LOVE ACCORDING BIBLE

The Power of Love And  Bible Verses About Love

This article will serve as a follow up to our article titled, The 9 Fruits of The Holy Spirit.  In that article, I gave you the verse from Galatians where the Lord is telling us there are 9 specific fruits that He can transmit up into our personalities through His Holy Spirit. In this verse from Galatians, the very first quality that is listed as one of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit is the quality of love – and I do not think this was by accident!

As you will see in the Scripture verses I will list below, there is no doubt in my mind that the quality of love is the #1 quality that God would like to get worked into our souls and personalities. Even nonbelievers, atheists, and agnostics can see the power of love and how it has the ability to change people and their lives when it is properly handled and walked out.

Hollywood has made tons of movies just on the power of love – especially the special love that can occur between a man and woman in a romantic relationship. Even hard, tough, grown men can be brought to tears when watching a real well made movie made about the power of love.

The quality of love is truly universal – as it literally transcends peoples, nations, and religions. Love is truly the universal language of this world, and people from all different walks of life recognize it for what it truly is and understand the power that is in it.

Then when you read and study the Bible – you see the major emphasis God the Father is placing on it when He tells us that He wants us to love Him, love ourselves, and to love one another.
So if the quality of love is recognized by all peoples and all nations, then why is it that throughout the course of human history there has been so many wars, so much hatred, so much crime, and so much inhumanity done to our fellow man? If everyone knows what love is, then how could so many people throughout the course of our human history commit the evil and atrocious acts they have committed?
Even in our present day and age people still have not learned from the past, as there is just as much hatred and evil operating in this world today as there has ever been. The Bible even tells us that the love of many will grow cold in the latter days, which means things are going to actually go from bad to worst in the coming years.
If man really knows what love is, then why can’t more people act, operate, and walk in that love so we can all live in peace and harmony with one another? Why do so many people have to rob, rape, kill, plunder, and steal from one another? No matter what one’s religious beliefs and ideologies may be – there is simply no excuse for some of the horrible barbaric acts of murder, assaults, abductions, robberies, and rapes that we see on an everyday basis.
As Christians, we all know that part of the answer as to why men cannot love one another in the way that God would really like from us is due to the fallen sin natures that we have all been born into this world with as a result of the curse of Adam and Eve. The Bible tells us that every single one of us has been born into this world in sin and iniquity. This is why Jesus had to come to die for all of us – because we have all sinned and have fallen way short of the glory of our God.
However, even born-again believers have problems in being able to walk in love to the degree that God would really like in our everyday lives. We all know that God is expecting us to be able to walk in His love – but we still have problems in being able to love God, our families, our friends, and even own selves to the degree and intensity that He would really like from all of us.
We read in the Bible about all of the verses that God wants us to walk very strongly in this quality, but we still seem to fall way short of being able to actually do it in our real lives. If we all have the Holy Spirit living and operating on the inside of us, then why is it that we cannot seem to draw more of His love up into our personalities so that we can all walk with more of this quality operating in our lives?
I believe the answer lies in the last article I did under this section titled, “The 9 Fruits of the Holy Spirit.”
Too many Christians are trying to walk in the quality of love operating out of their own strength, out of their own emotions, and out of their own flesh. Granted, God the Father wants us to do the best we can to try and put this quality into the core of our personalities. But our best is not going to be good enough in this area to get the job done with the way God would really like.
The reason for this is that we have all been born with these fallen, imperfect, and sinful natures. This means that we are not capable of walking in perfect love, no matter how hard we may try in our own natural strength. So what is the answer if we are not capable of walking in perfect love in the way that our Lord would really like for us to be able to do?

To those believers who are really wanting to learn how to walk in the real love of God in their lives – there is only one way to be able to do this – and that is to learn how to draw that love from the Holy Spirit.
And the only way that you can get the Holy Spirit to release His love into you as one of His 9 fruits is that you have to be willing to enter into a true sanctification process with the Lord where He can then begin to start the process of transforming you into the express image of His Son Jesus Christ.
There is no other way! There are no other shortcuts that you can take to get this accomplished. It is only when the very love of God Himself starts to flow into your personality can you even begin to love God, love yourself, and love other people to the degree and intensity that He would really like from you.

Once the Holy Spirit begins this sanctification process in your life – your job will be to learn how to live, walk, and operate in the divine qualities and attributes He will start to transmit into your personality.

Once the Holy Spirit starts to transmit His quality of love into the very core of your personality, your job will then be to learn how to walk in that love in your words and actions with others. Actually, once the Holy Spirit starts to transmit and impart His divine love into you, it will then become much easier for you to be able to love others in the way God wants you to be able to love them.
Once you start to feel God’s love for His people, you won’t be able to help yourself in feeling that same love for them since God’s love will start to mesh with your own natural love. Once God’s love starts to flow and mesh into what limited love you already have in your personality – then you will be able to start to love other people in the way that God had initially intended for all of us to be able to do.
The missing ingredient in all of this is obviously the love of the Holy Spirit. It is only when the Holy Spirit starts to release His love into your personality as one of His 9 fruits can you truly begin to love God, love yourself, and love other people in the way God intended.

