• God is Love – Let’s begin by looking at why the Bible claims that God is love. In essence, God is defining love by His very character. We get a glimpse in 1 Cor 13:4-8. Lord Jesus perfectly demonstrated these characteristics. The following verses illustrate some of the chief characteristics of love – longsuffering or patience, kindness, demonstrated by God. God carefully defines what love is in John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”. Please note very carefully in John 10:18, that Jesus is asserting that this power to lay down His life and take it again is a commandment that He has received from God the Father. The reason this statement is so significant is that throughout the Bible God closely associates love with obeying the commandments, as we can see from John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” and John 15:10, “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”. God demonstrates the fact that He is love through His salvation program. In principle, God’s love for His elect began before the foundation of the world. Those who are the recipients of God’s gift of salvation were in total rebellion against God, “dead in trespasses and sins” and were “children of wrath” (Eph 2:1-3), before He saved them. Yet Rom 5:8 makes this wonderful statement, “But God commendeth [exhibits] his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. Lord Jesus has not only forgiven the sins of every child of God by suffering the equivalent of an eternity in Hell on their behalf, but He has also fulfilled the righteousness of the law for them, by perfectly obeying the Bible in thought, word, and deed.

1 Cor 13:4-8 “Charity [Love] suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up 4Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8Charity never faileth…”

2 Pet 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Eph 4:32 “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

John 10:11,15,17-18 “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 15As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. 17Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

Rom 13:10 “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

1 John 4:10 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

• Love for God – Let’s begin by looking at a believer’s love for God. We read of Jesus’ response to a question posed to him by a scribe in Mark 12:28 “Which is the first commandment of all?” “…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 verse is indicating that we are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might. How are we to do that? This is an impossible situation as far as man is concerned because it’s a matter of heart. After all, God describes the condition of an unsaved person’s heart very early in the Bible in Gen 6:5: “…every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. We also know that man is spiritually dead from conception, as we find in Psa 51:5: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me”. In all candor, only the Lord Jesus Christ, Who is God in the flesh and perfect, had the capacity to love God with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength. We see this very clearly in verses such as John15:10. Since the Bible makes clear that we must love God with our heart (that is, with our soul and spirit), the greatest miracle that God performs is to take a dead heart, or soul, and infuse it with His Word, which is eternal life, through His Holy Spirit. God’s Word penetrates people’s dead hearts or souls in order to bestow eternal life, as Heb 4:12 teaches. The Old Testament also uses the language of circumcision to illustrate the cutting that Heb 4:12 speaks about, as we find in Deu 30:6. When people have received eternal life, or salvation, in their souls, they have been made righteous as God Himself, and thus have been qualified through the sacrifice of Christ for their sins to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Deu 6:4-6 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart…”

Heb 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Deu 30:6 “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.”

Eze 36:25-27 “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

Rom 2:29 “But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

• Love for Neighbour – Next we want to look at a believer’s love for others, which the Lord Jesus explains in context with` the second commandment in Mark 12:31-33: “…Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”. Before we look at what it means to love one’s neighbor, we need to define what it means to love oneself: “…as thyself”. To love oneself is to desire that which is most beneficial – the highest possible good – for ourselves. And what could that be? The world would tell us we need a new house, a new car, a new job, a wife, a family, more money, a healthy lifestyle, religion, etc. Are these things really going to provide that which is of utmost importance to me? The Bible informs us in Mark 8:36-37, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul, Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” The reason God places so much importance on the soul is because it is that part of us that will last throughout eternity. Jesus gives us the answer in response to the lawyer’s question in Luke 10:29 “… and who is my neighbour?” by detailing the account of a man who was rescued after he had been robbed, beaten, and left “stripped” and “half dead”. This is a marvelous picture of unsaved man as we find in Eph. 2:1, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins”. Luke 10:33-34 demonstrates what it means to love our neighbor – it is to share the Gospel of Grace – that has power to resurrect the dead soul to eternal life, with them. The oil in this verse, typifies the Holy Spirit and the wine points to the Gospel, which God can use to heal our sin-sick souls. Loving our neighbor as our self implies being our brother’s keeper, which Cain refused to do. After God saves a believer, Love begins to manifest itself in the life of this individual who truly has become a “new creature” (or creation) in Christ, in whom the Holy Spirit indwells. True believers are instructed to mirror the kindness that God has shown to them by being kind to one another. It is the mission of every true child of God as 2 Cor 5:18 affirms. We surely should look after the physical needs of our neighbour and especially unto them who are of the household of faith, but we see a need that is greater than the physical need, which is the spiritual need. If we had even a tiny portion of true love for our fellowman, we would never want to see them judged in Hell eternally. We would want their spiritual wounds healed by salvation. We would want to give them 100% of the life-saving, life-giving Gospel of the Bible.

Gal 5:22-26 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. ”

Mark 12:33 “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.”

Rom 13:10 “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Luke 10:33-34 “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”

Rom 5:10 “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

2 Cor 5:18 “And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;”

Luke 6:35 “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.”

Gal 6:9-10 “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”

1 John 3:16-18 “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 18My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.