Love

Love in the UPDV runs in two directions and meets in a single covenantal pattern: Yahweh loves first, and the people he has loved are then summoned to love him back, to love one another, and to love the stranger. The vocabulary moves between Hebrew loving-kindness, the Septuagintal and apostolic word for love that the New Testament writers stretch to cover the cross, and the plain affection of husbands, brothers, and friends. Across both Testaments love is never floating sentiment; it is bound to commandments, to covenant memory, and finally to the Son the Father gave.

Love of God for His People

The Old Testament locates Yahweh's love at the root of the exodus and the election. Moses tells Israel that "Yahweh loves you⁺, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your⁺ fathers, has Yahweh brought you⁺ out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you⁺ out of the house of slaves" (De 7:8). The covenant formula reaches further: Yahweh "is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving-kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations" (De 7:9). The prophets recall that love as parental: "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt" (Hos 11:1). And as durable: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you" (Jer 31:3). The Psalter places his love over the righteous (Ps 146:8).

In the New Testament writings the Father's love is shown by the gift of the Son. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes on him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Paul names the timing: "But God commends his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8). It is from that initiative that John defines love itself: "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10), and again, "In this was the love of God manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him" (1 John 4:9). Ephesians ties this love to mercy and resurrection: "but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ" (Eph 2:4-5). Titus joins it to salvation by mercy: "But when the kindness of God our Savior, and his love toward man, appeared... according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration" (Titus 3:4-5).

This love sets a name on its objects. "Look at what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God" (1 John 3:1). It is also self-defining of God: "God is love; and he who stays in love stays in God, and God stays in him" (1 John 4:16).

The Love of Christ for Men

Christ's love is shaped by self-gift. Paul speaks of "the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered himself up for me" (Gal 2:20), and instructs the church to "walk in love, even as Christ also loved us, and delivered himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God" (Eph 5:2). John frames the passion the same way: "Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour came that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" (John 13:1). The cross itself is the measure: "Hereby we know love, because he laid down his soul for us: and we ought to lay down our souls for the brothers" (1 John 3:16). Jesus says it plainly to the disciples: "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). Paul presses on this: "the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died" (2 Cor 5:14).

This love is unbreakable from the believer's side as well as the Father's. "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Rom 8:35). The answer Paul reaches is that "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:38-39). Paul prays that the church may be "rooted and grounded in love" and so come "to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge" (Eph 3:17-19).

Love of Man for God

The first commandment of the Shema makes love the obedience: "and you will love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might" (Deut 6:5). It is repeated as Israel's whole vocation: "what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deut 10:12); and again, "Therefore you will love Yahweh your God, and keep [his Speech], and his statutes, and his ordinances, and his commandments, always" (Deut 11:1). Joshua repeats the charge to the trans-Jordan tribes (Jos 22:5).

Jesus restates it in Mark when a scribe asks for the first commandment. He answers, "Hear, O Israel; Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one: and you will love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength" (Mark 12:29-30); and "to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love his fellow man as himself, is much more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices" (Mark 12:33). The same answer is supplied by the lawyer in Luke 10: "You will love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your fellow man as yourself" (Luke 10:27).

The Psalms record love of Yahweh as personal speech: "I love you, O Yahweh, my strength" (Ps 18:1); "Oh love Yahweh, all you⁺ his saints" (Ps 31:23); "Whom have I in heaven [but you] And there is none on earth that I desire besides you" (Ps 73:25); "I love Yahweh, because he hears My voice and my supplications" (Ps 116:1). Jude packages the same posture for the Christian: "keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life" (Jude 1:21). Paul prays for direction: "And may the Lord direct your⁺ hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of Christ" (2 Th 3:5).

John joins love-of-God, love-of-children-of-God, and obedience into one knot: "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God: and whoever loves him who begot loves him also who is begotten of him. Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous" (1 John 5:1-3). The same writer sets the test of sincerity: "If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he who doesn't love his brother whom he has seen, can't love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God love his brother also" (1 John 4:20-21).

Love of Man for Christ

Love of Jesus shows up in obedience. "If you⁺ love me, you⁺ will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). And: "He who has my commandments, and keeps them, it is he who loves me: and he who loves me will be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him" (John 14:21). And: "If a man loves me, he will keep my speech: and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make a place to stay with him" (John 14:23). The Father's reciprocity is part of the structure: "for the Father himself loves you⁺, because you⁺ have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from God" (John 16:27).

Peter writes of unseen love: "whom not having seen you⁺ love; on whom, though now you⁺ do not see him, yet believing, you⁺ rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:8). Paul prizes it as the church's grace: "Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with [a love] incorruptible" (Eph 6:24). The grateful sinner shows what love for Christ looks like in the body: a forgiven woman, weeping, anoints him; "Her sins which have been forgiven are many, for she loved much" (Luke 7:47). Mary of Bethany gives him a pound of pure nard, "and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment" (John 12:3). Thomas says, "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). The Beloved Disciple is named that way twice in the fourth Gospel — reclining "in Jesus' bosom" at the supper (John 13:23), and standing under the cross with Mary (John 19:26).

Love of Man for Man — the Royal Law

The horizontal commandment is set into the Holiness Code: "you will not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people; but you will love your fellow man as yourself: I am Yahweh" (Lev 19:18). It extends to the outsider in the same chapter: "The stranger who sojourns with you⁺ will be to you⁺ as the home-born among you⁺, and you will love him as yourself; for you⁺ were sojourners in the land of Egypt" (Lev 19:34). Moses picks it up in Deuteronomy: "Love⁺ therefore the sojourner; for you⁺ were sojourners in the land of Egypt" (Deut 10:19).

