“You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 19:17-18 ESV…
Let all that you do be done in love. 1 Corinthians 16:14 NASB Love – An overworked word loses its meaning. An overlooked word has no meaning at all. Such is the case with the Greek noun, agape. We may realize that agape is connected to the Hebrew ‘ahav, but did we know this? Love…
And showing mercy to thousands of those who love me, and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:6 Jewish World translation Love Me, and keep – Back to the pictographs. Here is the phrase “of those who love Me” in pictographic Hebrew. Once again the word begins with the preposition le signifying “control” or “authority.” It…
If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting. 2 John 10 NASB This teaching – John gets nasty. If someone comes to you with a message that doesn’t square with the truth of the Messiah, don’t let him…
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine. Song of Songs 1:2 (translation, Tremper Longman III) Love – Song of Songs presents the religious world of Judaism and Christianity with a real challenge. The sexual innuendo, imagery and behavior of the actors in this poem would…
You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:4 ESV Makes himself – Are you making yourself God’s enemy? Ah, you object, proclaiming, “No way. I am saved and devoted…
fervently love one another from the heart 1 Peter 1:22 NASB Fervently – This Greek word is ektenos. This translation is correct. It means “intently, earnestly.” But that only tells us part of the story. The root word here is teino (to stretch). Did you see the little added prefix ek at the beginning of…
“Therefore do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows.” Matthew 10:31 NASB Sparrow – Who would imagine that God could teach us something from a word about birds? The Greek word is strouthion. It is a diminutive. In other words, it is a word that means “little birds.” Did you ever go…
the one who does not love does not know God for God is love 1 John 4:8 NASB Not – This is a harsh verse. It may not seem harsh because we are likely to modify its meaning to accommodate our own failures. We want to feel better about our efforts to meet its demands,…
207,557 people on Facebook viewed the offer of the “spiritual bracelet for men,” a hand woven bracelet that “promotes feelings of spiritual well-being.” I find that fact disheartening. Imagine what kind of “feeling of spiritual well-being” would be fostered if these 207,557 people gave $1 a month to the efforts to rescue children from abuse…