Trying to love others with what limited imperfect love you may already have operating in you will never get the job done – either to your own satisfaction or to the satisfaction of God Himself. This is why Jesus has told us that without Him we can do nothing, especially in the area of being able to get properly sanctified in Him.
In this article, I will give you some of the best verses from Scripture on the quality of love, and why God the Father is placing such a strong emphasis that we learn how to walk in it in our personal relationship with Him, with ourselves, and with the other people in our lives.
God the Father is really raising the bar on this one specific quality as you will be able to see with the way that He has worded some of these verses. He is making some extreme and radical statements with what He is expecting from all of us with just this one quality.
When you first read what these verses are telling us to do in reference to this particular quality, you will really be able to feel and sense your own shortcomings in this area. But again, realize this is where the Holy Spirit will be coming in big time. Just realize that God knows you cannot reach the level that He is really looking for – and that it will only be possible for you to reach this level only if the love of the Holy Spirit Himself is operating and flowing through you.
When you really study and meditate on the verses I will list below, you can sum all of them up in one simple statement. God is looking for you to be able to love in 6 different areas – all with the love of the Holy Spirit being available to you to help you out in each one of these areas. God wants you to be able to fully love in all 6 of these realms. You are to learn how to:

1. Love God
2. Love yourself
3. Love your family
4. Love your friends
5. Love your neighbors
6. Love your enemies

You will notice there are 6 specific areas that God will want you to really be able to love in. Bottom line – God will want you to love right across the board – from loving Him down to being able to love the worst of your enemies. The first 4 areas are much easier to learn how to do than the last two areas – especially the last one in being able to love your enemies and those who will try and hurt you in this life.
Loving most of your family and friends is very easy because of the strong natural bonds that we have already established with them. But learning how to love some of your neighbors who you have no real special bond with, or complete total strangers will be much harder for you to do, especially with the way that our world has become with so many more people keeping to themselves and being afraid to trust anyone.
However, this can be done with the help of the Holy Spirit. Once you start to feel the love of God Himself for some of these people, it will then become much easier for you to befriend some of these people and help them out when the need may arise.
Again, Jesus is the perfect example of someone who was always helping total strangers. When you study what He did as He was walking on our earth, He was always stopping and talking to people, along with helping, teaching, saving, healing and delivering some of these people when the need would arise. He was always there to meet their needs, especially their spiritual needs.

Just as Jesus was able to walk in perfect love in His words and actions with other people – so too can we learn how to walk in that same godly love if we will allow the Holy Spirit to enter us into this sanctification process where God the Father can then begin to work all 9 fruits of His Holy Spirit up into the very cores of our personalities.

Though we will never be able to love in the perfect way that Jesus can since none of us will ever become the fourth person of the Holy Trinity – we can still try to do the best we can in our dealings and relationships with other people.
Now I will give you some of the best and most profound verses from the Bible on the quality of love, how powerful of a thing it really is, and exactly what God the Father is looking for from each one of us in this area. I will break these Scripture verses down under their appropriate captions so you can fully grasp the revelation the Lord is trying to give you in this area.

Be Doers of the Word

Now that you know from the above Scripture verses that God is wanting you to love Him, love yourself, and love everyone else across the board of your life – including any enemies you may have – now God wants you to be able to show that love in your actions to others.
There are a ton of verses in the Bible about how God wants you to act towards others. I will leave you with a few good verses showing you the importance that we all learn how to be actual doers of the Word and not just hearers in reference to being able to show love to others in our words and actions.

1. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22)
   
2. “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:17)
3. “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law.” (Romans 13:10)
4. “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” (Proverbs 17:17)
   
5. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16)
6. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

All of these verses are perfectly showing us what true love can really do in our relations with others. Just as Jesus was willing to lay down His entire life for all of us in order that we be able to be brought back to Him and His Father – God and Jesus are wanting all of us to love others with that same kind of intensity and loyalty – even to the point of being willing to sacrifice our life to save someone else’s life if that kind of need should ever arise.

Conclusion

When you really study and meditate on all of the above verses one right after the other – the message is coming through loud and clear from God the Father. God has purposely made the quality of love the #1 quality that all born-again believers have to seek to get worked into their personalities.

The quality of love operating in our lives is the only common thread that will bind all of us together with God and one another. Without the quality of love bonding and uniting all of us together, there can never be any true peace and harmony between men and countries.

The main reason there has been so much death, destruction, hate, and wars in our past, and currently in our present, is because man has never really learned how to love one another in the way that God had initially intended. And the sad part about this whole saga is that the Bible tells us exactly how it is all going to end up. Man is not going to learn from his past, and thus wars, murders, and evil acts will continue unabated until Jesus comes back to our earth to set up His 1000 year Millennium Kingdom.
And until that final and glorious event happens, each Christian will have to do the best they can to walk in the calls and divine assignments that the Lord has given to each one of us. The Bible says that Jesus will be coming back for a bride that will be without spot or blemish. This will be a sanctified bride.
Let God the Father start the process of getting you cleaned up and sanctified to the degree that He would really like to be able to do with you in this life. If you do, then you will be ready for the rapture if the rapture should occur in our lifetime. You will then be a part of the Bride that will be without spot or blemish – fully ready for our Lord’s visible return.