From the beginning of Israel’s history to the end of the Old Testament era God was moved by this great love. It is plain in the Old Testament that God’s highest value, his greatest love, is his own name. What a person values most is reflected in his actions and motivations. You can tell what a person loves by what he devotes himself to most passionately. Everything in the Old Testament, when properly understood, aims basically to transform men and women into people who fervently love God and their neighbor. This must mean that if a person understood and obeyed these two commandments, he would understand and fulfill what the whole Old Testament was trying to teach. Then he said, “On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets” (Matthew 22:40). The second commandment was, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39 Leviticus 19:18). Jesus said that the greatest commandment in the Old Testament was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind” (Matthew 22:36ff Deuteronomy 6:5). As we will see, the love for things and both dimensions of the love for persons are richly illustrated in the Bible.Īs we examine the Old Testament and the New Testament in turn, our focus will be on God’s love, then on man’s love for God, man’s love for man and man’s love for things. In this case, love is not a delight in what a person is, but a deeply felt commitment to helping him be what he ought to be. There is the aspect of love for persons who are not attractive or virtuous or productive. ![]() ![]() But there is another aspect of interpersonal love that is very important in the Bible. As with things, loving persons may mean simply enjoying them and taking pleasure in their personalities, looks, achievements, etc. When directed toward things, love means enjoying or taking pleasure in those things. Love in the Bible, as in our everyday usage, can be directed from person to person or from a person to things.
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