God's Word on That

Tag: love

  • Praying for Wholeness of Mind

    Father, my heart is filled with gratitude for all You have done for me.  You have qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of Your light (Colossians 1:12).  You have delivered me from the power of darkness and have translated me into the kingdom of Your dear Son (Colossians 1:13).  Through the blood of Jesus, You have provided me with redemption and forgiveness for all my sins (Colossians 1:14). 

    Love for Jesus fills us – to overflowing.

    Thank You, Father, for Jesus who is the perfect image of Yourself, and He is the first-born over all creation (Colossians 1:15).  By Him all things in heaven and in earth were created; all things were created by Him, and for Him (Colossians 1:16). Jesus is before all things and by Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17).  Jesus is the faithful witness, the ruler of all the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:5), as well as the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End of everything (Revelation 22:13).  From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another (John 1:16).

    I am so thankful, Father, that it pleased You to let all fullness dwell in Your Son, Jesus (Colossians 1:19).  Thank You that, through His blood, peace with You is now possible. Through Jesus You have reconciled all things to Yourself; all people on earth, and all souls in heaven can now be gathered to You (Colossians 1:20). 

    Through His great redemption I now have wholeness.  Indeed, I am complete in Him (Colossians 2:10).  Just as I received Christ Jesus as my Lord, I will continue to live in Him, to be rooted and built up in Him, to be strengthened in faith as I have been taught, and to overflow with thankfulness (Colossians 2:6-7). In every part of my life, Father, I ask You to help me to give Jesus the preeminence in everything (Colossians 1:18) that He deserves. 

    As Your chosen people, holy and dearly loved, I ask You to send Your Spirit to clothe me with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (Colossians 3:12). I know we are to bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances we have against others. We are to forgive as You, Gracious Father, forgive us (Colossians 3:13). And above all these virtues, please teach me to put on love, which binds all of them together in perfect unity (Colossians 3:14).

    For I know these are the weapons of my warfare; these weapons are not carnal, but mighty through You to the pulling down of strongholds – intimidations, fears, doubts, unbelief, and failures (2 Corinthians 10:4).  I wish to refute every argument and theory and reasoning and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the true knowledge of You; and I want to lead every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One (2 Corinthians 10:5).

    Today I pray to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, that I may prove what is Your good and acceptable and perfect Will (Romans 12:2).  Let not Your Word, O Lord, depart out of my mouth, but direct me to meditate on it day and night, that I may observe to do according to all that is written therein.  Then I shall make my way prosperous; then I shall have good success (Joshua 1:8), for the plans of the diligent certainly lead to profit (Proverbs 21:5). 

    So I will not fret or have anxiety about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, I will continue to make my wants known unto You, O gracious Lord, and Your peace which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over my heart and mind in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).  Today I fix my mind on whatever is true, worthy, honorable, just, pure, lovely, kind, winsome, and gracious.  If there is any virtue and excellence, anything worthy of praise, I will think on and weigh and take account of these things (Philippians 4:8) that I may bring You a smile! 

  • Praying to Know You Are Loved

    Heavenly Father, I believe Your Word which tells me that You love me (Psalm 86:13).  And that nothing can separate me from Your love (Romans 8:39), except my own refusal to believe it and receive it.  You loved me even before I was born (Psalm 139:13), and You fashioned me according to Your grand plan and purpose.  According to Your Word, I am one of Your marvelous works of art, Father, and I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). 

    God loves us! Tremendously. We are compelled to pass it on.

    Thank You for making me a new creation in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17).  I can rejoice in the certain knowledge that You have made all things new in my life including the way I see myself.  I have been made complete in Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:10).  Thank You for pouring Your love into my heart through Your Hoy Spirit whom You have given to me (Romans 5:5).  Through Him, I am able to comprehend with all the saints the full extent of Your love (Ephesians 3:18).  Strengthen me by Your Spirit in my innermost being, Father, and keep rooting and grounding me in Your wonderful love, so I will know the love of Christ Jesus which surpasses all knowledge (Ephesians 3:17-19). Thank You for loving me and helping me to love You with all my heart; and perfecting that love so that I can love myself as You love me (1 John 4:16-17). 

    Life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus — the work of telling others the Good News about Your mighty kindness and love (Acts 20:24 Phillips). But I must love myself before Your love can shine past me to others. So from this time forward I will walk in love toward You, others, and myself, because I know Chris Jesus loved me and gave Himself for me (Ephesians 5:2).  I will clothe myself with compassion as one of Your chosen people, holy and dearly loved (Colossians 3:12).

