The Meaning of “Love” in Hebrew

This is our third week studying the powerful Old Testament prayer called “The Shema.” It’s a prayer faithfully recited by Jewish believers every morning and evening for centuries. It’s a prayer that declares one’s devotion to God, and at the same time demonstrates the character of God and shows us how to respond to him. So each week we’re highlighting a specific word in the prayer. Today, that word is “love” (“ahava”). 

• Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

When we typically think of the word “love”, the first thing that comes to mind might be an affection or feeling. In our culture, love is an emotion that gets turned on and off. It can be manipulated by people or circumstances. 

But the word “love” in Hebrew is different. The word is “ahava”. It’s not just a feeling or emotion. It’s also deeply connected with action. The root of the word in Hebrew is “to give”, literally to give oneself. So this kind of love is not just something that you feel, it is something that you give or you do.

God Loved Us and Created Us in His Image So That We Can Love.

Last week, we saw that the Lord our God is the one true God. When we look deeply at his nature and attributes, not only is he eternal and supreme:

• 1 John 4:8 …God is love.

Throughout the Bible, God shows us what genuine love is like. This is not just how his love is explained, but we also see God’s love on display, seen in: his covenant relationship with his people, his constant protection and guidance for them, his heart of forgiveness. God didn’t love the Israelites because they earned it. His love and affection for them is genuine, but it originates from who he is, not who they are. It’s who God has always been, which means his love never changes. 

• Jeremiah 31:3 Long ago the Lord said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

Considering that the word “ahava” means “to give”, God eternally gives of himself to others. His love is not just a sentiment but is central to his activity.

• Deuteronomy 4:37 Because he loved your ancestors, he chose to bless their descendants, and he personally brought you out of Egypt with a great display of power.

God says, “Here’s why I rescued your ancestors from slavery. Because I loved them. Here’s why I have blessed you. Because I love you.”

Back to what we read in the Shema: because God loves us, we can love as well. 

• Genesis 1:27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Because you and I are created in God’s image, we’re like him. If God is love, then we can love in a way that reflects God’s love. It won’t be perfect, but it will reflect God. So let me put it like this: we are CALLED to love God because he is the one true God. We are ABLE to love God – and others – because God made us to reflect him.

Remember, this isn’t just about the emotional side of knowing God. It’s not just what you feel from being in relationship with him…

More Than a Feeling, Our Love for God Is Demonstrated in Action

Remember the saying: actions speak louder than words? That applies to our definition of love. Telling someone you love them is sweet, but it means nothing if its just words. Whether or not you actually love that person is proved by your behavior toward them. The same thing applies to our love for God. We can love with affection, with passion, with warm feelings toward him. Worship helps cultivate and express that. But if we love God like it says in the Shema, we put our love for God into action. 

• Deuteronomy 10:12-13 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the Lord your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. And you must always obey the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.

God was calling his people to show their love and devotion through action, by serving him and obeying him. 

But here’s the thing. If we are made in God’s image, and that gives us the capacity to love other people, we are called not only to love God in action, but also to show God’s love to others. Jesus made this clear in his discussion with the Jewish leaders. These were the religious elite, who would never have missed an opportunity to pray the Shema:

• Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’” This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Jesus is quoting the Shema here. He’s saying: you should love God with everything you’ve got. But then he added something that was also very important: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Most of us love ourselves a lot! We invest a lot in ourselves. We’re very attentive to our own wants and needs. Jesus says: love your neighbor with the same attention and care. In fact, they Bible says: you can say you love God, but if you don’t love other people, that claim is empty. 

• 1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates his fellow believer, that person is a liar, for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?

Loving God and loving our neighbor are completely interconnected with each other.

So let’s get practical for a moment: how do we love God? We have deep, reverent respect and honor for him. We put him first in our whole being. We live our lives in a way that is pleasing to him. (By the way, we find out what pleases God by reading his priorities in his word, the Bible.) And how do we love other people? We tell them about Jesus. We mentor our family and friends. We demonstrate practical ways to step in and meet people’s material needs. 

Here’s the truth: if we say we love God but don’t follow what he says, then we don’t actually love him, no matter what we say. If you say you love God but don’t obey him, and don’t care about what he cares about, then any claim you make about loving God isn’t real: no matter how you feel or what you say. Just like his love for us, our love for God is more than a feeling, but is demonstrated in action. 

That makes me think about the most significant action God took to prove the reality of his love for us.

God Demonstrated His Love for Us in the Most Costly Way

• John 3:16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

There’s that word “give” again. It’s the heart of “ahava”. And it’s what God did for us. You see, in the beginning, God created us for a relationship with him, to experience his perfect love and to love him in return. But we chose to turn away from him, to disobey him. Through our first parents, sin entered the world, and we all inherited it, and we all practice it. That sin separates us from God.

• Romans 3:23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

It says ALL have sinned and fallen short. There is a chasm between us and God, a chasm of our own making. A righteous, holy God has every right to bring judgment on those who disobey him. In fact, he would not be righteous if he failed to do so. According to the Bible, that judgment is death:

• Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

What sin pays is death. But God loves his people so much that he took action so we could be reconciled to him. He exchanged our death with that of his beloved Son. 

• Romans 5:8 For God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

Jesus proved his love by willingly dying on the cross, for a bunch of sinners. For people who were his enemies. That’s “ahava”. That’s love.

Now: Jesus was fully God, but he was also fully human. He had human emotions. Before he died, as he went to the cross, he struggled. It was difficult. He was gripped with fear and anxiety. What if – at the last minute – Jesus thought, “I don’t love this, this is hard! I hate this feeling, I don’t like doing this.” If he had based his decision on his feelings alone, none of us would ever be forgiven of our sins. We would all be hopelessly doomed to hell – because Jesus would never have acted. But instead, he was more interested in doing the Father’s will than following his own feelings. So Jesus showed that love is what a person chooses to do, not just what a person feels. That’s how God acted toward us. That’s  how we express our love for God – and for others.

The Takeaway

What we learn today: God loves us first, so we can love him back. We’re made in his image, so we can love others as well. Understanding, of course, that love is proven by what we do, for God AND for people around us. The greatest example of that is how Jesus gave up his own life. How he took our sin upon himself so that we could be right with God.

We want to invite you to receive his love for yourself today. It starts when you admit your need, and own up to all the ways you have failed to obey God, to love him and to love others. Then you simply call out to him for his mercy. Jesus already did everything for our sin to be forgiven and for us to be right with God. He paid for us on the cross. You can trust in him and his finished work. Express that trust through prayer, inviting Jesus to forgive you, and then to take up residence in your life to empower you for a new way to live.