Love is Everything!

1 John 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8  The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Revelation 21:3  And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them,
4  and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

God is love, and love is everything. The purpose we were created for is love.

God will wipe away every tear, and there will be no more crying, mourning, pain, and death. How is this? Because God will eliminate sin. Sin is what causes all pain and suffering. Sin is opposed to and is the opposite of love. That is why the God who is love cannot tolerate sin. When love has been perfected in us, and sin completely overcome, then we will be truly like our Lord Jesus. We will no longer cause ourselves and others pain and suffering.

Romans 13:9  For this, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."

Mark 12:29  Jesus answered, "The foremost is, `HEAR, O ISRAEL ! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD;
30  AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.
31  "The second is this, `YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.´ There is no other commandment greater than these."

Matthew 22:36  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"
37  And He said to him, "`YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.
38  "This is the great and foremost commandment.
39  "The second is like it, `YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.
40  "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

All of the law and the prophets depend on the love commandments. Love is God's eternal purpose for us all.

John 13:34  "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
35  "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

Do 'ALL MEN' know you are His disciple by the love you have for others? If not, are you sure you are really His disciple? It was the Lord Jesus who said, "all men will know." Well, do they know? Do all men see the love of God in you?

1 John 4:20  If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

John 14:15  "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments."

John 14:21  "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."

You may have claimed to be a Christian for many years. You may have great Bible knowledge, and have near perfect doctrine. You may understand great mysteries of God, and may be doing great works. You may preach and continually talk about God's great love for you and others. You may prophesy and may be considered a prophet. But if you don't have love in yourself, you are absolutely NOTHING! Love is what our existence is all about.

1 Corinthians 13:1  If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2  If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

1 Timothy 1:5  But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

1 Corinthians 13:4  Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
5  does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
6  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8a  Love never fails...

Sin is opposed to and is the opposite of love. Sin is opposed to and is the opposite of keeping God's commandments. Love does it's neighbor no wrong.

Romans 13:8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

1 John 4:16  We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

1 John 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.
3  For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 2:3  By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4  The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
5  but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
6  the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

Romans 13:10  Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Galatians 5:14  For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF."

Love is His great commandment! So how do we learn to bare the fruit of love and keep His commandments? How do we go onto this high calling in Christ Jesus? By abiding in Him.

John 15:4  "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
5  "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Galatians 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Apart from the Lord Jesus you can do NOTHING. Without love you are NOTHING. Love is our goal, our purpose and destiny! It is our whole reason for being created.

God is love. Love is everything!

- by Curtis Lee Hall

Some Quotations on Love...

"What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like."
- Augustine

"You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving."
- Amy Carmichael

"The desire of love is to give. The desire of lust is to take."
- Unknown

"Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness."
- C.S. Lewis

"It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of envy."
- Helen Keller

"Truth without love is brutality, and love without truth is hypocrisy."
- Warren Wiersbe

"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love."
- Henry Drummond