Loveনমুনা

Love Sacrifices

Someone who works with the dictionary of the New Testament said, “It is indeed striking that the noun agapē [self-sacrificial love] is almost completely lacking in pre-biblical Greek.” So where did the New Testament writers get it? From Jesus who spoke of the “agapē of God” and “My agapē,” His love that we are to abide in. But why would Jesus choose this virtually non-existent Greek noun to describe the love of God, when its verb agapein has about the same breadth of meaning in the Greek Old Testament as our word “love” has in English? I suspect it is because Jesus appreciated how the Holy Spirit arranged for it to be translated from Hebrew into Greek in the book of Hosea.

Yahveh God told His prophet, Hosea, to do for his wife what He was doing for Israel: demonstrating sacrificial love to save His people who were prostituting themselves to idols. So Hosea bought Gomer, a prostitute, married her, and had children (Hosea 1). Then she left them and went back to prostitution (Hosea 2). Then in further obedience to Yahveh, Hosea went, found her, and bought her again, so she could become faithful to him as he had been faithful to her (Hosea 3).

Jesus, like Hosea, sacrificed His situation—God in heaven; His reputation—the sinless Messiah; His occupation—servanthood through the prime time of His life; and His emotion—weeping over Jerusalem’s rejection and accepting the passion of crucifixion; all out of covenant-keeping love for a covenant-breaking people. Then He went even further and became the covenant-sacrifice Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 42:6)!

Stunningly, the Apostle Paul, in Philippians 2:5-8, not only described this love-journey of Jesus as how He emptied Himself for our salvation, but also as the mindset every follower of Jesus needs to develop and imitate!

Prayer:

Forgive me, Father God, for the self-defense mechanisms that I practice to protect myself from loving like You did. Help me, Holy Spirit, to empty myself like Jesus did, for the betterment of others in self-sacrificing love today.

By: Pastor Steve Kobernik