The Wonder Of Love - 1 Corinthians 13:4

Did you ever wonder? Did you ever wonder?

I do. Did you ever wonder? Why the sun always rises, but the stars never fall?

Why dry land is never satisfied by water? And why fire never says enough? So today, God has had me wondering about love, specifically what he asked me to do. As I went to him this morning in prayer, climbed up in his lap and said, where are we going today? And he put it on my heart, I felt, to translate 1 Corinthians 13, the famous love passage, back into Hebrew. He said there was some wonderful wisdom in there he wanted to share with me. And again, he knows that yesterday, our beloved dog, Corgi, we had to euthanize him.

And I've been mourning that and struggling with all that went on with his passing. And clearly, love is very much involved in that. And so it's interesting to me that he would have me study this passage and come after my heart in this way is to begin this understanding. So I'm sure that most of you are familiar with Paul's great, great exposition on love in 1 Corinthians 13. And so when you get down to the actual part where it begins in verse four by saying love is, and so the first big, huge question you can't help but wonder is what is the word love in Hebrew that is he is using?

Because like Greek, there are several words for love in Hebrew. And so you can't help but go, okay, well, in Greek, what Paul was described was agape. And agape love is a serving others kind of love, putting others' needs above ourselves, right?

And that kind of love that Jesus was asking Peter about. Well, interestingly, if you look in the Song of Solomon, I think you get a vision of that, is that what she calls the bride of Christ calls Jesus is dalad vav dalad, or David, which fits in so many different ways. But the idea of dalad vav dalad is the dalad is a servant and a door, but most of all a servant.

And then a vav would mean that it's a continuation of this energy of a servant and a servant. So the servant of servants, so to speak. And of course, you know, Jesus certainly came to serve.

And it speaks to so much of what agape is. And when you think about when we're going to describe now, actually, when you say love is in so many ways, you're describing God, but you're describing Jesus and Jesus in that form of a servant. And our well beloved is this one who is going to serve us. Like when I, in my show Saturday, I talked about I asked Jesus, you know, what was his question for me? And his question, which really dug at my humility, was how can I serve you, Robbie?

And wow, what an answer. And of course, he came through for me today in this study of love. And so, you know, just to start off with what is love, you know, and love is, and in this case, service.

You know, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And so, you know, it all kind of fits together into that idea of what Paul was describing there. And then the next thing that he describes that love is, is patient. And again, when you think about what God described himself, when he was passing in front of Moses, one of the very first things he said was, I am long suffering, that I'm slow to anger. And that idea of slow to anger and long suffering, same word in Hebrew. And that very much indicates this idea of opinion, of a wing, of something that is long, you know, how wings are long. And so it's, and usually it's going to describe a long time.

And so, you know, it's fascinating to me that when you really look in that word in Hebrew, it has to do with the father really considering, you know, what it is that is supposed to be the consequence and he's letting his process work. And so sometimes things go on a long time. And when I think about my dog's passing, unfortunately, the night before we had to euthanize him, he was having horrible, what I would call grand mal seizures, where he, he just would grimace and in horrible ways, tighten up and move his head about and with his jaw just extended. And he looked ferocious because his teeth were totally bared and it wasn't Corgi's way. And so, you know, it was hard to watch as these seizures went on almost every five minutes from about 11 o'clock on through about 2 45, where he finally had some rest.

But actually, by the time we took him to the vet, he was just continuing to seize, but not the grand mal kind. So as I was waiting on the time, you know, I was clearly asking God, you know, when, when, you know, should I take this into my own hands? Because I couldn't stand to watch him suffer. And certainly, being that I harvest animals, you know, all the time, I knew how to make and the Corgi's life without suffering. However, you know, there was a way that God wanted to do this. And he wanted me to allow this suffering for a while because the process that he was doing had to do with something he was teaching me. So God's idea of long suffering is, is this idea of trusting the process of trusting what God is doing.

And sometimes that requires a long time. And it's a really cool, cool, beautiful thing, that idea of long suffering. And then, you know, love is a patient or long suffering, and then it's kind. And Oh, what a beautiful thing he showed me in the kind because I was trying to find, unfortunately, in the Greek, you get no hint of what the Hebrew would be of the word kind. And so I started to think about where I found kindness in the Bible.

