Understand God’s Love
God’s love isn’t just inspirational, it’s transformational. God’s love changes you, then it changes the way you love others. God’s love is patient, intentional and unique. It searches for you and seeks you out. It finds you as you are, right where you are, but it never leaves you the same. God’s love doesn’t just change your heart, it gives you a brand new one (Ezekiel 36:26).
His love isn’t like worldly love. It doesn’t waiver. It’s unending and unconditional. It isn’t performance based, which means you can’t earn it. God’s love isn’t based on what you do, it’s based on who He is. And that changes everything. How has God’s love changed you? How has God’s love changed how you love others? Here is what the Bible has to say about love:
1 Corinthians 16:14 “Do everything in love.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-5 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”
1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Proverbs 10:12 “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.”
1 Peter 4:8 “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
Romans 12:9 “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”
Ephesians 4:2 “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
Colossians 3:14 “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
Song of Solomon 3:4 “…I found him whom my soul loves…”
Proverbs 3:3 “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”
Romans 12:10 “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another…”
Ephesians 4:2-3 “…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Psalm 143:8 “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.”
Romans 13:8 “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”
1 Corinthians 13:2 “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”
1 John 4:12 ”No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
1 John 4:16 “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
Jude 1:2 “Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.”
Proverbs 17:17 “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
John 15:12 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Song of Solomon 8:6-7 “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it...”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”