If you did not love us we would not exist. If you did not woo us we’d not come to you. If you did not call us, we’d never find you. So yes: you do love us! You woo us with singing, your voice whipping through every blast, each storm, to draw us so close we can hear your heart. And you insist that we love you back! This is not just a one-way street; mutual love is where we meet! When we love you with all that we are, we’re firmly bonded, no holds barred— we are all yours and you are ours!
When I think back on the years I have spent on Bible translation, I am inexpressibly grateful for the way it forced me to dig into the Word in ways I never would have otherwise. It kept me on a learning curve!
I had an opportunity to share some of that the other night with a community of women, and putting together that message clarified for me how certain themes interlocked. We often had to do intense searches in the commentaries, dictionaries and other resources to fully understand a term. Then we had to look for clear ways to express the meaning of the text in Nyarafolo.
The greatest commandment was one that we had encountered in Mark, the first book translated, then in Deuteronomy. It had been interesting to find out that the “heart” was not the center of emotions or thinking among the Nyarafolo. A literal translation would have meant little to them! And did the Nyarafolo consider a part of a person to be their “soul”? Even English has to wrestle with it:
Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deut. 6:5 NIV)
You must love8 the LORD your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength. (Deut. 6:5 NET)
When the commandment was first given, the Hebrews viewed the heart as the seat of the mind, the place where thinking happened. By the time Mark was written in Greek, the word “mind” was added to the command because the meaning of “heart” was different in Greek so the addition of “mind” underlined the “thinking”:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mk. 12:30 NIV)
In other words, what is important is to love God with everything that is essentially you! The New English Translation, which includes masses of helpful notes about translation, has this comment with regard to Mark 12:30: “The fourfold reference to different parts of the person says, in effect, that one should love God with all one’s being.” That is essentially the meaning of “soul” as well: it is the person, the part that endures whether the body does or not.
In Nyarafolo the fungo, “stomach,” is the center of the will and decision-making; the heart reflects what the stomach decides and transmits it as feeling. So in the greatest commandment, that word “heart” is translated as fungo, the stomach. Think about how the KJV used the term “bowels of mercy” to connote deep feeling, now translated in modern versions as “heart of compassion” using the same term “heart” as in the Greek (cf. Col. 3:12). Evidently the English culture of the KJV era tied intense emotion to the abdomen! Now those of us from a Western culture that speaks English tie the heart to emotion.
We found a word that essentially connotes “soul” in Nyarafolo, and “strength” was literally easy.
Here is a crucial question: why does God insist that we love him? Contemplating that reminded me of the struggle we had as we looked for a way to translate “godliness” in the New Testament. To summarize our long search, we eventually agreed to follow the solution of a French translation, “attachment to God.” This does not refer to simply feeling attached to someone; rather, it describes a firm bonding.
Think about the imagery of the Vine and the branches in John 15. The branch that is securely attached to the essential trunk of the Vine is healthy and produces fruit. If not, it shrivels and is useless. That deep bonding is essential,
4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (Jn. 15:4-5 NIV)
This is imagery that pictures love, intimate love. His love flows into the one securely attached to him, just as the branch is fed by the Vine. Then the branch is healthy and can produce good fruit. This reinforces the meaning of the word “love” in the greatest commandment, which was the key element of the covenant God made through Moses: its meaning is “covenant love,”[1] a love that binds together the parties in the covenant. How do we become filled with that loyal love that never ends? That is the work of his Spirit, who lives in us.
. . .God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Rom. 5:5b NIV)
As that love flows into us, it is a natural response to love him in return, as well as to love others as ourselves, because that is the kind of love that is his.
We love because he first loved us. (1 Jn. 4:19 NIV)
There it is. If we stay firmly bonded to him, his love fills us, changes us, equips us to love God with everything that is in us—and to love others as well. That is how the entire law is obeyed (cf. Matthew 28:40).
Being firmly bonded means there is intimacy, spending time together, sharing life. Any true love relationship here on earth is characterized by that. So when we want to increasingly experience that mutual love with our God, we need to spend time with him, pay attention to his directives and promptings, and express our love in words and in actions.
We should each take a moment to check our reaction to this great love command and evaluate our progress. Ask: How important is it to me to love God with everything that I am? How is he calling to me, wooing me, to use “all my strength” to develop this relationship?
We need to remember this essential truth: his love calls us to love him back!
[1] NET note on Deut. 6:5: 8 tn The verb ) אָהַב’ahav, “to love”( in this setting communicates not so much an emotional idea as one of covenant commitment. To love the LORD is to be absolutely loyal and obedient to him in every respect, a truth Jesus himself taught (cf. John 14:15).
Linnea's Lines 
As soon as I read the part about Him singing to us through every storm I started to cry. I think I will always remember and be comforted by that word picture you blessed us all with! Thank you Linn!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
May you hear that song clearly! He loves you!
LikeLike