Reflection Paper

Love
(lev)

An intense feeling of deep affection.
To express strong likeness or find pleasure in.

Interesting enough, the word love is first mentioned in correlation to sacrifice. God asked Isaac to give up the one thing that he loved the most in order to please God. Although, Isaac subsequently did not have to physically give it up. He did sacrifice it both spiritually and emotionally. That symbolism is true love. In fact whenever the bible describes love it never describes as personal selfish and self-gaining. Love is always about your actions towards someone and is completely about sacrifice.

The Bible first describes love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7(ESV). Which states, “Love is patient and kind; loves does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable and resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Love is such self –less emotion and action. Love goes beyond the extent of our emotions and pierces our most inner being. An ever enduring action whether the recipient is deserving of it or not. Jesus is a perfect of example of God’s love in dyeing on the cross for all mankind. He endured all for the opportunity and advancement of others. Whether some believed in him or not, he still died for all. Whether all received his love or not, he still suffered and died for all. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who ever believed on him would not parish but have everlasting life.”

Love is a fruit of the spirit (Galation 5:22). Love is outward expression and evidence of you being of God. The definition of fruit is the sweet fleshy produce of a tree or other plant that contains seed and can be eaten. It can also be described as an offspring of something. If you metaphorically look at God as a tree that is deeply rooted in the ground and we as his fruits or offspring of that tree, God would then be like a tree deeply rooted in our inner being. A product of him being deeply rooted would our fleshy or outward evidence or fruits. An example of one of the fruits would be love. If we did not acquire love and outwardly express it in our actions, is it safe to say His tree or (himself) may not be deeply rooted in our inner being?

To Apply love in our lives will not be a goal that is instantly obtained. However, as we walk in discipline with Christ we conform to his expectations. (Core Christianity, pg. 70) This is walk with Christ is not a bed of roses. However, the rewards of it is never ending. God does not expect us to be perfect but to honest. In our honesty brews a strive for perfection. Our love for God causes us to discipline ourselves in refraining from what is deems as wrong and accepting what he deems is right. (Core Christianity, pg. 71)

Justice
/ˈjəstis/
The quality of being fair and reasonable.
Just behavior or treatment.
The Hebrew word for “justice,” is mishpat. It appears in various forms more than 200 times in the Old Testament. In its simplest form of understanding it means to treat people equitably. Anyone who does the same wrong should be given the same penalty.
Justice (mishpat) also means more than just the punishment of wrongdoing. It can refer to giving people their rights. In Deuteronomy 18, the priests of the tabernacle should be supported by a certain percentage of the people’s income. This support is described as “the priests’ mishpat,” which means their due or their right. Mishpat, then, is giving people what they are due, whether punishment or protection or care.
Justice protects those that can become vulnerable to society. Why should we be concerned about the vulnerable ones? It is because God is concerned about them. It is striking to see how often God is introduced as the defender of these vulnerable groups.
We must have a strong concern for the poor, but there is more to the biblical idea of justice than that. We get more insight when we consider a second Hebrew word that can be translated as “being just,” though it usually translated as “being righteous.” The word is tzadeqah, and it refers to a life of right relationships.
When most modern people see the word “righteousness” in the Bible, they tend to think of it in terms of private morality, such as sexual chastity or diligence in prayer and Bible study. But in the Bible, tzadeqah refers to day-to-day living in which a person conducts all relationships in family and society with fairness, generosity and equity. It is not surprising, then, to discover that tzadeqah and mishpat are brought together scores of times in the Bible.

Work Cites
Towns, Elmer. Core Christianity. Chattanooga: AMG Publishers, 2007.
Etzel, Gabriel, and Ben Gutierrez. Praxis: Beyond Theory. Bel Air: Academx, 2012.