Understand Christianity

Introduction: Today is Valentine’s Day and the theme of love pervades the day.  Most of the focus in our day seems to center on a man’s love for a woman or a woman’s love for a man.  And certainly other family members and friends get tossed into the equation.  I am sure it is no surprise for you when I tell you that the theme of love is also very evident in the Bible.  In fact, there are hundreds of verses that use the word love or make it evident in the context.  I thought it would be appropriate today if we spent a few minutes reading some of those verses.  In an attempt to organize our thoughts I have divided the verses into three groups.  Each group is only a very limited selection of all the verses that could be mentioned in that group.  For our purpose today I have not distinguished between the two major words in Greek that are translated by our single English word “love.”  Thus, sometimes the word love in these verses expresses a strong sentiment of emotion and at other times the word emphasizes an act of the will more than a feeling or emotion, depending on which Greek word is being translated.  

First, let’s look at some verses that speak of God’s love for us.  This use of the word love is the most important.  The NT says “we love him BECAUSE He first loved us.  (1 John 4:19)  God is the one who initiated love and demonstrated it time and again for His people.  Hear these words:

ESV  Deuteronomy 7:7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the LORD loves you.

KJV  Psalm 42:8 Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, 

ESV  Psalm 63:3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 

ESV  John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 

ESV  John 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." 

ESV  John 16:27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 

ESV  Romans 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

ESV  2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. 

ESV  1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.  

Second, as we heard a few moments ago that we love God BECAUSE He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)   This is indeed the appropriate response to God’s love for us.  Hear just a few verses that emphasize this response:

ESV  Deuteronomy 10:12 "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require 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,

ESV  Psalm 31:23 Love the LORD, all you his saints! The LORD preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.

ESV  Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

ESV  2 Timothy 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

 ESV  Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Third, not only are we to love God as a response to His love for us, but Jesus’s words to the lawyer capture another appropriate response to love when He said, ESV  Matthew 22:37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."   

 

ESV  Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

ESV  Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

ESV  Ephesians 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

ESV  Philippians 2:2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

ESV  1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Let me conclude this brief exercise by reading for you 1 John 4:16-21.

ESV  1 John 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.