a wide-ranging force which can apply between family members, friends, pets and their owners, companions or colleagues; it can also blend with and help underpin other types of ties such as passionate love or friendship." I found just three uses in the Bible: the only positive reference was storge as part of a compound word, fil-os'-tor-gos, meaning tenderly loving or kindly affectionate to (Romans 12:10); and two uses with a negative connotation, as'-tor-gos, meaning unloving or devoid of affection (Romans 1:31 and 2 Timothy 3:3).
Bonus
Letter to the American Church
The title above is a link to information about a book published last September which I just finished reading. It's by Eric Metaxas. He compares the behavior of the German Church up to and during the Holocaust with the American Church today as ungodly ideas and leaders are taking hold in America. His premise is that the American Church now (generally) is failing just as badly as the German Church failed then.
The basic question Metaxas is raising and answering is "how much should the church be involved in politics and the running of the society in which the church finds itself?"
If you'd like to borrow the book, let me know.
Bonus
Prayer Suggestion
I rarely do a second Bonus item in one essay, but I got so excited by this seemingly simple idea that I had to add it. Prayer has always been a weak suit of mine (studying scripture is far more my cup of tea). But just today (2/8/23) during an episode of "Exodus" that the DailyWire.com and Jordan Peterson are doing (described earlier here), the team at this workshop offered some insight...
While talking about God providing manna in the wilderness (Exodus 16), they drew a comparison between manna in the morning to flesh in the evening (seed to body) with "potential to be fulfilled" in one day's time. It was a Carpe Diem sort of reference. Out of the discussion came a suggestion to pray daily in the morning that each day goes from potential to fulfilled, and stick with a one day horizon. Pray in the morning to seize the day, ponder what a fulfilled day would bring. Then at night, pray in recollection. Express gratitude for what in fact did get fulfilled, however small or large. And don't "store up" as God admonishes the Israelites regarding manna. Don't worry about the next day until the next day. Use evening prayer to review the day. Maybe even start a daily "Gratitude Journal" for evening prayer notes. Look for the tiny miracles of this one day. Hunger but daily for that day and see what God may wrought.