Love

Love, in Scripture, is the self-giving devotion that seeks the good of another — supremely the character of God himself and the sum of what he requires of his creatures. The biblical languages distinguish what English blurs. Hebrew ahavah covers love’s relational and covenantal reaches — God’s electing love for Israel (Deuteronomy 7:7-8), Israel’s whole-hearted love for God (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), and love of neighbour (Leviticus 19:18). Deeper still is hesed — steadfast love, covenant faithfulness, mercy that persists through unfaithfulness, the refrain of the Psalter: “his steadfast love endures forever” (Psalms 136:1). The Greek New Testament centres on agapē (sacrificial love willing the other’s good), alongside philia (friendship-affection).

Love is the heart of the Law. Asked for the greatest commandment, Jesus joined two: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart… and… your neighbor as yourself,” declaring that “on these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:29-31). In the parable of the Good Samaritan he widened “neighbour” to include even the stranger and enemy (Luke 10:27-37; Matthew 5:44). Love thus fulfils the whole law, for “love does no wrong to a neighbor” (Romans 13:8-10).

The New Testament locates the source and definition of love in God. “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and that love is not abstract but enacted at the cross: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), for “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Such love is poured into believers’ hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

Because they are first loved, Christ’s people love in return — God and one another. Jesus made it the badge of discipleship: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35). Paul’s great hymn shows its character — patient, kind, not self-seeking, bearing and enduring all things — and crowns it as the greatest and most enduring of the graces: “now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7; 1 Corinthians 13:13). Love is the first fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and the bond that binds every other virtue together (Colossians 3:14).