From Brigham Young University's Maxwell Institute, this is the Maxwell Institute podcast, Faith Illuminating Scholarship.

In 2026, we are releasing a series called Old Testament Reflections.

Each week, a scholar offers a short reflection on the Come Follow Me reading.

Today's piece, The Beauty and Risks of

Costly Love, Lessons from Ruth, is written and read by Rosalind F. Welch.

The Book of Ruth, no more than a short story in length and scope, packs its few pages

with a volume's worth of moral reflection

on love, self-sacrifice, and redemption. The narrative is familiar. Naomi is bereaved, Ruth is

loyal, Boaz is generous, and the mutual devotion that develops between the three protagonists

restores a lost lineage with the birth of Obed.

The story traces a hopeful arc, from emptiness to fullness.

Naomi's lament that the Lord hath brought me home again empty, has by the end become joy in the chosen grandchild she clasps to her breast,

a restorer of thy life and a nourisher of thine old age. Beyond the marriage plot, the story's

portrayal of Naomi and Ruth represents the Bible's most sensitive and positive exploration of women's relationships.

And Boaz's role as Goel, or redeeming kinsman, is, for Christian readers, a powerful type

of Christ our Redeemer, bridegroom, and generous friend. The brisk plot reads as variations on the theme of costly love.

The idea that love comes with a price tag of vulnerability, responsibility, and suffering,

gained prominence in Christian thought during the 20th century in the work of, among others, Dietrich Bonhofer.

Costly love is the subject of my colleague Terrell Givens' current study of Christian theology.

Christ's suffering in the events of the atonement was one staggering cost of his perfect love. Such love, Jesus taught,

must be the foundation of the friendship that characterizes his disciples and his church.

To be sure, recognition of love's cost long preceded the ministry and passion of Jesus Christ. It is central to Hecced,

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