Love unto
righteousness
Love unto righteousness is referring to a party loving
another in such a way, where there is no unrighteous element whatsoever in that
love. In such a love, righteousness is
either fostered or maintained.
The love of God for men is first of all, that way –
love unto righteousness. Meaning, God
cannot love you and I, unrighteously or unto unrighteousness. In fact, NOT only God cannot love you and I
unrighteously, He must foster or maintain righteousness in (the party of) His
love. The fostering or maintaining of
righteousness is with reference to men, for God Himself is holy and righteous,
and God cannot act against His own nature, ultimately.
In His love for us, He behooves us to righteousness or
maintenance of righteousness. In other words,
you can’t, for example, expect God to accede to this request of yours, in the
name of love, His love for you: “Lord, the sight of him irks me, if you love
me, why don’t you cause him to fall into the dirty drain over there!”
Just because the sight of someone irks you, it is NOT
righteous, is it, for you to get him to fall into the dirty drain! When it is unrighteous, God cannot do it, and
God cannot foster unrighteousness in you; He can only foster righteousness in
you. His love for you has to be loving
you unto righteousness. Why is this
paramount? Because that is the only way
we can be with God in a love relation, for God is holy and righteous.
What is 'ahab love?
Yes, generally, you see me equating “love unto
righteousness” to 'ahab love; what is 'ahab love?
'ahab (H157) is an Hebrew word for love. This Hebrew word for love is found
extensively in the OT (The OT was written in Hebrew, almost entirely; and the
NT, in ancient Greek, mostly). The
Hebrew language is a rich language, and the way it was and is, is that a Hebrew
word can have multiple meanings, NOT to mention the varying degrees of shade of
a meaning. 'ahab is one such word, and
in it, is the concept of love unto righteousness. You can see it in the short-form Strong’s Lexicon,
I am giving below:
'ahab (H157) – either
love or like, and for love, it is broken down to:
human love for another, includes
family, and sexual;human appetite for objects such as food, drink, sleep, wisdom;
human love for or to God;
act of being a friend: lover (participle), friend (participle);
God's love toward man: to individual men, to people Israel, to righteousness;
lovely (participle), loveable (participle);
friends, lovers (fig. of adulterers).
From the underlined portion, you can see it – the love
unto righteousness; God’s love for men is love unto righteousness; and men, to
love God back, are also to love Him, righteously.
The direct linking of love unto righteousness by me to
'ahab love is solely because the Greek love word, agape, the equivalent love
word used extensively in the NT (written in Greek), does NOT have the meaning
of love unto righteousness, traditionally.
Why this
righteousness element is missing from agape?
Why is it (this righteousness element) missing, or
missed out in the Greek word, agape? The
ancient Greek language was of course from the Greek people, although in those
times of writing, it was the scholarship language of even the Jews, meaning the
authors themselves, not Greek, but they wrote in Greek.
I submit to you this reason: The Greek (people)’s ancient
cultural and historical religious beliefs background had NOT, that idea (love
unto righteousness) comprised in love words.
In other words, it was one of the occasions of, “it was NOT the word to
use, but the best (Greek) word to use”, when the non-Greek authors were writing
in Greek.
I argue for love unto righteousness to be imputed into “agape”,
just as “sacrificial” and even “unconditional” were imputed into it, subsequent
to the writing of the biblical books of the Bible, in this article: Agape’s meanings need to be expanded.
Until, it is widely accepted, love unto righteousness
as part of agape love, I will still be referencing love unto righteousness as
'ahab love.
It is NOT plucked
from the air!
I do encourage you to read the article given above
arguing for the imputing of “love unto righteousness” into agape. Just in case,
people think I pluck this whole thing out of the air, I will give you the
“pillars of love” found in both the OT and NT, and you can see for yourself if
I am justified to build a case for the need to impute “love unto righteousness”
as embodied in the Hebrew love word,'ahab, into the Greek love word, agape,
before I end this article.
The love pillars:
OT: Deu 6:5 - Love ('ahab) the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Lev 19:18 - " 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against
one of your people, but love ('ahab) your
neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
NT: Mark 12:30 - Love
(agape/agapao) the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Mark 12:31 -
The second is this: 'Love (agape/agapao) your
neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
Whether it is called 'ahab or agape, my revelation is
that God’s kinda of love is firstly, love unto righteousness, and then,
charitable, sacrificial, selfless, and to a good extent, unconditional.
It helps
understanding, in knowing this
It, love unto righteousness ('ahab love) should help you, a bit more, in your understanding
of God’s actions when you view them or the absence of them (actions by God),
under the lens of love. God’s love is sacrificial,
but it is NOT unconditional all the time, for He can only love you and
I, unto righteousness, ultimately.
Anthony Chia,
high.expressions
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