Saint Augustine defined true freedom: “Love, then do what you will.” If your soul sincerely roots itself in love, then every action you perform will naturally be for other people’s welfare. Let love be the inner motivation behind everything you do, for when love guides the soul, you cannot sin.
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).
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).
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).
In our study on the Fruits of the Spirit, we learned that love is unconditional concern for the other person. It is true that the path of love that leads from the Cross of Christ to the Glory of Christ is a road of sacrifice. Yet the chief resource of our perfection is to walk in God’s presence. When we have found God, there is nothing more to look for in men. If the love of God can be the principle of something good it ought to carry us to the point of giving up all else, in order to be wholly God’s… It is detachment from its own will in which all Christian perfection consists.
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).
Greatness in God’s eyes is being faithful to God the best way we know how for the situation we are in at this moment. Any behavior which does not spring from a love educated by faith is not spiritual mindedness.
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).
Be forewarned: Try as we must, we don’t have the type of love other people need. It is just not human to love the way God loves everyone. But we can start by loving whatever is lovable in those around us. In doing this, love will flow back from them to us and life will become a pleasure instead of a pain. Know this: it is the Christian duty to find something lovable in everyone.
By loving whatever is lovable in those around us, love will flow back from them to us and life will become a pleasure instead of a pain.
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 judgement; 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).
