“During Family Gatherings, Staff Parties Overeating, Black Fridays & Blue Mondays we must not forget that LOVE MATTERS MOST!”
John 13:35 (KJV)
By this shall all [men] know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
I Cor 13: 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
It has been estimated that more than 100 million love songs have been recorded, and the variety is staggering.
The word love appears in the Bible hundreds of times, and though it is not the most used word in the Bible, it is one of the central themes and driving forces of God’s Word.
In the original Greek language of the New Testament, there were four words: agápē, érōs, philía, and storgē.
They are the love of God, brotherly love, sexual love, dispassionate and friendly love, and familial affection usually between parents and offspring - respectively.
The most common nouns in the Bible are:
LORD - mentioned over 7000 times
God - mentioned approximately 4300 times
Man - mentioned over 2700 times
Israel - mentioned over 2700 times
People - mentioned over 2200 times
“Love” does make the top 100 most used words in the Bible, along with other important concepts from the Bible like Heaven, sin, peace and Christ.
God, the Lord of everything, and His relationship with mankind, beginning with the nation of Israel, are the focus of the entire Bible.
“Real Christianity begins when you Come to Church to Grow in Love, You Live to Give & Go to the World with the Gospel!” PB
I. Love Forgives
John 3:16 “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.
17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 15: 12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
I John 3: 16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
I John 4: 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Mark 11:25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
Acts 7:59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
“Love Puts the Stones Away!”
John 8:7 He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
II. Love Empowers
Gal 5:6….. faith which worketh by love.
The Greatest commandment:
Love God
Love People
Matt 22: 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
III. Love Obeys
John 14: 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
23 “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.
24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words..”
IV. Love Last
I Cor 13: 1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
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.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails.
Love is a Must
I John 4:15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17 ¶ Herein 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.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
20 ¶ If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
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