Yesterday we concluded a series of 12 important biblical expressions, all related to fruit. We are beginning a new series today that has a connection to fruit in its metaphorical manifestation. These are the qualities noted in Galatians 5:22-23 as the fruits of the Spirit. If you missed the Hebrew Word from the Lord titled “the Fruit of the Spirit,” we recommend that you read it now. You can find it in a previous email from about 10 days ago. The first fruit of the Spirit is love, a•ha•va.
Can you guess to which organ in the body the word ‘love’ relates? Of course you can; it’s the heart. The Hebrew name for heart leaves no room for doubts – ‘lev.’
The Biblical expression of love in the family is complete and wholehearted:
“And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him; and they wept”
Love needs to be confessed even for the price of humility. We can take the greatest example of all from our Father God who speaks his words out-loud, once with a male’s grammatical form:
“Since you were precious in my sight, you were honored, and I have loved you; therefore will I give men for you, and people for your life”
And once with the feminine form:
“The Lord has appeared to me, far away, saying, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have remained true to you’”
One of the most interesting chapters in the whole Bible is 1 Corinthians 13. Many call it the ‘Love chapter.’ It is so thorough and complete that there is nothing that was not taught there. Therefore, let’s look at the Hebrew word itself.
Some Bible scholars claim that ‘love’ as we see it in 1 Corinthians 13 is not at all the kind of love human beings experience. The King James translation took us to a ‘safe’ distance from simple human love to the high virtue ‘charity.’ ‘Love which is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself.’ This claim may be correct in its face value, but neither the scholars nor the King James translation can change the fact that Jesus, Yeshua, speaks to people about the very same feeling they recognize when they hear the word a•ha•va. You need very little to contradict the King James translation. Just read the last verse of the Love Chapter:
“But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love”
If you still have doubts about calling YOU to show your human love, check out the gifts of your spirit granted to you by God:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith”
Perhaps you need more explicit wording:
“Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen”
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