06/04/21 APPREHENDING LOVE, WHICH APPREHENDED ME

06/04/21 APPREHENDING LOVE, WHICH APPREHENDED ME

Driving forces in our lives, such as, duty, honor, fear, desire, acceptance, need, love, are all legitimate but love for God (and for other people) should be paramount for Christians. In fact, Jesus instructed us to love with perfect love, the very same quality of love, which God has for us. When asked which was the greatest commandment, Jesus said the first is to love God with all of our whole self, and second, to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

 

Here are some other Biblical thoughts concerning God's directive, command, requirement to love God and others. (This is an abbreviated list). I designate the specific verse with an asterisk *.

 

OLD TESTAMENT

 

Exodus 20:4-6 (In His brief comment about the second commandment, God said,)

4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

* 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

 

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (known as the "shema")

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

* 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

 

Deuteronomy 7:9

* 9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

 

Deuteronomy 10:12

* 12 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

 

Joshua 22:5

* 5 But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

 

Psalms 40:16

* 16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.

 

Psalms 119:127

* 127 Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

 

Micah 6:8

* 8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

 

NEW TESTAMENT

 

Matthew 5:44-48

* 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

* 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

 

Mark 12:28-33

28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

* 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

* 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:

33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

 

John 8:41-42

41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.

* 42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

 

John 13:34-35

* 34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

* 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

 

John 14:15

* 15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

(dlg note... this verse is better translated, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments.")

 

John 14:21-25

* 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

* 23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

* 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

25 These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.

 

John 15:10-14

* 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

* 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

* 14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

 

Romans 13:8-10

* 8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

* 9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

* 10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

 

Galatians 5:6

* 6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

 

Ephesians 5:1-2

1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;

* 2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

 

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13

* 12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:

13 To the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

 

James 1:12

* 12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

 

* James 2:8

* 8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

 

1 John 2:15-17

* 15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

 

Jude 1:15

* 15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.