I love that Iris picked God's word as the theme for today's TT. You can visit her at Grace Alone to read more posts and to leave a link to your own.I'm jumping ahead of February in focusing my favorite Love verses.
I think it's important to remember as we start this new year that we are strongly grounded in the faith that God loves us and we must share that love with others.
First, proof that God loves us:
But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8 [NKJV]Then, God expects, commands, us to love others:
In this the love of God is manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 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. - 1 John 4:9-10 [NKJV]
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. - 1 John 3:11 [NKJV]Next, we must show our love:
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 [NKJV]
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. - 1 John 4:11 [NKJV]
We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death - 1 John 3:14 [HCSB]Our love for God is shown to the degree we show love to others:
Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. - 1 John 4:7 [HCSB]
If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? - 1 John 4:20 [The Message]Our love must be active, an act of the will:
But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? - 1 John 3:17 [NKJV]Our love is in direct response to God's love for us:
We love Him because He first loved us. - 1 John 4:19 [NKJV]And this love causes us to respond in love to others:
The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both. - 1 John 4:21 [The Message]Love is the best we have to offer to God and others:
We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!Happy Thankful Thursday!But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. AND THE BEST OF THE THREE IS LOVE. - 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 [The Message]
2 comments:
WOWZERS! There's a lot of good stuff in there! Blessings!
BTW, I commented back to you today...
Great compliation.
I'm especially drawn to the 1 John 4:20 passage. I think we see this verse acted out in churches today more than any other New Testament passage. Just as Love (in the most positive sense) IS the essense of CHRIST, the lack of it (i.e., the most negative sense) is essense of the ENEMY! He (the Enemy) is alive and well and kicking in churches and disquised far more deceptively than he is in the "world."
Sad. :-(
OH! Dear. . .Sorry to put such a downer on such a beautiful topic!
I will say this (to bring back the LOVE!) . . . that I love that photo of you and DH from the last Century. You look to be in LOVE! Yes!
Happy Thankful Thursday!
~ es.
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