INTRODUCTION TO LOVE
This year we will be posting devotionals based on the Fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23 beginning with “Love” which will take us at least through February. We hope you will join us and give us feedback because eventually we plan to put the best of these into book form!
Here we are listing the basic definitions of the words used for love in the Old and New Testaments. We have quoted these from The Complete Word Study Dictionary: Old Testament, Warren Baker and Eugene Carpenter, eds. and The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament, Spiros Zodhiates, ed. Each entry continues on to show the different nuances of the words in specific verses. These books are an excellent resource. The numbering system corresponds to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.
H157 – `āhab – a verb meaning to love. The semantic range of the verb includes loving or liking objects and things . . . The word also conveys love for other people, love for God, and also God’s love of people.
H160 – `ahabāh – a feminine noun meaning love. The word often signifies a powerful, intimate love between a man and a woman, love between friends, God’s love for His people. Frequently, it is associated with forming a covenant, which enjoins loyalty.
H2617 – hesed – A masculine noun indicating kindness, lovingkindness, mercy, goodness, faithfulness, love, acts of kindness. This aspect of God is one of several important features of His character: truth; faithfulness; mercy; steadfastness; justice; righteousness; goodness.
G25 – agapáō – To esteem, love, indicating a direction of the will and finding one’s joy in something or someone . . . Agapáō and never philéō is used of love toward our enemies. The range of philéō is wider than of agapáō which stands higher than philéō because of its moral import, i.e., love that expresses compassion. We are thus commanded to love (agapáō) our enemies, to do what is necessary to turn them to Christ, but never to befriend them (philéō) by adopting their interests and becoming friends on their level.
G26 – agápē – To love. Love, affectionate regard, goodwill, benevolence. With reference to God’s love, it is God’s willful direction toward man. It involves God doing what He knows is best for man and not necessarily what man desires.
G5368 – philéō – Loved, dear, friend. To love. Generally . . . to have affection for someone. . . Believers are never told to love their enemies with the word philéō because that would mean to have the same interests as they have.