[Week 6] Love: What Paul Really Meant (1 Corinthians 13:2)

This week, we are memorizing 1 Corinthians 13:2.

• Check out my latest Scripture Memorization song here: 1 Corinthians 13:2
• If you're new here, see my introduction to this series here.

“If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.” – 1 Corinthians 13:2 (CSB)

What is Love? And Where Does It Come From?

You've probably heard it before: “Greek was the perfect language for the New Testament because it had such precise words for concepts like love. Four different words for love!” It's a compelling idea, and there's something to it.

But there's just one problem: This idea puts the cart before the horse.

The Greek language and philosophy didn't shape the New Testament's theology. The Hebrew Scriptures did. And Paul, a Hebrew of Hebrews, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, didn't learn what love meant from Greek philosophy. He learned it from Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings.

When Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 about love, he's not using agape the way a Greek philosopher would have understood it. He's filling up that word with Hebrew meaning.

The Hebrew Words for Love

Yes, Greek has four words for love. And so does Hebrew, and these Hebrew words predate and inform everything Paul writes. Let's look at three of them.

Ahav is the love of the Father. Look closely at the word itself, and you'll see something fascinating. Ahav (אהב) contains the Hebrew word for "father" (אב, av), with the letter Hey (ה) inserted in the middle. When a Hey appears in the center of a Hebrew word, it often reveals the heart of that word. So what is the heart of the Father? Love.

This is the love we see when God declares to Israel, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you" (Jeremiah 31:3, CSB). Everything God does toward his people flows from this fatherly love. It disciplines, it instructs, it sometimes pushes the bird out of the nest so it can learn to fly. But it never abandons.

Rechem (רחם) is a motherly love. It's also the word for "womb," and it's often translated as "mercy" or "compassion" in our English Bibles. When the Psalmist writes, "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him" (Psalm 103:13, CSB), he's using this word. It's the protective, nurturing love that holds close and strengthens.

There's a depth to this love that words struggle to capture. It's the love that sees vulnerability and responds with tender care. Where the father's love might challenge you to grow, the mother's love creates the safe place where growth can happen.

Hesed (חסד) is the word that changes everything. We don't even have an English equivalent for it. Your Bible might translate it as "faithful love," "lovingkindness," "steadfast love," or "loyal love." None of these fully capture it.

The Love That Walked Through Fire

Hesed is a covenant love, it is the love God shows his people no matter how many times they reject him, chase after other gods, pursue the pleasures of this world, ignore his invitations to come and reason together. He continues. He keeps his promises.

This is the love on display when God walked through the covenant with Abraham by himself. In ancient covenant ceremonies, both parties would walk between the severed animals, essentially saying, "May I become like these animals if I break this covenant." But God put Abraham to sleep and walked through alone. The meaning was staggering: if Abraham or his descendants broke the covenant, God would pay with his own life.

And he did.

This Hesed love is what drove Jesus to the cross to pay for sins he didn't commit, so that we could be with him.

The Call

This is the love Paul has in mind when he says that without it, we are nothing. Notice, it’s not "my efforts are diminished." Not "my impact is lessened." Nothing. We are called to emulate this Hesed love that God has expressed for us.

This is a high calling! It's easy to pursue our own protection, our ego, our own comfort, our own control over the chaos of life. But none of that is driven by hesed love. It's all self-preservation dressed up in religious language.

The call here echoes what Jesus said: "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you" (Matthew 6:33, CSB). When we understand that God's kingdom operates on hesed love, we begin to understand what we're actually being called to seek.

Paul understood this. He had spent years as a Pharisee, accumulating knowledge and religious accomplishment. Then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and discovered that all of it was rubbish compared to knowing Christ (Philippians 3:8).

The question isn't whether you have impressive spiritual gifts or deep theological knowledge. The question is simpler and harder: have you learned to love the way God loves?

That's the call. Ahav love that guides and never abandons. Rechem love that protects and nurtures. Hesed love that keeps its promises even when we don't keep ours. This is what Paul is getting at. This is what we're called to.

So how are you going to love today? Not with a shallow sentiment or a simple, “tolerant” niceness, but with the ahav, the rechem, and the hesed love of God himself?

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash