stuff about love
we're going through john in my new testament class and monday we talked about john 3:16 where "God so loved the world..." my professor taught about what the word love means in the bible, and what it means in different places in the bible, and ultimately about love being all about commitment and about God's love being the greatest love of all (which is the cool part coming at the end :)
in hebrew there are three different words for love...
song of songs 5:16 says, "his mouth is altogether sweet; he is lovely in every way. such, o women of jerusalem, is my lover and my friend." in this verse "lover" and "friend" mean the same thing...the word for this is "ra'yah"...ra'yah is used for describing a relationship between close friends or companions, or for talking about "one in whom you are intrigued"...the "one in whom you are intrigued" definition is my professor's...he gave us an example of when he and his wife first started dating, when they were first getting to know each other they went to denny's like 5 times in one week because they had free refills, and drank dr. pepper and talked from around 11 to 2 am...ra'yah is a showing genuine interest and care for another person
song of songs 8:6 says "place me like a seal over your heart, or like a seal on your arm. for love is as strong as death, and its jealousy is as enduring as the grave. love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame." in this verse the word "love" is the hebrew word "'ahabah" which includes deep affection, love of the will, and commitment. my professor told us another story about when one of his friends realized he felt this deep 'ahabah love for the girl he wanted to marry, and he wrote in his journal that very night about how he would completely commit himself to her...this is life-time commitment, i don't care what you look like or smell like, i don't care about your bad habits, i will forgive you when you hurt me, and i will love you forever no matter what and even if i don't feel like it kind of love
song of songs 1:2 says "kiss me again and again, for your love is sweeter than wine." in this verse "love" is the hebrew word for "dode." dode is about intimacy and a "mingling of the souls," it includes the idea of a sexual relationship and the concepts of intimacy and trust and oneness that go along with that may be applied to our relationship with God...and a very cool thing: "dode" never means what dode means in the Bible unless preceeded by ra'yah (first stage) and 'ahabah (second stage, love for life-long commitment)...every other time it is used, without ra'yah and 'ahabah, it means "adultery" (how's that for a pants kicker!)
circling back to the main point...john 3:16
"for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."
here, the word "love" is the greek word "agapao" or "agape"...this word "agape" is a greek translation for all three hebrew concepts of love--ra'yah, 'ahabah, and dode...wow...God's love is so complete and so perfect and so deep that it is called "agape," it is ALL ENCOMPASSING...he loves us with ra'yah, he is genuinely interested in us and concerned for us and wants to know us more and more...he loves us with 'ahabah, he CHOOSES to love us and will ALWAYS love us no matter what we do, he is deeply and fully committed to us for forever and and a day...he loves us with dode, he desires an intimate relationship with us--a relationship where our souls mingle and we give ourselves to Him and we cannot separate...he loves us totally and completely with all the commitment and passion within him, with more commitment and passion than we could ever fathom or ever hope to repay
earlier i said that 'ahabah was an even when you don't feel like loving kind of love...my professor said something very cool about this...he said a lot of times we don't feel like loving people, and that we base our concept of love on our feelings...BUT if we would do the things that we don't feel like doing, we would find out that by doing them our feelings change...he told us a story about when he was a student pastor, he took a group of kids to miami for a long weekend...they went for about four days straight from sun-up to sun-down visiting orphanages and ministering in prisons and throwing birthday parties for people in an aids hospus (sp?) who were expected to die in the next six months...on the fourth day they were supposed to feed homeless people, and he said he didn't really feel like it, he had seen too much hurt and pain and was exhausted and didn't have any love left in him, but he had to go and in ministering to the homeless people his attitude changed, because he stayed committed and did something he didn't necessarily want to do...this is a cool point that i never really thought of
so in closing
love=you+people+commitment-feelings
and
God=most committed lover of all
in hebrew there are three different words for love...
song of songs 5:16 says, "his mouth is altogether sweet; he is lovely in every way. such, o women of jerusalem, is my lover and my friend." in this verse "lover" and "friend" mean the same thing...the word for this is "ra'yah"...ra'yah is used for describing a relationship between close friends or companions, or for talking about "one in whom you are intrigued"...the "one in whom you are intrigued" definition is my professor's...he gave us an example of when he and his wife first started dating, when they were first getting to know each other they went to denny's like 5 times in one week because they had free refills, and drank dr. pepper and talked from around 11 to 2 am...ra'yah is a showing genuine interest and care for another person
song of songs 8:6 says "place me like a seal over your heart, or like a seal on your arm. for love is as strong as death, and its jealousy is as enduring as the grave. love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame." in this verse the word "love" is the hebrew word "'ahabah" which includes deep affection, love of the will, and commitment. my professor told us another story about when one of his friends realized he felt this deep 'ahabah love for the girl he wanted to marry, and he wrote in his journal that very night about how he would completely commit himself to her...this is life-time commitment, i don't care what you look like or smell like, i don't care about your bad habits, i will forgive you when you hurt me, and i will love you forever no matter what and even if i don't feel like it kind of love
song of songs 1:2 says "kiss me again and again, for your love is sweeter than wine." in this verse "love" is the hebrew word for "dode." dode is about intimacy and a "mingling of the souls," it includes the idea of a sexual relationship and the concepts of intimacy and trust and oneness that go along with that may be applied to our relationship with God...and a very cool thing: "dode" never means what dode means in the Bible unless preceeded by ra'yah (first stage) and 'ahabah (second stage, love for life-long commitment)...every other time it is used, without ra'yah and 'ahabah, it means "adultery" (how's that for a pants kicker!)
circling back to the main point...john 3:16
"for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."
here, the word "love" is the greek word "agapao" or "agape"...this word "agape" is a greek translation for all three hebrew concepts of love--ra'yah, 'ahabah, and dode...wow...God's love is so complete and so perfect and so deep that it is called "agape," it is ALL ENCOMPASSING...he loves us with ra'yah, he is genuinely interested in us and concerned for us and wants to know us more and more...he loves us with 'ahabah, he CHOOSES to love us and will ALWAYS love us no matter what we do, he is deeply and fully committed to us for forever and and a day...he loves us with dode, he desires an intimate relationship with us--a relationship where our souls mingle and we give ourselves to Him and we cannot separate...he loves us totally and completely with all the commitment and passion within him, with more commitment and passion than we could ever fathom or ever hope to repay
earlier i said that 'ahabah was an even when you don't feel like loving kind of love...my professor said something very cool about this...he said a lot of times we don't feel like loving people, and that we base our concept of love on our feelings...BUT if we would do the things that we don't feel like doing, we would find out that by doing them our feelings change...he told us a story about when he was a student pastor, he took a group of kids to miami for a long weekend...they went for about four days straight from sun-up to sun-down visiting orphanages and ministering in prisons and throwing birthday parties for people in an aids hospus (sp?) who were expected to die in the next six months...on the fourth day they were supposed to feed homeless people, and he said he didn't really feel like it, he had seen too much hurt and pain and was exhausted and didn't have any love left in him, but he had to go and in ministering to the homeless people his attitude changed, because he stayed committed and did something he didn't necessarily want to do...this is a cool point that i never really thought of
so in closing
love=you+people+commitment-feelings
and
God=most committed lover of all