    I trust You, Father, to continue Your workmanship in my life, for I know You are working within me, both to will and to do Your good pleasure and purpose (Philippians 2:13).  When I don’t feel I’m loved, I need to remember always that You first loved me (1 John 4:19), and this fact of my faith enables me to love myself and others.  I gladly and gratefully receive Your love, gracious Father.

    I want to follow all Your commandments because of Your great love for me (John 14:15) and to show You that I do indeed love You (1 John 5:3).    By experiencing Your love and sharing it with others, people will know I am a disciple of Christ Jesus (John 13:34-35).  Your perfect love has cast out all fear (1 John 4:18), including the fear of not being loved.  Thank You so much for Your limitless love, O Lord my God.  It really is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 136:1). 

  • Love Even Your Enemy

    In demanding that I respect the rights of another, God is not merely asking me to conform to some abstract, arbitrary law. He is enabling me to share, as His son/daughter, in His own care for my brothers. (Thomas Merton)

    Care for my brother, even if he considers himself to be an enemy, is my duty.

    The King will answer them, “I can guarantee this truth: Whatever you did for one of my brothers or sisters, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did for Me.” (Matthew 25:40).

    All that is physical is passing away. As long as I keep holding onto a ‘thing’, I continually set myself up for disappointment. If all I see is how you look and what you have, I’ll miss the point that you – like me – are a hurting spirit just looking for home. (Fr. Everding)

    Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this sums up the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12).

    “He who showed mercy”… Jesus answered, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:37)

    Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

    If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself”, you are doing right (James 2:8).

    So then my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slower[er] to wrath (James 1:19).

    Let go of anger, and leave rage behind. Do not be preoccupied. It only leads to evil (Psalm 37:8).

    Don’t take revenge, dear friends. Instead, let God’s anger take care of it. After all, Scripture says, “I alone have the right to take revenge. I will pay back, says the Lord” (Romans 12:19).

    If your enemy is hungry, give him some food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him some water to drink. In this way you will make him feel guilty and ashamed, and the Lord will reward you (Proverbs 25:21-22).

    Do not be happy when your enemy falls, and do not feel glad when he stumbles. The Lord will see it, He won’t like it, and He will turn His anger away from that person (Proverbs 24:17-18).

    Forgiving one’s enemies does not mean to be faint hearted but to have a strong soul.

    Let all things be done for edification (1 Corinthians 14:26).

    It is better to be alone than in bad company. (George Washington)

    Don’t let anyone deceive you. Associating with bad people will ruin decent people (1 Corinthians 15:33).

    [Yet] A man who isolates himself seeks his own desires; he quarrels against all sound wisdom (Proverbs 18:1).

    So then, take your stand! Fasten truth around your waist like a belt. Put on God’s approval as your breastplate. Put on your shoes so that you are ready to spread the Good News that gives peace. In addition to all these, take the Christian faith as your shield. With it you can put out all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Also take salvation as your helmet and the Word of God as the sword that the Spirit supplies. Pray in the Spirit in every situation; use every kind of prayer and request there is. For the same reason be alert; use every kind of effort and make every kind of request for all of God’s people. (Ephesians 6:14-18).

    Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21).

    Dear children, keep yourselves from idols! (1 John 5:21).

  • Now We Are To Love Each Other

    “Do you love Me?”  We will not likely hear this same question as an audible voice from Jesus as Peter did.  Instead the Lord will ask it again and again through the circumstances of our own life, and in particular through the crosses He sends us.  The occasion to express our love might be a physical suffering, a need to forgive or show patience to someone who has wronged us, or an interior wound or painful memory that just doesn’t go away.  But Jesus will ask, “Do you love Me?”

    With His love in us, it is possible for us to love each other as He loves.

    My command is this: love each other as I have loved you… Greater love has no one than this; that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:12-13).

    This is how we know what love is: Jesus the Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers! (1 John 3:16)

    I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other in the same way that I have loved you. Everyone will know that you are My disciples because of your love for each other (John 13:34-35).

    Love is the fulfillment of the law. (Romans 13:10)

    God loved me not because I was loveable but because it was His nature to do so.  Now He commands me to show the same love to others by saying: “Love one another as I have loved you.”  I may get irritated at others while trying to do this, but just think how God has a right to be irritated with me!  Love is displayed in spontaneous ways, but it has to be maintained in the heart through discipline.

