Fruits of the Spirit 1: Beloving

Talk of love is so ubiquitous in our culture, it may be difficult to get to an idea that seems suitable as a fruit of the Spirit. And all too often, talk of love among Christians or the love of God is belittled as unsophisticated. But here it is, at the head of the list. It's one of the few bits of Greek that most Christians will at least have heard of: Paul speaks of agape, only one of 4 kinds of love with completely different names in Greek (though not all are used in the Bible).

Looking for Hebrew parallels in Vine's Dictionary of the KJV, I was a bit baffled to see only 'ahab listed, along with discussion of how the Hebrew is more about human-human relationships and the Greek those on higher planes. The word I expected to find, hesed, is off in a separate entry, with no Greek comparable, as "loving-kindness" (the NRSV most often makes it "steadfast love" or "mercy"). Though I haven't found scholarly support, the connection became obvious to me when I saw that agape is the root of every single Greek word translated as "beloved" - from the voice from heaven describing Jesus to the personal greetings in the epistles. This slightly antique English form (which I've twisted further) might be enough to evoke the depth of love in the Spirit that I understand from both agape and hesed, taking us beyond the simplified, retail love of popular song and sentimental slogans. Well, some of Paul's most famous slogans are about agape, including the grand definitions of love that is "patient," "kind," "bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things," and even a greater gift than faith and hope (1 Corinthians 13), and "speaking the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). But we may hear these slogans in new ways as agape and hesed.

[Read the New Revised Standard Version at http://bible.oremus.org/bible.cgi?ql=126285373. From there you can also check the other passages referenced here.]