I write about marriage often, maybe too often, but
it's something that God has put on my heart.
This essay is not about marriage but it is about love. I was sitting at
my desk last night and a bookmark with a scripture verse on it caught my
attention. Now this bookmark has been on
my desk for months. Even though I've read the bookmark many times the verse
really jumped out at me and it's been on my mind all day.
So Jacob served seven years to get
Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for
her.
Genesis 29:20 NIV
Some
other translations:
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they
seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. Genesis 29:20 NAS
So Jacob worked seven years for Rachel. But it
only seemed like a few days, he loved her so much. Genesis 29:20 The
Message
So Jacob worked seven years to pay for Rachel.
But his love for her was so strong that it seemed to him but a few days. Genesis 29:20 NLT
I want to love like this. This was real love, and not
a feeling! It's how all husbands should
love their wives. Ok, I guess this essay is related
to marriage. Jacob served Laban for 7
years as the price to take Rachel as his wife, and then when his wedding came Laban swapped
Rachel for Leah, and tricked Jacob into working 7 more years in order to pay
for Rachel. (Some would say Jacob deserved that for what he did to Esau, but
that is another story.) Jacob worked a
total of 14 years for Rachel. No feeling
of love, or being in love, could sustain Jacob through his 14 years of work. Feelings
change, sometimes quickly. This was real love.
I
looked up the translation of the Genesis 29:20 in the Greek Septuagint and Love
in Genesis 29:20 is translated as the same word (ἀγαπάω [agapao /ag·ap·ah·o) as love in Ephesians
5:25-3. Also, ἀγάπη (agapē), is related and is demonstrated in 1 Cor13:1-13
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church
and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansinga her by the washing with water through
the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church,
without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In
this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who
loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his
own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30
for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will
leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become
one flesh. Eph 5:25-31 (NIV)
If
I speak in the tonguesa of men and of
angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all
knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I
am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my
body to the flames,b but have not love, I
gain nothing.
4
Love
is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but
rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always
hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. 1
Corinthians 13:1-8 (NIV)
Lord, help me to really love and not to base love on
my feelings or emotions, but on your example.
“For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,f that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NIV)
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