Jesus binds the two commandments together. "There is no other commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:31). He turns "fellow man" into a question of mercy in the Good Samaritan: "But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion" (Luke 10:33), with the closing summons, "Go, and you do likewise" (Luke 10:37).

In John's Gospel the commandment becomes Christ-shaped: "This is my commandment, that you⁺ love one another, even as I have loved you⁺" (John 15:12), and "By this will all men know that you⁺ are my disciples, if you⁺ have love one to another" (John 13:35). Paul reads the second table the same way: "if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, You will love your fellow man as yourself" (Rom 13:9). James calls it "the royal law": "if you⁺ fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture, You will love your fellow man as yourself, you⁺ do well" (James 2:8).

The Wisdom literature has its own register. "Hatred stirs up strifes; But love covers all transgressions" (Prov 10:12). "Better is a dinner of herbs, where there is love, Than a stalled ox and hatred with it" (Prov 15:17). "A companion loves at all times; And a brother is born for adversity" (Prov 17:17). The Song of Solomon places love against death itself: "love is as strong as death... Many waters can't quench love, Neither can floods drown it" (Song 8:6-7).

Marks of Love among the Saints

Love of the brothers and sisters is treated by the apostolic writers as the diagnostic of life in God. "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone who loves is begotten of God, and knows God" (1 John 4:7). "He who loves his brother stays in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him" (1 John 2:10). The negative: "He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in the darkness even until now" (1 John 2:9), and the sharper line, "Whoever hates his brother is a murderer" (1 John 3:15). "We love, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

Paul fills out the description. "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; stick to that which is good" (Rom 12:9). "For you⁺, brothers, were called for freedom; only [do] not [use] your⁺ freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love serve as slaves to one another" (Gal 5:13). Love is in the Spirit's catalogue: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness" (Gal 5:22). Peter joins the same line: "love one another fervently from a pure heart" (1 Peter 1:22), and "above all things being fervent in your⁺ love among yourselves; for love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). The opening of Hebrews 13 is just one sentence: "Let the love for the brothers stay" (Heb 13:1). Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians is that "the Lord make you⁺ to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men" (1 Thess 3:12); to the Philippians, "that your⁺ love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment" (Phil 1:9). Concerning the love of the brothers the Thessalonians "have no need that one write to you⁺: for you⁺ yourselves are taught of God to love one another" (1 Thess 4:9).

The Pre-eminence of Love

Paul makes love the indispensable thing. "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but don't have love, I have become sounding bronze, or a clanging cymbal" (1 Cor 13:1). What love does and does not do is then catalogued: "Love suffers long, it is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take account of evil; does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails" (1 Cor 13:4-8). And the conclusion: "But now these three stay: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13).

In Galatians the same priority is sounded: "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love" (Gal 5:6). Colossians places love at the apex of the virtues to be put on: "above all these things [put on] love, which is the bond of perfectness" (Col 3:14).

Love at Home — Husband, Wife, Brother, Friend

The patriarchs supply the first instances. "And Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife. And he loved her" (Gen 24:67). And: "Jacob served seven years for Rachel. And they were like a few days in his eyes, for the love he had to her" (Gen 29:20). David and Jonathan: "Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul" (1 Sam 18:3). Paul sets the marital command in Christ's terms: "Husbands, love your⁺ wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up for it" (Eph 5:25).

Universal Reach

The same love, once located in a covenant people, is preached for "the world." John 3:16 above already says it; Paul presses the equality: "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek: for the same [Lord] is Lord of all, and is rich to all who call on him" (Rom 10:12). God "would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4). Jesus speaks of "other sheep" outside the present fold: "they will hear my voice; and they will become one flock, one shepherd" (John 10:16).

Love Misdirected

Love can be aimed at the wrong object. "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Tim 6:10).

Love Grown Cold

Love, once warm, can fade. The risen Christ says to Ephesus, "But I have [this] against you, that you left your first love" (Rev 2:4). Yahweh remembers Israel's earlier devotion as a thing now lost: "Thus says Yahweh, I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your espousals; how you [believed in my Speech and] went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown" (Jer 2:2). Hosea reads the same loss as a divided heart: "Their heart is divided; now they will be found guilty" (Hos 10:2).

The Love Feast

Jude, warning of intruders in the Christian gatherings, names the meal directly: the false teachers "are the ones who are hidden rocks in your⁺ love-feasts when they feast with you⁺ without fear, shepherding themselves" (Jude 1:12). The expression marks an early communal practice in which the church's mutual love took table form.

Loving-Kindness

The Hebrew word the UPDV regularly renders "loving-kindness" gathers the covenant character of God's love. "Show your marvelous loving-kindness, O you who save by your right hand" (Ps 17:7). "For your loving-kindness is before my eyes; And I have walked in your truth" (Ps 26:3). "Because your loving-kindness is better than life, My lips will praise you" (Ps 63:3). Yahweh "shows loving-kindness to thousands... the great, the mighty God, Yahweh of hosts is his name" (Jer 32:18). Hosea makes it Yahweh's marriage gift: "I will betroth you to me forever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies" (Hos 2:19). Isaiah looks back over the whole history and gathers it under the same word: "I will make mention of the loving-kindnesses of Yahweh... according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel" (Isa 63:7). Ben Sira does the same in his closing thanksgiving: "Then I remembered the lovingkindnesses of Yahweh, And his mercies which have been from of old; He delivers those who put their trust in him" (Sir 51:8). The single Greek line in the Epistle to Diognetus puts it as a summary of the gospel: God "was not only loving toward man, but also long-suffering" (Gr 8:7).