Rabbi’s Reflections – Saturday, July 13, 2024
Shabbat Shalom,

Overview: Agape and Chesed
By David Harwood

Who wouldn’t agree that two important biblical themes are love and mercy? Their significance is emphasized in the Bible’s narratives, poetry, proclamation, and prophecy. To examine these themes, it is important to concentrate on two words which are repeated hundreds of times in the Scriptures. They are ahavah/agape/love and chesed/eleos/lovingkindness, or mercy.

Ahavah and agape are synonymous, as are chesed and eleos. Let’s briefly examine these words. They are keys to understanding God’s heart and how we are to live.

First, let’s look at agape.

Agapaō (the verb) and agape (a noun) convey the emotion we call love. These Greek words became familiar to the Jewish people through the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Septuagint. In the Septuagint ahavah (Hebrew for love) is translated as agapaō/agape over 200 times.

In the New Covenant Scriptures agapaō/agape is found a similar number of times. They parallel the use of agapaō/agape in the Septuagint. Here are some examples:

  • We are commanded to love/agapaō God (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37) and our neighbors (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39).
  • The psalms speak of the worshiper’s love/agapaō for Adonai. (Psalm 5:11; 18:1, etc.) This love/agapaō is echoed by John (1 John 4:20)
  • Agape can convey the meaning of a deep, emotional, paternal love. (Genesis 22:2; Matthew 3:17; 2 Timothy 1:2).
  • Agape is given for a reason. Yeshua revealed that Father loved (agapaō) Him because He laid down His life so that He might take it up again (John 10:17). The psalmist loved (agapaō) Adonai because He heard his voice (Psalm 116:1).
  • God loves (agapaō) those who belong to Him (Deuteronomy 7:8; 10:15; Romans 8:39), and has a special love (agape) for the Jewish people. (Isaiah 5:7; 63:9; Jeremiah 31:3, 20; Hosea 14:4; Zephaniah 3:17; Romans 11:28).
  • Romantic and marital agape is celebrated and commanded. (Genesis 24:67; Song of Songs 1:7; 2:7; 3:1, etc.; Ephesians 5:25).
  • There is also an agape which is sinful. (2 Samuel 13:1,4; Isaiah 1:23; Luke 11:43; John 3:19; 1 John 2:15-16).

Agape can describe natural affection: Sinners and tax collectors love (agapaō) those who love (agapaō) them (Luke 6:32; Matthew 5:46). A centurion loved (agapaō) Israel and built a synagogue for the people (Luke 7:5).

Agape may wane (Matthew 24:12), and agape can increase (1 Thessalonians 3:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:3).

We are commanded to love, but agape is not a dispassionate decision (1 Corinthians 13:3). It is the emotion we call love. Holy love makes choices to take actions that benefit the lives of others.

Adonai is holy and His agape is as holy as He is. Just as God’s power is greater than humanity’s, God’s agape is more strongly felt. Here are the pinnacles of holy agape: God’s love for the world and His love for Yeshua. Yeshua’s love for Father and Yeshua’s love for us (John 3:16, 35; 17:23 14:31; 15:9, 13).

Holy agape motivated God’s action when He gave His Son as a sacrifice for our sins (Romans 5:8; John 3:16; 1 John 3:16). This expression of love provides the pattern of loving our enemies (Matthew 5:44; Romans 5:8-10). Yeshua loving us, and giving Himself up for us, exemplifies how believers are to love one another (John 15:12-13; Galatians 2:20b; Ephesians 5:2). Within everyday life that type of agape is demonstrated through honoring and serving others like Yeshua did when He washed His disciples’ feet (John 13:1-17).

Now, let’s look at chesed.

Chesed, is found about 250 times in the Tanach. Introduced in Genesis, its meaning is consistent throughout the Scriptures. When shown by God to humanity it demonstrates His willingness to show mercy and is a model for human interaction.

In order of its occurrence in Genesis:

  • Angels showed Lot chesed when they rescued him and his family from the coming judgment of Sodom (Genesis 19:19).
  • Sarah showed chesed when, at his request, she called Abraham her brother to save his life (Genesis 20:13).
  • Abimelech asked Abraham to show him chesed according to the pattern he had shown Abraham (Genesis 21:23).
  • The Lord showed chesed to Abraham’s servant when he was guided to Nahor’s household. That same servant asked Laban and Bethuel to show chesed to Abraham by sending Rebekah with him (Genesis 24:12,14,27,49).
  • Jacob attributed his protection and prosperity to God’s chesed (Genesis 32:10).
  • Adonai extended chesed to Joseph when he was in prison. While incarcerated, Joseph asked the cupbearer for chesed and to get him out of that jail.
  • Jacob asked Joseph to show him chesed and bury him with his fathers (Genesis 39:21; 40:14, 47:29).

Examples like these can be multiplied throughout the Scriptures.

From the context we find that chesed is something one willingly does for others who are in need. It expresses everything from kind actions to loving, life-saving, interventions.

When English Bibles speak of showing lovingkindness they are translating, doing chesed. Chesed is something that is done.

Chesed describes God’s merciful acts towards all who rely upon Him. The Lord’s willingness to help and His active chesed is a theme of His people’s praise (Psalm 117:2; Lamentations 3:22). God’s chesed, that He swore to Israel, would be seen in every blessing that can be experienced in daily life (Deuteronomy 7:12-24).

His chesed was celebrated at the dedication of the temples (2 Chronicles 5:13; 7:3; Ezra 3:11). Judah’s choir sang that Adonai’s chesed is everlasting and the nation’s enemies self-destructed (2 Chronicles 20:21). Rehearsing God’s actions in creation, and His merciful intervention on behalf of Israel, Psalm 136 reiterates the refrain that God’s chesed is everlasting twenty-six times.

His chesed is the result of His everlasting ahavah/agape (Jeremiah 31:3).

The Scriptures were written within the context of a covenanted people. Therefore, we primarily find chesed experienced and expressed by those who are in covenant with Adonai and one another.

It is a relational term. Chesed is not legislated in the Torah, but God seeks it (Micah 6:8; Zechariah 7:9). God’s chesed is the model for human chesed (1 Samuel 20:14; 2 Samuel 9:3).

In the Septuagint chesed is translated eleos (mercy) over 200 times. When done between people it is a consequence of the command to love one’s neighbor. It is most poignantly illustrated in the story of the “Good Samaritan” wherein chesed/eleos is demonstrated (Luke 10:30-37).

Yeshua quoted Hosea when confronting merciless religionists. He reinforced this: Father delights in chesed/eleos (Hosea 6:6; Matthew 9:13; 12:7).

The Lord requires us to love chesed (Micah 6:8). Since He delights in chesed, God will pardon Israel’s iniquity, forgive their rebellion, trample their iniquities, and cast their sins into the sea. This is in fulfillment of the chesed He swore to the Patriarchs (Micah 7:18-20; Romans 11:28).

God overflows with transgenerational chesed (Exodus 34:6-7; Deuteronomy 7:9; Psalm 100:5). His goodness is revealed in His chesed and is a reason for gratitude (Psalm 106:1).

Consider God’s emotion of love for you. The expression of that agape is His chesed which endures forever.

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