The Greatest Commandment
Matthew 22:37-39 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus’ New Commandment
John 13:34-35 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Honoring Others in Love
Romans 12:10 "Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves."
Knowing God is Knowing Love
First John 4:7-8 "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
Love our Enemies
Matthew 5:44-45 "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
He who has not Love
1 Corinthians 13:2 - 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, but have not love, I am nothing.
Loving Others like Christ Loves Us
John 15:12-13 "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."
Love Fulfills the Law
Romans 12:8 "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law."
Conclusion
God loved us so much that He gave us the supreme example and so “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19), not that we loved Him first. He loved us so much that He willingly gave His one and only unique Son to die for us so that we might have eternal life (John 3:16-17) and in fact, it was the only way to gain eternal life.
