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As Matthew wrote in his Gospel, [chapter 22:36-40]:
Love just has to be the most important thing you can think of. Life is not worth living without it.
It spells safety, acceptance, significance (s.a.s). These are things we all need to give us a full and rich life. These are things we strive for, and in demanding more than we need, we deprive, even rob others, and overstress ourselves.
"God is love."
John wrote in his first letter to the church. The Bible uses "love" words more than 420 times in some form...
Not all of them are about God loving us, or we him - but they are all about our relationships. And some verses do have 'love' more than once.
The Greeks had four words to show different kinds of love.
Love - 'agape' is everything God does, and everything he wants for us, between us, and from us. God wants us to grow up and become mature enough to share 'agape' with our world. When God asks us to be 'perfect', this is what the Greek word 'teleios' means - mature and complete - in other words - loving! [e.g. Matthew 5:48, and Hebrews 5:14]
One of the sad things we Christians get wrong so badly, is concentrating on 'keeping God's rules' which we expect to be able to do as Christians. This leads to serious problems as we condemn 'self' and 'others', when we fail - naturally - to come up to the standards of "being good" set more by our humanistic worldly philosophies than by God. Jesus said that there is none good except God. [Mark 10:18 and Luke 18:19]
An organisation called The Barna Group in the United States of America has been conducting in-depth surveys on spiritual behaviours and beliefs for some time. To see that many Christians do indeed think that 'being mature' means following rules, refer to the article, at this link: Many Churchgoers and Faith Leaders Struggle to Define Spiritual Maturity.
Is it surprising then, that many Christians distort or reject what they think are God's rules? It is impossible to keep them, even in the written form of the Torah, as Israel discovered. [The first five books of the Old Testament] And Jesus said we are to do more - that even our minds and heart attitudes must be pure!
We need to know more about how to let go condemnation (Jesus gave His life for this!) and trust God more to help us by His Spirit working with the scriptures. This requires us to read the Bible, memorising and meditating on it, studying it with other Christians, talking with other Christians in churches and small groups, about what it means to us in our everyday lives, and encouraging and praying for each other, until we see it come alive in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Here is is again, our ONE LAW:
Yet again:
And how can we do this - only with God's help.
"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
It does depend on which version you look at - the 1611 King James Bible uses love, charity, lovest, loving kindness etc...
New International Version seems to translate the Hebrew word "checed" as love, whereas KJV uses mercy... I guess they are quite related words!
"Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law. For this, You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shalt not bear false witness, you shall not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly contained and understood in this saying, namely, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. Love works no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."
Romans 13:8-10
"For in Jesus Christ neither being circumcised (Jewsih) matters, nor uncircumcised (non-Jewish); but faith which works by love....
For, brothers, you have been called to freedom; only don't use that freedom for an occasion to give in to your lower nature, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
Galatians 5:6, 13-14
"And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another"
... 1 Thes. 3:12
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The famous "love" chapter of the Bible where charity = 'agape' - selfless love.
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
Jesus said:
And the Apostles shared many things about love:
But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (KJV)
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 (KJV)
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:39
Some from the Old Testament:
"The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Jeremiah 31:3 (KJV)
"You show lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is his name," Jeremiah 32:18 (KJV)
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. Hosea 11:1 (KJV)
Hosea 14:4 (KJV)
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. Hosea 14:4 (KJV)
He has showed thee, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8 (KJV)
The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zeph. 3:17 (KJV)
And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the Lord. Zech. 8:17 (KJV)
Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love the truth and peace. Zech. 8:19 (KJV)
And some more from the New Testament:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:37 (KJV)
Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Matthew 19:19 (KJV)
And you shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like it, namely this, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31 (KJV)
And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Mark 12:33 (KJV)
If you love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15 (KJV)
He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him. John 14:21 (KJV)
I in them, and You in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent me, and have loved them, as You have loved me. Father, I wish that they also, whom You have given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which You have given me: for You loved me before the foundation of the world. John 17:23-24 (KJV)
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 1 John 2:15 (KJV)
Look, see what manner of love the Father has give out to us, that we should be called the sons of God: that's why the world doesn't know us, because it doesn't know him. 1 John 3:1
In this the children of God are shown up, and the children of the devil: who ever does not dorighteousness acts is not of God, neither is he that loves not his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 1 John 3:10-11 (KJV)
Here we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But who has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his feelings of compassion, how does the love of God live in him? My little children, let us not love in just in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:16-18
And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 1 John 3:23 (KJV)
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love. In this was shown forth the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Here is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the one taking on punishment for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-12 (KJV)
And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. Here in is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loves God loves his brother also.
Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. Jude 1:2 (KJV)
Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Jude 1:21 (KJV)
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, Rev. 1:5 (KJV)
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Rev. 3:19 (KJV)
About repentance...
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (KJV)
And the great teacher, Paul, wrote:
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."
John 3:16 (KJV)
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing.
Charity suffers long, and is kind; charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up,
Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Charity never fails: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abides faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."
1 Cor. 13:1-13 (KJV)
A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.
John 13:34-35
.... the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us.
Romans 5:5 (KJV)
You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbour, and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; For if you love them which love you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans do the same? Matthew 5:43-46 (KJV)
Who ever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loves him that begat loves him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous [too hard]. 1 John 4:16-5:3 (KJV)
Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance? Romans 2:4 (KJV)
"And how I kept back nothing that was profitable to you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Acts 20:20-21 (KJV)