What Scripture Says About Love

My Fruit of the Spirit for the New Year

Pastor Christine R Paolino runs a weekly prayer call for the Metro New York District Church of the Nazarene, and she challenged us to ask Holy Spirit to pick a Fruit of the Spirit to meditate on all year. I didn’t feel like I was ready for patience! I picked love and His first lesson landed in my inbox within 24 hours! I mentioned my choice to Dr. Linda Warren, and she said, "Love is harder than patience or self-control!"

Our assignment was to search for every use of our fruit in Scripture, so as I find those passages I’ll paste them on Facebook and Instagram with my #ScriptureInTheNight (www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/InterpretingTheTimes), which I've been posting regularly since Easter 2023.

I think just about everyone can agree we can all use some more love in our culture, but we use the word to describe how we feel about our Creator and a good meal. Also, love for anything that's stronger than our love for the Lord can become idolatry, so I think it's going to be a fascinating study!

I’ll be posting my discoveries with whatever passage I wake up to, and I’ll add the hashtag #WhatScriptureSaysAboutLove, which you can search for on Facebook or Instagram to find my discoveries.

Hebrew and Greek have many different words for love, so I’m going to take them one at a time. If you’re patient you’ll see every use of “love” in Scripture.

Here’s the first word for love in Hebrew:

‎ אָהֵב

[ʾāhēb] v.

to love
(Qal)
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
(Niphal)
lovely (participle)
loveable (participle)
(Piel)
friends
lovers (fig. of adulterers)
to like

There are 202 uses of ʾāhēb in Scripture.

On Christmas Eve Intercessors for America reposted Joyce's article from 2020, which is a great article about forgiveness anytime of the year:

"Spiritual Prep for Christmas"
Lord, help us live in a state of grace this Christmas season. Help us release the debt we feel from others’ wrongs or slights. Help us be quick to forgive and slow to anger. We desire to be free. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Are you dreading family get-togethers this Christmas? Did you just barely get through Thanksgiving? Did the family festivity become a family feud? If so, you are not alone.

[Click here to continue reading...]

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During the Westchester Chapel service on December 20, while we were singing praises to our Lord, I felt prompted to offer a performance on Christmas Eve. Dr. Linda asked if I’d perform on January 3 instead, but the prompting was fulfilled when I recorded vocals for “He Shall Reign Forevermore”, which fit the passage for our Christmas Eve Service, Isaiah 9:1-6.

On January 3 I’ll perform “Something Leaps inside Us All,” about Zechariah reporting how Gabriel appeared to him six months before appearing to Mary.

Dr. Linda didn’t want to tell Pastor Randy what I’d be performing because she wanted him to hear his passage from the Lord.

On December 28 he texted this to Dr. Linda: “Expectations. Luke 1:5-24.” That’s the EXACT passage my performance will cover! It’s the first message of the New Year! It didn’t have to be a part of the Christmas story!

I have high expectations of how the Holy Spirit is going to meet us this Saturday!

Join us live if you’re in the area (www.WestchesterChapel.org/saturdays), or virtually from anywhere (www.WestchesterChapel.org/wccn-zoom-link).

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