Learning More About Love
Love…the Lord has been expanding my learning around love. I want to always be loving towards others, but know that I fall short of that often, either by accident and unawareness, or because I am weary in the moment. Loving God and Loving Others is a theme throughout the New Testament that I have studied and continue to learn more about daily.
My latest revelation has been about the concept of Attachment Love. I am reading a book by Jim Wilder, Renovated, that is about this definition of love.
As I am reading, it is an awakening in my spirit that I feel I have always known, that I have suspected but have not quite seen how or where to define this.
For months, maybe even for a couple of years now, I have been leaning into the concept that “God is good and His lovingkindness if everlasting.” This is found in Scripture many times in the Old Testament. It is clearly something that the Lord wants us to know. Hesed is the Hebrew word that is translated as kindness. This hesed love is defined as merciful, kind, full of grace and favor. This love has been described as lavish and over-the-top kind of love that escapes human ability to sufficiently define.
Law of first mention – in studying the Bible. This is something that theologians do to learn about the context and meaning that God wants to reveal. In the first mention of this word, lovingkindness, the context is Gen 19:19a as Lot begins to understand how much God loves him:
Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; …….
Lot is escaping for his life from a town that is doomed to destruction and has a revelation of the love God has for him. That is a pretty profound awareness that God wants us to know as a recorded story in His word. In the New Covenant, we can have that same revelation…through Jesus and all His work on the cross, we have seen the magnification of the Father’s Love for us, by the sacrifice of His Son for the saving of our lives. This is an overwhelming thought of how much God loves us…how much He loves me.
Another word for love in the OT is aheb and this word is one most often translated as love in our English language. Aheb as love is translated into the Greek word agapeo, the verb tense of love in the New Testament. And this is an attachment by psychological terms as well as brain science about what happens in our brains when we express love to someone. I am learning about Attachment Love with God…it is something that is so intriguing and seems to make so much sense to me!! It is the key to becoming a new creation in Christ – whom we attach to…by loving. Our character is formed by whom we love! We define our identity by whom we love – or attach to. This is some major shifting in my thinking, and I am excited to be able to share just the beginnings of this discovery with my readers.
What if the Church were able to clearly identify with Christ by attachment love? We could then more easily love like He loves!!! We can love our God, ourselves, our neighbors and even our enemies because of His love within us. Wow…..let that sink in. I am still trying to digest that and roll this concept around in my mind. This ties every concept of love in the Bible together in a nice, neat, clear message that is doable…not because of who we are, but because of Who we love!!!!!
I hope this has been something that has blessed you – something that has created a stir within you, too. What does God want you to know about His love today?