OLD TESTAMENT LOVE – NEW TESTAMENT LOVE
Monday – July 28, 2025
Video link: https://youtu.be/QIJqceUo-3M
Welcome to the ninth installment of my teachings from my book “Awake, Arise, and Triumph – Be Love”. I strongly encourage you to get the book. It is not a once and done book but one on which to meditate. I am not encouraging you to meditate so much on my words and insights as the Scriptures God, love Himself, has given for our instruction. No doubt you hear much about love in Church and in conversations with others but seldom if ever hear what love is being talked about. We hear that God loves us. Let me ask you, how does He love us? Many times, when people are speaking or singing of their love for God, we see them get this angelic look on their face and a faraway look. Is that what love (agapē/ agapaō) of God is?
Love (agapē / agapaō) is obedience to the Word of God, all of the Word, and it is our full-time assignment. Again, this highest form of love (agapē / agapaō) is first and foremost obedience to the Word of God. This statement is the bottom line of this whole teaching; it is the bottom line of the Holy Scripture. Obedience to the Word, is exactly how Jesus defines love.
John 14:15 (KJV)
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Keeping or doing the commandments, the Word of God, is the outward manifestation of love (agapē/ agapaō) for God in our hearts. Is this hard to understand? Or could it be that we think we are in a supermarket or buffet line and can pick and choose what seems good to us. Perhaps we drank the kool-aid that the laws of God no longer apply to us. Listen again just a few verses later.
John 14:21 (KJV)
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Just a few verses later we hear Him repeat Himself again. Could this be important?
John 14:23-24 (KJV)
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
This was known to and available to the “Old Testament” saints as well. Many wonderful and needed things happened at Calvary and what followed but God has always had a pathway for those who would bend the knee to Him.
Deuteronomy 5:10 (KJV)
10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
The word love in the forgoing verse is much more general than what we find in the New Testament Greek love translated from the transliterated Greek word agapē/agapaō. The principle remains, if you love me, you will do my commandments. If you don’t love the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob you won’t do His commandments. Old Testament saints were incapable of expressing (agapē/agapaō) love for they were not born again. The spirit man was inoperative, and the spirit man is where this love of Divine origin is located. Jesus, the Master Himself asks the following question? It seems that Jesus equates love (agapē/ agapaō) with our actually treating Him as Lord (the One of highest authority).
Luke 6:46 (KJV)
46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Lord in this verse is the Greek word kyrios meaning the one supreme in authority according to Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary. Do these verses mean what they say? When we hear the Word of God, receive the Word of God, make the Word of God a part of us, and do the Word of God, Jesus defines this as an expression of love for Him. It also places Him first in our lives with the Word (the person of Jesus the Christ) being final authority for all things. The Father and Jesus will then respond in love and manifest in our life according to the Word of God. So, in a nutshell, we love God by doing the Scripture and God loves us by doing the Scripture. More on that tomorrow. The definition or practice of love (agapē/ agapaō) does not change because we are talking about God.
TAKE HOME:
- We hear much about love in Church and in conversations with others but seldom if ever do we hear exactly what love is being talked about.
- This highest form of love (agapē / agapaō) is first and foremost obedience to the Word of God.
- Old Testament saints were incapable of expressing (agapē/agapaō) love for they were not born again. The spirit man was inoperative, and the spirit man is where this love of Divine origin is located.
Lord willing, I will resume right here tomorrow. Remember, we love you, the Lord loves you, and there is nothing you can do about either one.
By: Dr. David R. Wood, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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