Mark 12:29-31 | This is what God has wanted all along: LOVE. He wants us to love Him, He wants us to love one another. And He wants us to do this with our whole being!
John 13:34-35 | This is what changed, His NEW COMMAND: To love JUST AS Jesus loved: sacrificial love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 | The never-ending question: “What is love?” This answer is both true and beautiful, but as you dwell within this reading, it begins to crush us. It becomes a mirror of what WE FAIL to do rather than what we do.
1 John 4:8-9 | Love can only be grasped when we believe the promise that GOD IS LOVE. And we know His love when we look at the cross and see what Jesus did there.
1 John 4:11-12 | Our love can never exist apart from God’s love. Any love we exhibit springs out of His love (see John 4:13-14 and 7:37-39 and Galatians 5:22-26) and when His fruit is born in us, others “see” God in us! His GOAL is for His love to reach all people through us!
1 John 4:17 | God is love. And Love is made complete (read: achieves His goal) in us and through us so that we will not fear, because through His Love we are NEW humans! See 2 Corinthians 5:13-21.
1 John 4:18-19 | God will never punish you for your sins! Believe this promise! This Promise, which is the Good News, the Gospel, drives out fear. The fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING of knowledge (see Proverbs 1:7) and the BEGINNING of wisdom (see Proverbs 9:10) but leads to life and contentment (see Proverbs 19:23). Jesus fulfilled this (see Isaiah 11:1-10) where we find glorious rest, FREE FROM FEAR!
We are FREE, free from fear, free to love because He first loved us! See 2 Corinthians 3:12-18.
Dig Deeper: Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Leviticus 19:1-18, Matthew 22:34-40, Luke 6:27-42, John 3:16-21, Philippians 2:1-4.