By the Scripture’s Own Writers
Love
Definition
The quality God has implanted in us which expresses itself (1) in our complete, unbreakable attachment to Him and to His theocratic organization and (2) in our unselfish deeds to other creatures and our active concern for their eternal welfare. Love is a fruitage of God’s spirit.
Jehovah God is the Personification and Source of Love
1 John 4:8, 16, 19 “God is love. . , . God is love, and he that remains in love remains in union with God and God remains in union with him. As for us, we love because He first loved us.”
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God gave us not a spirit of cowardice, but that of power and of love and of soundness of mind.”
Ephesians 2:4, 5 “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, made us alive together with the Christ.”
Loving Obedience is the Ruling Principle in God’s Organization
Matthew 9:13 “Go, then, and learn what this means, ‘I want mercy, and not sacrifice.’ “
Hosea 6:6 “For I desire goodness, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.”
Hebrews 1:9 “You loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. That is why God, Your God, anointed You with the oil of great joy more so than Your partners.”
1 Samuel 15:22 “Has Jehovah as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
Song of Solomon 2:4 “His banner over me was love.”
Love Fulfills God’s Perfect Kingly Law
Matthew 22:36-40 “‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ He said to him: ‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this: ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.”
Romans 13:8-10 “Do not be owing anybody a single thing, except to love one another; for he that loves his fellow man has fulfilled the Law. For the law code, ‘You must not commit adultery, You must not murder, You must not steal, You must not covet,’ and whatever other commandment there is, is summed up in this word, namely, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does not work evil to one’s neighbor; therefore love is the Law’s fulfillment.”
James 2:8 “If, now, you practice carrying out the kingly law according to the Scriptures, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing quite well.”
Love Brings God’s Protection and Blessing
Psalm 145:20 “Jehovah preserves all them that love Him; but all the wicked will He destroy.”
Romans 8:28 “Now we know that God makes all His works cooperate together for the good of those who love God, those who are the ones called according to His purpose.”
1 Corinthians 2:9 But just as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen and ear has not heard, neither have there been conceived in the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’
James 1:12 “Happy is the man that keeps on enduring trial, because on becoming approved he will receive the crown of life, which Jehovah promised to those who continue loving Him.”
James 2:5 “Listen, my beloved brothers. God chose the ones who are poor respecting the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him, did He not?”
Implanted in the Original Human Pair
Genesis 1:26, 27 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: … And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.”
Love Is a Fruitage of God’s Spirit
Galatians 5:22, 23 “On the other hand, the fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.”
Love Has to Be Cultivated
2 Peter 1:5-7 “Yes, for this very reason, by your contributing in response all painstaking effort, supply to your faith virtue, to your virtue knowledge, to your knowledge self-control, to your self-control endurance, to your endurance godly devotion, to your godly devotion brotherly affection, to your brotherly affection love.”
1 Timothy 6:11 “Pursue righteousness, godly devotion, faith, love, endurance, mildness of temper.”
1 Corinthians 14:1 “Pursue love.”
Colossians 3:14 “But, besides all these things, clothe yourselves with love, for it is a perfect bond of union.”
2 Timothy 2:22 “So flee from the desires incidental to youth, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, along with those who call upon the Lord out of a clean heart.”
1 Peter 4:3 “Above all things, have intense love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”
Christ the Channel Through Which God’s Love Is Expressed to Us
Romans 8:38, 39 “For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor governments nor things here nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other creation will be able to separate us from God’s love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Ephesians 2:7 “That in the coming systems of things there might be demonstrated the surpassing riches of His undeserved kindness in His graciousness toward us in union with Christ Jesus.”
John 14:21 “In turn, he that loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will plainly show Myself to him.”
Love Expresses Itself in Action
John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that He gave His only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in Him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.”
John 14:21 “He that has My commandments and observes them, that one is he who loves Me.”
1 John 5:3 “For this is what the love of God means, that we observe His commandments; and yet His commandments are not burdensome.”
2 John 6 “And this is what love means, that we go on walking according to His commandments. This is the commandment just as you people have heard from the beginning, that you should go on walking in it.”
