God is Love
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. The Son is the image of the invisible God. [He] is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being. Anyone who has seen [him] has seen the Father.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Jesus said: “The most important [commandment] … is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back that you may be children of your Father in heaven, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.“
As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.”
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
If I … do not have love, I am nothing.
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REFERENCES
All the text above is taken from the Holy Bible (New International Version® Anglicized, NIV®):
1 John 4:16b | John 1:18 | Colossians 1:15 | Hebrews 1:3a | John 14:9 | 1 John 3:16 | 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 | 1 John 4:10 | Mark 12:29-31 | Matthew 5:43-44 | Luke 6:35a | Matthew 5:45a | Luke 6:35c | Matthew 5:45b | Luke 6:35a | John 13:34b-35 | 1 John 4:12 | 1 John 4:8 | 1 Corinthians 13:2
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