154 SNS: Love is... What?
Welcome to the Simple Not Shallow Podcast. My name is Charles, and this is the Coffee Side Chat series.
Now, you and I do tend to think of love as an emotion; right? So, I guess the first thing to kick around is whether or not this is an accurate understanding. I mean, is it just an emotion, or is it something more?
As I began looking into this, the first thing that struck me was that it seems to be much more than mere emotion. Indeed, based on what I found, we cheapen love by limiting it to just being an emotion. No, no, no… hang with me here as I explain.
Scripture Referenced.
Luke 10:27ff, Mark 12:30, Matthew 22:37 ~ Greatest commandment: use to show love is not mere emotion.
Deuteronomy 6:5 ~ The Greatest Command found in the Old Testament.
Leviticus 19:18 ~ The second greatest command found in the Old Testament. Why love fulfills law:
Galatians 5:14 ~ love tied to serving.
Romans 13:9,10 ~ love fulfillment of law, because love does no harm to a neighbor.
1 Cor 13:4-8 ~ what love does and never fails.
1 Peter 4:8 ~ love forgives
1 John 3:16 ~ This is how we know what love is, Jesus laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
1 John 4:10 ~ This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete in us.
Romans 5:8 ~ While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
John 3:16 ~ For God so loved the world…
John 17:3 ~ This is eternal life….
1 John 5:3 ~ This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not burdensome.
John 15: 9-12 ~ Jesus telling us how keeping Gods commands leads to our joy being complete.
2 John 1:6 ~ This is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment: love one another.
1 Corinthians 13 ~ Love is the most excellent way. No matter what else we know and can do, it is worse than meaningless without love. Everything else will pass away, but love will never fail, it will always be here. So what remains is faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.
Other interesting passages:
1 John 2:5 ~ the one who keeps Gods word, his commands, in him the love of God is perfected.
1 John 5:2 ~ How we know we love the children of God when we love God and observe His commandments.
James 1:27 ~ the religion God accepts as pure and faultless.
Isaiah 55:9 ~ God’s ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts higher than ours.
Here are some links to:
My favorite YouTube apologist: Mike Winger
My favorite online church service: Alistair Begg
If you like what you have seen, and would like a memento... or at least a coffee mug. We have some wonderful drinkware at our store on Spring.com.
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