    Dear Friends, if this is the way God loved us, we must also love each other [with the same way]. No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is perfected in us [so we can share it] (1 John 4:11-12).

    Above all, love each other deeply because love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).

    For this is the message that you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another (1 John 3:11).

    My goal in giving these orders is for love to flow from a pure heart, from a clear conscience, and from a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5).

    Dear children, we must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words (1 John 3:18).

    Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs (Proverbs 10:12).

    This is my command: love each other! (John 15:17)

    Love means that we live by doing what He commands. We were commanded to live in love, and you have heard this from the beginning (2 John 6).

    … I ask that we love one another (2 John 5).

    Show family affection to one another with brotherly love. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lack diligence; be fervent in spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; be persistent in prayer. Share with the saints in their needs; pursue hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Be in agreement with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Try to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:10-18).

    Be imitators of God therefore, as dearly loved children.  And live a life of love (Ephesians 5:1-2).

  • God First Loved Us

    We think God’s love for us rises and falls with our performance. It does not. His love is not normal. He loves us for whose we are, not what we do. He loves pious John and adulterous Mary Magdalene the same. It is not normal love!

    Love has been perfected among us for this reason: that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is so are we in this world! (1 John 4:17)

    And now these three [still] remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

    We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up but love edifies. And if any man thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man loves God, the same is known of him (1 Corinthians 8:1-3).

    The Christian soul ought to go forward with her love, leaving all her understanding behind. Let her love God as He is in Himself, and not as her imagination says He is or pictures Him. (Miguel de Molinos)

    Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. God loves you deeply!

    I love You, O Lord, my strength (Psalm 18:1).

    That you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice and may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days! (Deuteronomy 30:20)

    Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good (Romans 12:9).

    May Your unfailing love be my comfort according to Your promise to Your servant (Psalm 119:76).

    This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him! This is love! Not that we loved God [first] but that He loved us [first] and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:9-10).

    A Christian seeks justice, true. But justice is primarily a negative concept, based on avoiding or preventing doing wrong to others. The law of love seeks the positive doing of good. It is the only law a Christian needs.

    Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the true. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

    There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love [God] because He first loved us (1 John 4:18-19).

    God is love. And he who abides in love, abides in God and God in him (1 John 4:16).

    It is simply not normal or natural for us to “love” God in a drastic discipline of a laid-down life.  We are a selfish people.  When called to serve others, we feel insulted.  We have a strange, worldly idea that to be of lowly service is to be “used” or “abused”.  Yet Jesus came among us as a servant. So we must be abnormal…

    Love going upward is worship.  Love going outward is affection.  Love stooping downward is grace.

    Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I too will love him and show myself to him (John 14:21).

    If you love Me, keep My commandments… If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him… (John 14:15, 23)

    As the Father gave me commandment, so I do! (John 14:31)

  • Let Us Abide in Love

    Dear friends, let us love one another; for love is of God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love…  This is love!  Not that we loved God, but He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:7-10).

    And so we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.  God is love.  And the one who abides in love abides in God and God in him.  By this, love is perfected within us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.  There is no fear in love.  Perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  We love because He first loved us.  If someone says “I love God” and hates his brother, he is a liar.  For the one who does not love his brother (whom he has seen) cannot love God (whom he has not seen).  And this commandment we have from Him: the one who loves God should love his brother (1 John 4:16-21).

    Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8).

    Her many sins have been forgiven, for she loved much.  But he who has been forgiven little, loves little (Luke 7:47).

    I remember the devotion of your youth; how as a bride you loved Me and followed Me through the desert… (Jeremiah 2:2)

    You have left your first love! (Revelation 2:4)

    Do you truly love Me more than these?  …  You know all things; You know that I love You. (John 21:15-17)

    Jesus looked at him and loved him… (Mark 10:21)

    If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teachings.  My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23).

    Whoever keeps [God’s] Word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected! (1 John 2:5)

    And though you have not seen Him, you love Him… (1 Peter 1:8)

    If anyone loves God, he is known by Him… (1 Corinthians 8:3)

    I love You, O Lord my strength (Psalm 18:1).

    For God is not unjust so as to forget your … love which you have shown toward His name (Hebrews 6:10).

    The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life (John 12:25).

    Set an example for the believers in… love (1 Timothy 4:2).

    Follow the way of love… (1 Corinthians 14:1)

    That their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love… (Colossians 2:2)

    Add to your faith… and to brotherly kindness, love (2 Peter 1:5, 7).

