Why so much about love? Part 2

 

So out of curiosity I decided to do a word count on various words that were related to my discussions on love.  The results of this word count are seen below. Now a word of caution word counts are not necessarily a measure of importance.  The word “is” appears more than 7000 times and does not make it a more important subject.  Unless of course you are talking about The Great I Am.

 

Word	Old Testament Count	New Testament Count	Total
Love (English)	446	306	752
Doctrine (English)	0	6	6
Discernment (English)	26 (ESV) 23 (CSB)	10 (ESV) 3 (CSB)	36 (ESV) 26 (CSB)
Teach/teaching (English)	91	140	231
Learn (English)	40	42	82
Truth (English)	60	110	170
Holy (English)	464	189	653
Love - Agape (Greek Root)	N/A	320	320
Love - Phileo (Greek Root)	N/A	106	106
Teach teachings doctrine -Didasko (Greek Root)	N/A	220	220
Truth – Alethia (Greek Root)	N/A	183	183

English word counts are in the Christian Standard Bible except where noted.

So what conclusions can we draw from this. 

Well teaching and truth would appear to be a subject that the Bible spends quite a bit of time on.  It is the transmission of understanding and commitment to teachings that are a pillar of our faith.  Without truth and teaching the whole thing collapses.  In out relativistic world culture it is of high importance to learn what the Bible says!

We also can see that the Bible spends a lot and I mean a lot of time talking about love.  If love is a major teaching of the Bible then we would do well to learn what the Bible has to say about love.  By way of comparison love is mentioned in the Bible slightly more than the word holy.  Again we cannot take this to mean that love is more important than holiness that would be a faulty conclusion.  But what we can say as a subject Love is pretty important to God to mention it so often in the Bible. 

Doctrine and Discernment are important subjects of course.  However, if we look at those specific subjects there can be little doubt that the Bible deals with the subject of  love more than about the subject of doctrine or discernment.  Again we cannot draw the conclusion that these are unimportant due to the lack of mention in the Bible.  I also would say that doctrine in an academic sense is the whole Bible.  We have our understanding of Theology through the sacred scriptures.  Without scripture we would not understand what God thinks about love.  We also cannot escape that Love is unmistakably a subject that is important to the heart of God.

In conclusion “Why am I so preoccupied with love?”  Well it is because it would seem that God thinks it it a pretty big deal to mention it so often in scripture.  More than that though it is a burden that God has placed on my heart and if His Holy Spirit is prompting me I would do well to respond rather than fight against God.  As I dig into the subject of love I realize how much I have missed the mark and how much I have room to grow into God’s love! My hope is that we can experience a revival of God’s love in our lives.

I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.
Revelation 2:4–5

God Bless You

~BJ Olson