Israel, the Nations, and the Call to Agape
A Companion Study to God Is Love: Agape, Ahavah, and the Question of Divine Love in the Quran
Three Questions in Conversation with God Is Love
Sidney Louis Davis Jr.
AskTheTeacher.blog · Roxbury, Massachusetts
Contents
- Question One: Israel Is Called to Agape. Are the Nations?
- Question Two: Is Islam a Religion for the Nations Because the Quran Does Not Call Muslims to Agape?
- Question Three: Are the Gentiles Called into Agape by Joining with Israel?
- Scripture Index
Question One: Israel Is Called to Agape. Are the Nations?
The answer is both yes and no, and the distinction between the two answers governs how the Scriptures frame Israel’s calling and the nations’ relationship to Israel’s God.
Israel’s Covenantal Call to Love
Israel is explicitly commanded to love, and the command is covenantal and distinctive. “You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5). “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). “The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself” (Lev. 19:34). In the Septuagint each of these commands is rendered with the verb agapaō.
This love is grounded in YHWH’s prior act of redemption. When the child asks what the commandments mean, the answer is a story: “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, and YHWH brought us out” (Deut. 6:20–25). YHWH set his love on Israel not because of Israel’s greatness but because he loved them and kept his oath (Deut. 7:7–8). Israel’s love is therefore a response to covenant grace, not a universal moral principle. It marks a people set apart to embody the character of its God before the world.
The Nations: Commanded or Invited?
The Scriptures treat the nations differently, and the difference can be stated in four parts.
First, the nations are not given the same covenant command. The Torah was given to Israel at Sinai (Exod. 19–24), and the nations were not parties to that covenant. “He has not dealt thus with any nation; they have not known his judgments” (Ps. 147:20). The command to love YHWH with all the heart is embedded in a covenant Israel alone received.
Second, the nations remain accountable to God’s moral order. Amos pronounces judgment on the surrounding nations for cruelty, enslavement, and atrocity, not for failing to observe Torah (Amos 1:3–2:3). The covenant with Noah establishes the sanctity of human life for all humanity (Gen. 9:5–6), and rabbinic tradition later formulated this accountability as the Noahide commandments (b. Sanhedrin 56a). Paul, arguing within Judaism, says that Gentiles “show the work of the law written on their hearts” (Rom. 2:14–15). These texts establish accountability, not covenant membership.
Third, the nations are called to know and worship YHWH. “That your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations” (Ps. 67:2). “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isa. 56:7). Solomon prays that the foreigner who comes to pray toward the Temple will be heard, “that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel” (1 Kgs. 8:41–43). The nations are not commanded to love in the same covenantal sense, but they are invited to know the God who loves and to come near to his people.
Fourth, in the Messiah the invitation goes out to all nations. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). “Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7–8). The apostolic writings do not claim that the nations were always commanded to love as Israel was. They announce that the message of Israel’s Messiah now goes to the nations, calling them to faithfulness, repentance, and the same love Israel was called to embody.
| Israel | The Nations | |
|---|---|---|
| Covenant relationship | Yes: Sinai, Torah, and Prophets | No: outside the Sinai covenant |
| Command to love God | Explicit and central | Not given in the same covenantal form |
| Moral accountability | Through Torah | Through the Noahic order and conscience |
| Call to worship YHWH | As his chosen people | As invited outsiders who come near |
| Inclusion | Already the covenant people | Joined to Israel through the Messiah (Rom. 11:17) |
Israel is commanded to love as a covenant obligation: a response to redemption and a witness to the nations. The nations are not given that same command in the Hebrew Bible. They are accountable to the moral order written on their hearts, invited to know and worship YHWH alongside his people, and called through the Messiah to the same faithfulness and love Israel was called to embody. Israel is commanded to love; the nations are invited into that love. The distinction is not one of exclusion but of covenantal order.
Question Two: Is Islam a Religion for the Nations Because the Quran Does Not Call Muslims to Agape?
The observation is sharp and points to something real, though it needs precise framing.
What the Quran Does Command
The Quran does not command agape in the biblical sense: active, self-giving love toward the enemy, the undeserving, and the other. It does command serious moral conduct: justice even toward those one hates (Q. 5:8); kindness and fairness toward those who have not fought the believers (Q. 60:8); mercy as a general disposition; forgiveness toward those who wrong one; and repelling evil with what is better (Q. 41:34).
