“…for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
-told to Moses a long time ago, New International Version of the Holy Bible, Exodus 20:5-6
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”
-Moses teaching a long time ago, NIV, Deuteronomy 6:5
“But be careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”
-Joshua teaching a long time ago, NIV, Joshua 22:5
“Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.”
-a psalm of David to God, NIV, Psalm 63:3
“Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.”
-a psalm of the sons of Korah, NIV, Psalm 85:10. Understand that the peace here is internal. Clearly love for God can bring much external conflict. Jesus is an example.
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.”
-a proverb, NIV, Proverbs 3:3
“He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor”
-a proverb, NIV, Proverbs 21:21
“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’
Jesus replied: ‘”Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.'”
-Jesus teaching less long ago, NIV, Matthew 22:34-40
“Love must be sincere.”
-written by Paul, NIV, Romans 12:9
“We all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.”
-written by Paul, NIV, 1 Corinthians 8:1-3
“And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, there will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
-written by Paul to a church whose members were seeking the gifts of God but were missing the point. After this Paul goes on to write about speaking in tongues, prophecy. NIV, 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”
-written by John, 1 John 2:15-17