And I started to think about how Boaz treated Ruth. And so it and so it was really cool as I went to Ruth chapter two, and saw, you know, how Naomi described Boaz, she said, Blessed be the Lord our God who does not cease to show his kindness and, and, and that kindness translated into Hebrew is hesed. And hesed is one of the most marvelous world's words in all the scripture. It is also another word for love that is translated at that times, at the times, it's also very often translated mercy. And, you know, when King David talked about surely goodness and mercy, both the fruits of the Spirit, by the way, are going to follow me all the days of my life.

That is the word hesed when it comes to mercy. And so when you think about that word, it begins with a head, which is in our famous word statutes and that idea of being united. And so it's like a marriage.

And and then the second letter in hesed is the Psalmic. And that's this unbelievable force of binding things together. And so, you know, love binds in so many different ways. And even the Earth's gravity is in a circle, and has to do with the wedding ring and all that idea of hesed.

And then that last letter in hesed is again the dollop, which has to do with service. And so love is certainly hesed. I mean, it just is. And so it's really cool that love suffers long. You know, love is certainly long suffering. And then love is hesed.

And then the last one we're going to do today was the one that really blew my mind was, you know, it is then we switch from the things that love is to the things that love's not. And it's not jealous. And that's an interesting thing because, you know, God's name is actually in some ways jealous.

And so I had to go on a search there. And then when I found the word jealous in, excuse me, it does not envy is what it mostly is translated. But envy and jealousy are the same word in Hebrew for the most part, most places you find it, it's interchangeable. And the idea of that starts with a kuf, you know, and we've got the hesed in the last word. But kuf is the first word, a letter of the word, excuse me, second letter of statute. So you've got a het and a kuf in the word statutes. But here's a word that begins with kuf. And then as a nun and an aleph, which just had me buffaloed and I had to pray about it, think about it, ask God, what in the world does this mean? But the idea of a kuf, excuse me, the idea of the kuf is the idea of to hug or to go close to in both time and space.

And so this proximity idea. And so you had this kuf next to an aleph, which just seemed like a really, I mean, next to a nun, which has to do with faith, and then an aleph. And it just seemed like a beautiful word. Like, how could this be something that love would not be? And then as I began to see what actually he was picturing, interestingly, when you take the nun and the aleph, you put them together, they are the word to pray, or the word pastor, which actually is the same word, fascinatingly.

And so I immediately thought about, wow, the grass is always green and somebody else's pastor. And this idea of clinging to this idea of wanting someone else's faith or wanting someone else's wanting, I guess the best word that I could come with, and the idea as God kindly unpacked this for me, was the idea of clingy. All right, love is not clingy. And you might remember that, man, when you got your first girlfriend, like you thought that she was the answer to all your problems and you had to cling, you just, you were jealous because, you know, this was everything for you and the idea of clingy. And maybe you've had somebody that was clingy on you and it doesn't feel like love.

It feels like there's something wrong here. And the idea is that we are supposed to have that clingy to God, but we're not supposed to have that clingy for anybody else. It's like Jacob was envious of Esau's birthright and the blessing.

And so he was clingy to his brother in a bad sort of way. And so when love is just not that picture of clingy, and maybe that helps you, it helps me a lot because when I think of, you know, those early girlfriends or even sometimes my relationship with my kids, rather than allowing them and serving them and doing the things that love truly does, I have a tendency to be clingy. And I can see that this is something that love is not envious. And so you get the idea of envy and jealousy, it fits God's name so beautifully because he is the one that we're supposed to be clingy to.

And of course, there's nothing greener than that particular pasture. And it's certainly the place that we pray. And so as I am working through these different ideas of 1 Corinthians 13, I thought I would join in my discovery with you this morning. I'm so thankful for your listening and for your discovering with me. So if anybody has any more questions, or they want some more details on the Hebrew on these, or something that I discovered, you know, by all means, don't hesitate to email me or to call me or text me. All that is at the contact page, you know, contact Robbie at ChristianCarguy.com. Thanks for listening.