Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

Ephesians 2:⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

THE ROOT MEANING OF LOVE IS “TO BEAR FRUIT”

Strong’s H157 – Root of ‘āhaḇ To Love – To Germinate – To Bear Fruit – To Create – To Produce (a child) – To Harvest (Fruit) – The Color Green (to be verdant)

RELEVANT REFERENCE VERSES: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN

• John 12:24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.
  • Love gives its life to produce more life.
  • John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
  • (Wheat is considered “fruit” as in “bearing fruit” when it is used in the context of a harvest. Although it has vegetable protein, it is considered a grain.) (H2406 – ḥiṭṭâ wheat)
    
• John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
  • No one can produce fruit unless they are already graphed into Christ in the same way that no one can have a child unless they are graphed into a union, one with another.
  • Romans 11:17 And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.
    Romans 11:24 For if you (gentiles) were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches (Jews), be grafted into their own olive tree?
    
• Romans 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
  • Love is like a marriage that produces children (fruit) (the law does not). When one becomes a believer they begin as “babes”.
  • I Corinthians 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
    
• John 15:2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
  • Love is painful whether you are giving birth (by sharing the gospel) or by giving birth to a child or a nation. It is called “Sorrows”.
  • I Peter 3:14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed.
    
• Matthew 7:19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
  • Love does not enable something that is spiritually worthless and dead.
  • God can bring anything back to life if the dead tree is willing to be aligned with God.
  • John 1:23 “Make straight the way of the Lord,” as the prophet Isaiah said.
    
• Isaiah 26:18 We have been with child, we have been in pain; We have, as it were, brought forth wind (farts); We have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth, Nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen (dropped from the womb).
  • Love is giving life, and creating life, which cannot be done without pain. Even the creation of the earth and the heavens were created, knowing that the lamb of God was sacrificed before the foundation of the world.
  • Revelation 13:8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
  • Ephesians 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love …
  • John 17:24 “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
  • John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
  • I Peter 1:20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
    
• John 3:7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
  • When one believes in Jesus, that person is “regenerated” by the Holy Spirit.
  • Regeneration cannot take place without the blood of a sinless sacrifice.
  • This is Love: That Jesus sacrificed Himself so that men may be regenerated.
  • I John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
    
• I Peter 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever..
  • Mary was impregnated by the Holy Spirit and Jesus was born to a virgin by the Holy Spirit.
  • To be “Born Again” is also to be born of the Holy Spirit and regenerated as such.
  • John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
    
• Luke 23:31 For if they do these things in the green wood, what will be done in the dry?”
  • A green tree is a living tree. A dry tree is a dead tree.
  • The literal Hebrew meaning of “pitch/sap” is Atonement.
  • The “pitch/sap” is the life of the tree. It is a metaphor for “blood” where man’s spiritual life is in the blood.
  • A dead tree cannot bear fruit.
  • Lamentations 4:⁸ Now their (noble’s) appearance is blacker than soot; They go unrecognized in the streets; Their skin clings to their bones, It has become as dry as wood (spiritually corrupt – dead). (A corrupted body is called a corpse).
    
• Matthew 13:39 The enemy who sowed them (the weeds, the dead wood, the corrupted seeds) is the devil, the harvest (fruit) is the end of the age (resurrections), and the reapers are the angels.
  • One cannot marry or bear fruit with a corpse. It’s time for the Judgments and Separations.
  • Isaiah 34:8,17 For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion. He has cast the lot for them (His chosen), And His hand has divided it among them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever; From generation to generation they shall dwell in it.”
    
• Revelation 14:15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”
  • The spiritual fruit is ripe, the dead fruit is rotten.
  • Jeremiah 24:1-3, 5, 8, 17 – The Sign of Two Baskets of Figs -The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
    One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”
    “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans.
    Jeremiah 24:8 And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.
    Jeremiah 29:17 thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.
    ‘And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.
    
• Isaiah 62:5 For as a young man marries a virgin, So shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So shall your God rejoice over you.
  • The Love of a man with his virgin bride is like the Love that God has for His people. Together, in Love, they bear fruit. (Figs signify the fruit of the Jews)
  • Numbers 24:5 “How lovely are your tents, O Jacob! Your dwellings, O Israel!
  • Song of Solomon 2:13 The fig tree puts forth her green figs, And the vines with the tender grapes Give a good smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away!
    
• Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares (weeds) and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
  • God believes in boundaries and truth. He divides the clean from the unclean, the uncommon from the common, the day from the night, and the sheep from the goats. To separate is the meaning of the word “Sacred/Holy”. To be “Set Apart”. God believes in walls, fences, and holy veils. God separates the wheat (fruit) from the weeds.
  • Romans 9:13 As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”
    

CHARACTERISTICS OF LOVE:

Recognizing the “neediness” in another and helping to fill it.
Standing with the weak, powerless, and needy – openly.
Loving yourself so that you can love others as yourself.
Show compassion without being naive.
Have the heart of a servant.
Extinguish the fire of the tongue.
Relinquish expectations by accepting others as they are.
Don’t make promises that can’t be kept.
Be a peace keeper.