    Love the Lord, all you His saints! (Psalm 31:23)

    Let love of the brotherhood continue (Hebrews 13:1).

    Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us (1 John 4:11-12).

    The one who loves his brother abides in the light and there is no cause for stumbling in him (1 John 2:10).

    We continually remember before our God and Father… your labor prompted by love…  For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you (1 Thessalonians 1:3-4).

    For the love of Christ controls us… (2 Corinthians 5:14)

    Do everything in love (1 Corinthians 16:14).

    Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance (Jude 1:2).

    May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14).

  • We Are To Abound In Love

    Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion…  Put on love, which binds [all virtues] all together in perfect unity (Colossians 3:12-14).

    You have heard it was said: Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I tell you to love your enemies.  Bless those who curse you.  Do good to those who hate you.  Pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven…  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?  Are not the tax collectors doing that? (Matthew 5:43-46)

    But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies…  Even sinners love only those who love them (Luke 6:32, 37).

    But love your enemies.  Do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.  Then your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High God (Luke 6:35).

    Be devoted to one another in love… (Romans 12:10)

    Show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in Egypt (Deuteronomy 10:19).

    Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15).

    If there is any consolation of love… make my joy complete by being of the same mind; maintaining the same love… (Philippians 2:1-2)

    But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects… for the whole body … promotes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love (Ephesians 4:15-16).

    [Be] hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled (Titus 1:8).

    Teach the older men [who come to you] to be temperate… and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance (Titus 2:2).

    Encourage the young women [you care for] to love their husbands and to love their children (Titus 2:4).

    That you esteem them very highly in love because of their work (1 Thessalonians 5:13).

    Greet one another with a kiss of love… (1 Peter 5:14)

    We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren.  He who does not love abides in death (1 John 3:14).

    But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love… (1 Thessalonians 5:8)

    Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another…  Love as brothers… for “whoever would love life and see many good days must keep his tongue from evil…” (1 Peter 3:8, 10)

    Since you have, in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a sincere love for your brothers, fervently love one another from the heart (1 Peter 1:22).

    Showing forbearance to one another in love (Ephesians 4:2).

    Love the brotherhood (1 Peter 2:17).

    And may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another… (1 Thessalonians 3:12)

    And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24).

  • Rewards For Loving

    God of Heaven, the great and awesome God … keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands (Nehemiah 1:5).

    We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God… (Romans 8:28)

    Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial, for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him… (James 1:12)

    Those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness (Proverbs 14:22).

    Let love and faithfulness never leave you… (Proverbs 3:3)

    He who loves pleasure will become poor; he who loves wine and oil will never be rich (Proverbs 21:17).

    [Yet] He who pursues righteousness and love finds live, prosperity, and honor (Proverbs 21:21).

    You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.  Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness… (Hebrews 1:9)

    Through love and faithfulness sin is atoned for… (Proverbs 16:16)

    He who loves purity of heart and whose speech is gracious will have the King for his Friend (Proverbs 22:11).

    A Friend loves at all times… (Proverbs 17:17)

    He who covers over an offense promotes love… (Proverbs 17:9)

    Love covers all transgressions (Proverbs 10:12).

    Let those who love the Lord hate evil… (Psalm 97:10)

    A time of love and a time of hate… (Ecclesiastes 3:8)

    Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil.  Cling to what is good (Romans 12:9). 

    Hate evil.  Love good.  Maintain justice in the courts (Amos 5:15).

    Maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always (Hosea 12:6).

    For I, the Lord, love justice… (Isaiah 61:8)

    Aim for perfection.  Listen to my appeal: Be of one mind; live in peace.  And the God of love and peace will be with you (2 Corinthians 13:11).

    What you heard from me keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love… (2 Timothy 1:13)

    Pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace… (2 Timothy 2:22)

    The love of money is a root of all sorts of evil…  [Instead] pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness (1 Timothy 6:10-11).

    Therefore love truth and peace (Zechariah 8:19).

    A man who loves wisdom makes his Father glad… (Proverbs 29:3)

    He who gets wisdom loves his own soul… (Proverbs 19:8)

    I love those who love me [wisdom]; and those who seek me, find me (Proverbs 8:17).

    To endow those who love me with wealth, that I may fill their treasuries (Proverbs 8:21).

    Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up (1 Corinthians 8:1).

    Better a day of vegetables where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it (Proverbs 15:17).

    Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days – keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies (Psalm 34:12-13).

    For in Christ Jesus neither [good nor bad, black nor white] means anything; what matters is faith working through love (Galatians 5:6).

  • God’s Kind of Love Is Unfailing

    [God’s kind of] Love is as strong as death; its jealousy unyielding as the grave.  It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.  Many waters cannot quench [His] love.  Rivers cannot wash it away (Song of Songs 8:6-7).

    May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love… (2 Thessalonians 3:5)

    What a man desires is unfailing love… (Proverbs 19:22)

    Though He brings grief, He will show compassion – so great is His unfailing love (Lamentations 3:32).

    For the Lord disciplines those whom He loves, and chastises every child whom He accepts (Hebrews 12:6).

    Those whom I love I reprove and discipline… (Revelation 3:19)

    For whom the Lord loves He reproves, even as a father the son in whom he delights (Proverbs 3:12).

    Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge… (Proverbs 12:1)

    Now as to the love of the brothers… you are taught by God to love one another (1 Thessalonians 4:9).

    God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us (Romans 5:5).

    For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7).

    Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life (Jude 1:21).

    We know love by this: He laid down His life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  But whoever has the world’s goods and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?  Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in both deed and truth (1 John 3:16-18).

    If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames but have not love, I gain nothing.  Love is patient.  Love is kind.  It does not envy.  It does not boast.  It is not proud.  It is not rude.  It is not self-seeking.  It is not easily angered.  It keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails…  Now these three things remain – faith, hope and love.  But the greatest is love (1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 13).

    That through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts in love. With deep roots and firm foundations may you, in company with all God’s people, be strong to grasp what is the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love, and to know it, though it is beyond knowledge. So may you be filled with the very fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19).

  • His Command To Us

    What does the Lord require of you but to act justly; love mercy, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).

    And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you this day for your own good? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

    You shall therefore love the Lord your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments (Deuteronomy 11:1).

    That you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live! (Deuteronomy 30:6)

    To love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commands, decrees, laws; then you will live… (Deuteronomy 30:16)

    Love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul (Deuteronomy 11:13).

    Love the Lord your God, walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him (Deuteronomy 11:22).

    Love the Lord your God and … walk always in His ways… (Deuteronomy 19:9)

    Take careful heed … to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul (Joshua 22:5).

    This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.  Now choose life so you and your children may live and you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him… (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

    So be very careful to love the Lord your God (Joshua 23:11).

    Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap the fruit of unfailing love (Hosea 10:12).

    But the world must learn that I love the Father and I do exactly what My Father commands Me (John 14:31).

    If you love Me, you will obey what I command (John 14:15).

    Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me.  He who loves Me will be loved by My Father.  And I too will love him and show Myself to him (John 14:21).

    As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in My love.  If you obey My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love (John 15:9-10).

    This I command you: that you love one another (John 15:17).

    This is My commandment: that you love one another; just as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this: that one lay down his life for his friends (John 15:12-13).

    A new commandment I give to you: that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know you are My disciples if you have love for one another (John 13:34-35).

    For this is the message you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another (1 John 3:11).

    And this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son – Jesus Christ – and love one another just as He commanded us (1 John 3:23).

    That we love one another.  And this is love: that we walk according to His commandments.  This is the commandment: (Just as you have heard from the beginning) that you should walk in it (2 John 1:5-6).

    Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.  And everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well.  This is how we know we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands.  This is love for God: to obey His commands; and His commands are not burdensome (1 John 5:1-3).

    Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another.  For he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.  The commandments… are summed up in this one rule: Love your neighbor as yourself.  Love does no harm to its neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law (Romans 13:8-10).

    To love [God] with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength; and to love your neighbor as yourself – is more important that all burnt offerings and sacrifices (Mark 12:33).

    Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6:5).

    Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this; love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no commandment greater than these (Mark 12:30-31).

    Love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord (Leviticus 19:18).

    The stranger who resides with you… you shall love as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt.  I am the Lord your God (Leviticus 19:34).

    Also foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve Him, to love the name of the Lord and to worship Him… Even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer (Isaiah 56:6-7).

    If, however, you are fulfilling the Royal Law (according to scripture) – you shall love your neighbor as yourself – you are doing well (James 2:8).

    Do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.  For the whole law is fulfilled in one word; in the statement “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. (Galatians 5:13-14)

    The goal of this commandment [actually all His commandments] is love, which comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith (1 Timothy 1:5).