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Love of God

"love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind... and a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-39).

And this is the greatest commandment, and there is one like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. We love because we know him for He is love. "We love because he first loved us. 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. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother" (1 John 4:19-21). If you love God you will keep his words (John 14:15). Love one another with brotherly affection, outdoing each other in love, deeming others first (Romans 12:10). God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. The principle of the greatest commandment is that loving him and others is above all other principles. "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7).

Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13 ). Love is greatest for it is eternal, it is perfect like Christ; "when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away" (1 Cor. 13:8-10). Love is perfect, love is from God (1 John 4:7-8) and love is God, whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4:16). Love has power for it is God and as God, love does much; it bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things. Love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and covers offenses (Proverbs 10:12, 1 Peter 4:8-9 ). Love is above and binds together kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing, and forgiving "And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Colossians 3:14). This is love; a man Jesus laid down his life for us (John 15:13).

No greater love is there than someone would lay down their life for a friend, a true friend loves in all things (Proverbs 17:17). For love Jesus counted himself not equal to God but became a servant, humbling himself even to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:8). There is no greater love, no greater Word of God, and no greater commandment than to love. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13:34). As love is God it produces maturity toward fullness in Christ (1 Cor. 13:11). We are observing as looking through a mirror, an enigma, something we don't truly understand, we are observing only a part of love but we will be recognizing and accordingly be recognized (1 Corinthians 13:12-13). His love is not as ours but we can understand and know his love. If love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God then love will be recognized in them.

"Let all that you do be done in love" (1 Corinthians 16:14). Love must be done in deed and truth (1 John 3:18). "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:14-17). As faith without works is dead, works without God's love is nothing. Show me your love apart from your deeds, and I will show you my love by my deeds. Those strong in their faith, love, and hope should bear the infirmities of the weak, not for pleasing selves, but through patience and comfort of the scriptures, having the mind of Christ toward one another, in one accord with one mouth, glorifying God (Romans 15:1-6).

"Like a rose trampled on the ground
you took the fall and thought of me, above all"
 -- Above All by Micheal W. Smith

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