These are genuine moral commands, and they should be acknowledged as such. But they are not the same as agape. The Quranic ethic teaches affection bounded by belief: love and approval follow faith and obedience (Q. 3:31–32; 58:22). Its categories are measured by what is due, and they are framed as obligations within a system of divine law. Biblical agape, by contrast, is covenantal and self-giving. It loves before merit, as YHWH loved Israel (Deut. 7:7–8), and it extends even to the enemy (Exod. 23:4–5; Prov. 25:21; Matt. 5:44).
The Question of the Nations
In one sense the Quran describes itself exactly this way. Its messenger is sent “to all mankind” (Q. 34:28), and it addresses humanity universally (Q. 7:158; 21:107). Its moral framework rests on submission to divine law, justice as the primary moral category, mercy extended to the repentant, and obedience as the path of salvation. That framework closely resembles what the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition expect of the nations outside the covenant: justice and restraint, not covenantal love.
The Biblical Contrast
The Scriptures follow a different logic. Israel was called to love as the covenant people, and when Israel faltered, YHWH did not transfer the calling to another people. He promised to circumcise Israel’s heart so that Israel would love him with all its heart (Deut. 30:6), to write the Torah on the heart of the house of Israel and the house of Judah (Jer. 31:31–33), and to put his Spirit within them (Ezek. 36:26–27). The nations were not given the covenant command, but they are invited to share in that promised gift by being joined to Israel through Israel’s Messiah. Love of this kind is not a natural moral system for anyone. It is the covenant love of Israel’s God, poured into the heart by his Spirit (Rom. 5:5).
Where the Observation Lands
Three things in the observation are correct: the Quran does not call Muslims to agape; Islam presents itself as a universal religion for the nations; and its moral framework is built on justice, mercy, and submission rather than covenantal self-giving love.
The conclusion should be stated carefully. Islam is a universal religion of divine law and justice addressed to the nations as nations. Biblical agape is the covenant love of the God of Israel, received by those, Jew or Gentile, who stand within or are joined to his covenant. The nations are not called to agape as nations; they are called to be joined to the people of God, where that love is both commanded and given. The Quran offers the nations a law to keep; the Scriptures offer the nations a place beside Israel, under Israel’s Messiah, where they receive Israel’s love.
Question Three: Are the Gentiles Called into Agape by Joining with Israel?
Yes. This is the biblical logic, and it is one of the most important structural features of the whole canon. The Gentiles are not given a separate program of love running parallel to Israel’s. They are called into Israel’s calling: grafted into the same root, brought near to the same commonwealth, made partakers of the same covenant promises, and given the same commandment.
The Pattern: Israel First, Then the Nations
Israel is called to love as a covenant people. Israel is to love YHWH with all its heart (Deut. 6:5), to love its neighbor as itself (Lev. 19:18), and to love the stranger as itself (Lev. 19:34), because YHWH himself loves the stranger (Deut. 10:18–19). This command belongs to the covenant made at Sinai.
Israel is called to be a blessing to the nations. “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Israel is to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:6). The Servant is made “a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6). Israel’s calling was never meant to end with Israel; it was for the nations, but mediated through Israel.
The nations are invited to join themselves to Israel’s God. Isaiah welcomes the foreigners who “join themselves to YHWH, to minister to him, to love the name of YHWH . . . and hold fast my covenant” (Isa. 56:3–8). Ruth the Moabite declares, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Rahab the Canaanite “lived in the midst of Israel” (Josh. 6:25). In Persia, many of the peoples of the land became mityahadim, voluntarily taking up Jewish identity (Esth. 8:17). Zechariah foresees ten men from the nations taking hold of the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you” (Zech. 8:23).
In the Messiah, the joining is realized. Gentiles who were once “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel” are now “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph. 2:11–22). They are wild branches grafted into Israel’s olive tree: not a new tree, but the same tree, and the root supports them, not they the root (Rom. 11:17–24). “If you belong to the Messiah, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). Acts 15 lays on them the “necessary things” and expects them to keep hearing Moses read in the synagogue every Sabbath (Acts 15:21), and Paul gives them Israel’s own commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Rom. 13:8–10; Gal. 5:14).
Why This Matters
Agape is not a separate Gentile program. There is no “Gentile agape” and no separate “Jewish agape.” There is one God, one covenantal love, and one commandment. Gentiles are not called to love instead of joining Israel; they are called to love by being joined to Israel through Israel’s Messiah.
