Love

³⁴And when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they themselves gathered together. ³⁵One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with a question: ³⁶“Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?” ³⁷Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

³⁴A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”

⁹As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love. ¹⁰If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. ¹¹I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. ¹²This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father I have made known to you. ¹⁶You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. ¹⁷This is My command to you: Love one another.

⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. ⁶For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another. ¹¹Do not let your zeal subside; keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹²Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, persistent in prayer. ¹³Share with the saints who are in need. Practice hospitality. ¹⁴Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited. ¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody. ¹⁸If it is possible on your part, live at peace with everyone. ¹⁹Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” ²⁰On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. ²If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing. ⁴Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. ⁶Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away. ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. ¹²Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. ¹³And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

¹⁶By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him? ¹⁸Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. ¹³By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. ¹⁷In this way, love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹We love because He first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.

⁴³You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

²⁷But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone takes your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well. ³⁰Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what is yours, do not demand it back. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you. ³²If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. ³³If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. ³⁴And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

⁸Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. ⁹The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰Love does no wrong to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

¹³For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love. ¹⁴The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

¹⁴... for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth ¹⁹of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

¹As a prisoner in the Lord, then, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received: ²with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.

³¹Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, outcry and slander, along with every form of malice. ³²Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.

¹Be imitators of God, therefore, as beloved children, ²and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.

¹Therefore if you have any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being united in spirit and purpose. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. ⁴Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross.

¹²Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. ¹³Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity.

¹¹Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you. ¹²And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone else, just as our love for you overflows, ¹³so that He may establish your hearts in blamelessness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.

²⁴And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. ²⁵Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

⁸If you really fulfill the royal law stated in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. ⁹But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. ¹⁰Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. ¹¹For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. ¹²Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. ¹³For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

²²Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart.

⁸Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹Show hospitality to one another without complaining. ¹⁰As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.

⁵And now I urge you, dear lady—not as a new commandment to you, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. ⁶And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love.