Description of Love, How It Acts
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is long-suffering and obliging. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, does not get puffed up, does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked. It does not keep account of the injury. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 8:1 “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”
Love Is Not Sentimentality; Includes Discipline, Correction
Matthew 10:37 “He that has greater affection for father or mother than for Me is not worthy of Me; and he that has greater affection for son or daughter than for Me is not worthy of Me.”
Proverbs 3:12 “For whom Jehovah loves He reproves; even as a father the son in whom He delights.”
Proverbs 13:24 “He that spares his rod hates his son; but he that loves him chastens him betimes.”
Hebrews 12:6 “For whom Jehovah loves, He disciplines, in fact He scourges everyone whom He receives as a son.”
Psalm 141:5 “Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness; and let him reprove me, it shall be as oil upon the head; let not my head refuse it.”
Love Seeks the Welfare of All Persons, Especially God’s People
Luke 6:27 “But I say to you who are listening, Continue to love your enemies, to do good to those hating you.”
John 21:15-17 “When, now, they had breakfasted, Jesus said to Simon Peter: ‘Simon son of John, do you love Me more than these?’ He said to Him: ‘Yes, Master, You know I have affection for You.’ He said to him: ‘Feed My young lambs.’ Again He said to him, a second time: ‘Simon son of John, do you love Me?’ He said to him: ‘Yes, Master, You know I have affection for You.’ He said to him: ‘Shepherd My little sheep.’ He said to him the third time: ‘Simon son of John, do you have affection for Me?’ Peter became grieved that He said to him the third time: ‘Do you have affection for Me?’ So he said to Him: ‘Master, You know all things; You are aware that I have affection for You.’ Jesus said to him: ‘Feed My little sheep.’ “
Those Having Love Hate Unrighteousness
Psalm 97:10 “O you that love Jehovah, hate evil.”
Psalm 119:163 “I hate and abhor falsehood; but Your law do I love.”
To Know God Is to Love, Imitate, Obey Him
John 17:3 “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of You, the only true God, and of the one whom You sent forth, Jesus Christ.”
1 John 4:7, 8, 16 “Beloved ones, let us continue loving one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born from God and gains the knowledge of God. He that does not love has not come to know God, because God is love. And we ourselves have come to know and have believed the love God has in our case. God is love, and he that remains in love remains in union with God and God remains in union with him.”
All-essential to Gaining Eternal Life
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a sounding piece of brass or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophesying and understand all the sacred secrets and all knowledge, and if I have all the faith so as to transplant mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my belongings to feed others, and if I hand over my body, that I may boast, but do not have love, I am not profited at all.”
Love Is the Way to Overcome Fear
1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love, but perfect love throws fear outside, because fear exercises a restraint. Indeed, he that is under fear has not been made perfect in love.”
Love Is the “Surpassing Way” Far Greater than Miraculous Gifts
1 Corinthians 12:31 “But keep striving after the greater gifts. And yet I show you a surpassing way.”
1 Corinthians 13:8, 13 “Love never fails. But whether there are gifts of prophesying, they will be done away with; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will be done away with. Now, however, there remain faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.”
Love Is an Identification Mark of the Christian Congregation
John 13:35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love among yourselves.”
1 John 4:20 “If anyone makes the statement ‘I love God’ and yet is hating his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot be loving God, whom he has not seen.”
Ephesians 4:16 “From Him all the body, by being harmoniously joined together and being made to cooperate through every joint which gives what is needed, according to the functioning of each respective member in due measure, makes for the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”
Today, in Time of Maturity of Christian Congregation, Love Is the Foremost Quality
1 Corinthians 13:8-12 “Love never fails. But whether there are gifts of prophesying, they will be done away with; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we have partial knowledge and we prophesy partially; but when that which is complete arrives, that which is partial will be done away with. When I was a babe I used to speak as a babe, to think as a babe, to reason as a babe; but now that I have become a man, I have done away with the traits of a babe. For at present we see in hazy outline by means of a metal mirror, but then it will be face to face. At present I know partially, but then I shall know accurately even as I am accurately known.”
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