The Gentiles do not replace Israel, and they do not become Israel. Joining is not substitution. The root is Israel; the grafted branches share its life without displacing the natural branches (Rom. 11:18). Paul’s word is “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people” (Rom. 15:10), not “as” his people or “instead of” them. To claim Israel’s place is supersessionism; to claim Israel’s identity while denying the Jewish people’s continuing custodianship of the covenant is reverse supersessionism. The biblical pattern is neither.
The nations are not called to agape as nations. They are called to turn, to trust, and to be joined to the covenant people, where love is both commanded and given. There is no separate moral system of love for the Gentiles.
This is why agape is covenantal rather than natural. It is not a moral law discoverable by reason. It is the covenant love of a redeemed people, promised to Israel (Deut. 30:6; Jer. 31:33), poured out by the Spirit first in Jerusalem (Acts 2) and then upon the Gentiles (Acts 10:44–48), and embodied in a community of Jews and Gentiles who remain Jews and Gentiles.
The Contrast with Islam
| Biblical Pattern | Quranic Pattern | |
|---|---|---|
| Universal call | Be joined to Israel through Israel’s Messiah | Submit to Allah’s law and join the ummah |
| Basis of inclusion | Covenant, faithfulness, and the Spirit | Submission, law, and obedience |
| Moral framework | Covenantal, self-giving love | Justice, mercy, and affection bounded by belief |
| Relation to Israel | Gentiles joined to Israel, not replacing it | Abraham claimed apart from Israel (Q. 3:65–68) |
| Direction of worship | Toward Jerusalem (1 Kgs. 8:41–43; Isa. 2:3) | Turned from Jerusalem to Mecca (Q. 2:142–144) |
| Role of the nations | Blessed through Abraham’s seed | Called to tawhid and sharia |
The Quran offers the nations a universal moral and legal framework that reaches them apart from Israel. The Scriptures offer the nations covenantal love by joining them to Israel, a joining realized in Israel’s Messiah and empowered by Israel’s God.
Conclusion
The Gentiles are called into agape by joining with Israel. There is no separate Gentile calling. There is one God, one covenant love, one commandment, and one Messiah of Israel, in whom Jews and Gentiles together, without either one erasing the other, are both commanded to love and given the love they are commanded to show.
— End —
Scripture Index
Each link jumps to the place in the study where the passage is cited. Q1, Q2, and Q3 refer to the three Questions.
Hebrew Bible
Exodus 19:6 (Q3); 19–24 (Q1); 23:4–5 (Q2)
Leviticus 19:18 (Q1, Q3); 19:34 (Q1, Q3)
Deuteronomy 6:5 (Q1, Q3); 6:20–25 (Q1); 7:7–8 (Q1, Q2); 10:18–19 (Q3); 30:6 (Q2, Q3)
Joshua 6:25 (Q3)
1 Kings 8:41–43 (Q1, Q3 table)
Isaiah 2:3 (Q3 table); 49:6 (Q3); 56:3–8 (Q3); 56:7 (Q1)
Jeremiah 31:31–33 (Q2); 31:33 (Q3)
Ezekiel 36:26–27 (Q2)
Amos 1:3–2:3 (Q1)
Zechariah 8:23 (Q3)
Proverbs 25:21 (Q2)
Ruth 1:16 (Q3)
Esther 8:17 (Q3)
New Testament
John 13:35 (Q1)
Acts 2 (Q3); 10:44–48 (Q3); 15 (Q3); 15:21 (Q3)
Romans 2:14–15 (Q1); 5:5 (Q2); 11:17 (Q1 table); 11:17–24 (Q3); 11:18 (Q3); 13:8–10 (Q3); 15:10 (Q3)
Galatians 3:29 (Q3); 5:14 (Q3)
Ephesians 2:11–22 (Q3)
1 John 4:7–8 (Q1)
Rabbinic Literature
Sanhedrin (Babylonian Talmud) 56a (Q1)
Quran (Surah:Ayah)
2:142–144 (Q3 table); 3:31–32 (Q2); 3:65–68 (Q3 table); 5:8 (Q2); 7:158 (Q2); 21:107 (Q2); 34:28 (Q2); 41:34 (Q2); 58:22 (Q2); 60:8 (Q2)
© 2026 Sidney Louis Davis Jr. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author, except for brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Scripture quotations from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament are the author’s rendering unless otherwise noted; readers are encouraged to consult the Masoretic Text, the Septuagint (LXX), and standard critical editions of the Greek New Testament. Quranic citations follow standard Surah:Ayah numbering and are given in widely used English translation for accessibility; readers are encouraged to consult the Arabic text directly.
© Sidney Louis Davis Jr. | AskTheTeacher.blog
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