The Hebrew word hesed is translated as "lovingkindness" in most Bibles, but a word so rich in meaning cannot be adequately described in English. Other translations use the words "covenant," "faithfulness" and "steadfast love." It is love that is literally beyond words.

The word reveals God's character. He loves us beyond measure, beyond what we can even comprehend. It is a love that can never be matched fully in human terms. It is a love that will stop at nothing to care for us and protect us.

Hesed is most fully realized in the incarnation of Jesus. Jesus is hesed in the flesh. And he went to the greatest lengths of love to save us. He went to the cross to suffer and die and sacrifice his life for us all. "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). Then God's hesed went beyond even the grave when he raised Jesus from the dead on Easter morning.

Christ is alive and living in us; God's hesed transforms us to live a new life of divinely inspired love and compassion for others. We love as we have been loved, with our whole selves, giving our all for one another in the name of the God of hesed.
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