I am not a student of Hebrew (yet), but I do love digging into the words that lie underneath our modern translations of God’s Word. I ran into one of those words lately while reading through 1 Samuel. This is the section where Jonathan, Saul’s son, promises to do what he can to determine whether Saul has evil plans for David. In return for his faithfulness, Jonathon asks David to show him a spectacular kind of love…
And may you treat me with the faithful love of the Lord as long as I live. But if I die, treat my family with this faithful love, even when the Lord destroys all your enemies from the face of the earth.” 1 Samuel 20:14-15 (NLT)
The phrase “faithful love of the Lord” is often translated as mercy, grace, love, goodness or a word we don’t use much: lovingkindness. It comes from the Hebrew word “hesed”, and a richer definition might go something like this:
Love expressed in unmerited kindness and mercy.
It is the type of love that sums up the relationship of God with His people since the beginning of time. It is a love that that is completely undeserved by the recipient. It is the type of love He desires us to have toward each other. It is a love that does not go unexpressed…it does not remain hidden or silent. It is expressed through kindness and mercy.
That is the love God shows you and I every moment of every day! We don’t deserve it and we can’t earn it! The challenge: to let the GREAT love of God be reflected in our relationships with the people around us. To let His love shine through our small lives in a bright, obvious way. To love people not because they are lovable, but because it reflects God’s love for us:
- Imagine loving your spouse with unmerited kindness and mercy.
- Imagine loving your kids with unmerited kindness and mercy.
- Imagine loving your neighbors with unmerited kindness and mercy.
- Imagine loving complete strangers with unmerited kindness and mercy.
Imagine reflecting God’s lovingkindness to our families and our world! Imagine if we stopped loving people the way they deserved to be loved and loved them the way God loves us!
