Understanding and being able to love are the essence of Christianity. Lord Jesus emphasized the importance of loving God, our neighbors, and one another. He told us that the answer lies in the commandments. The Holy Bible is filled with scriptures on “What is love?” and on how to practice loving one another. Today, it is a delight to share a selection of scriptures from the Holy Bible that address various aspects of “Love.” Let’s start with the importance of “Love.”
God is Love
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.”
1 John 4:16
“And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.”
Jesus, the Son of God, clearly stated that we need to love God, our neighbors, and one another as a means of keeping the commandments.
To love is to keep the commandments.
Matthew 22:34-40
“But when the Pharisees had heard that He had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
John 13:34–35
“A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
1 John 4:20–21
“If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, That he who loves God love his brother also.”
Love our neighbors
Matthew 22:39
“And the second is like unto it, Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.”
God’s abundant Love for us and how God Hirmself is love are expounded in the following passages of the Holy Bible.
God’s unconditional love for us
Romans 5:8
“But God commends His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
1 John 4:19
“We love Him, because He first loved us.”
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
1 John 4: 9-10
“In this was manifested the Love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
