Love bible study

            I am led to do a study on love, doing all in love, and especially loving one another.  First I will focus on commandments and such that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. People today are becoming increasingly selfish and arrogant, and therefore unloving towards their neighbors, opposite of what God commands. Nobody is perfect not even ourselves, and we (myself included) find it needful to apologize and repent of careless (my case often also thoughtless and spontaneous) words and deeds

Here is the commandment in the book Leviticus

(Leviticus 19:18)  You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

Jesus Himself mentioned the two commandments included loving ones neighbor as ourselves as well as loving God with all our strength and our mind:

(Matthew 22:37)  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.

(Matthew 22:38)  This is the great and first commandment.

(Matthew 22:39)  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

(Matthew 22:40)  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

This point is driven home further in Romans chapter 13 where the point is driven home about loving one another.

(Romans 13:8)  Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.

(Romans 13:9)  For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

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

This point is further backed up by what is written in James 2

(James 2:8)  If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.

(James 2:9)  But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

Here is the love chapter in 1 Corinthians which really drives home so forcefully the idea of love, and I believe it is the selfless love one for another.

(1 Corinthians 13:1)  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

(1 Corinthians 13:2)  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

(1 Corinthians 13:3)  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

(1 Corinthians 13:4)  Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant

(1 Corinthians 13:5)  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;

(1 Corinthians 13:6)  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

(1 Corinthians 13:7)  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

(1 Corinthians 13:8)  Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

(1 Corinthians 13:9)  For we know in part and we prophesy in part,

(1 Corinthians 13:10)  but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

(1 Corinthians 13:11)  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

(1 Corinthians 13:12)  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

(1 Corinthians 13:13)  So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Here is another verse in 1 Corinthians to be strong but let all that we do be in love

(1 Corinthians 16:13)  Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

(1 Corinthians 16:14)  Let all that you do be done in love.

Here is a word in 1 Peter about loving one another from a pure heart:

(1 Peter 1:22)  Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

Here is another word in 1 Peter stressing the idea of loving one another:

(1 Peter 4:8)  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

(1 Peter 4:9)  Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Here is a set of verses to for brotherly love to continue:

(Hebrews 13:1)  Let brotherly love continue.

(Hebrews 13:2)  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Here are two verses from Romans chapter 12 about love being genuine

(Romans 12:9)  Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

(Romans 12:10)  Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Take a look at what Jesus says in this verse about loving:

(Luke 6:35)  But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Here in John 13 are two verses about the new command Jesus gives us to love one another

(John 13:34)  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

(John 13:35)  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

As Jesus said people will know we are His disciples if we love on another. Jesus then reinforces this commandment in John 15

(John 15:12)  "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

(John 15:13)  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

(John 15:14)  You are my friends if you do what I command you.

(John 15:15)  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

(John 15:16)  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.

(John 15:17)  These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Here are a few verses from Galatians 5

(Galatians 5:13)  For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

(Galatians 5:14)  For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Love also is one of the fruits of the spirit:

(Galatians 5:22)  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

(Galatians 5:23)  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Here are a couple of verses in Ephesians encouraging us to walk in love

(Ephesians 5:1)  Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

(Ephesians 5:2)  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Here are some good words about encouraging others loving each other in Hebrews 10 to encouraging us to good works.

(Hebrews 10:23)  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

(Hebrews 10:24)  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,

(Hebrews 10:25)  not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Look at what John says about loving one another in 1 John 3. He has a very strongly worded message here.

(1 John 3:10)  By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

(1 John 3:11)  For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

(1 John 3:12)  We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.

(1 John 3:13)  Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

(1 John 3:14)  We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

(1 John 3:15)  Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

(1 John 3:16)  By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

(1 John 3:17)  But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

(1 John 3:18)  Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

(1 John 3:19)  By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;

(1 John 3:20)  for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

(1 John 3:21)  Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;

(1 John 3:22)  and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

(1 John 3:23)  And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

(1 John 3:24)  Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

A big command from God is that we love one another. He reinforces the message in chapter 3 with this message in chapter 4 of 1 John

(1 John 4:7)  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

(1 John 4:8)  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

(1 John 4:9)  In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

(1 John 4:10)  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

(1 John 4:11)  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

(1 John 4:12)  No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

(1 John 4:13)  By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

(1 John 4:14)  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

(1 John 4:15)  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

(1 John 4:16)  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

(1 John 4:17)  By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

(1 John 4:18)  There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

(1 John 4:19)  We love because he first loved us.

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

(1 John 4:21)  And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

These two verses in 2 John further reinforce the teachings throughout this discussion, that loving one another is a commandment from God

(2 John 1:5)  And now I ask you, dear lady--not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning--that we love one another.

(2 John 1:6)  And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

Here is the parable of the Samaritan which is the perfect example of a person showing love and care to someone he just first met, and again reminds us it is our duty to love neighbor as our self:

(Luke 10:25)  And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

(Luke 10:26)  He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?"

(Luke 10:27)  And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."

(Luke 10:28)  And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live."

(Luke 10:29)  But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

(Luke 10:30)  Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.

(Luke 10:31)  Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.

(Luke 10:32)  So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

(Luke 10:33)  But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

(Luke 10:34)  He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

(Luke 10:35)  And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.'

(Luke 10:36)  Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?"

(Luke 10:37)  He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

In these verses Paul commends the Thessalonians for doing their loving one another and encourages them to do it the more:

(1 Thessalonians 4:10)  for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more,

(1 Thessalonians 4:11)  and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you,

(1 Thessalonians 4:12)  so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.

And also here in 2 Thessalonians

(2 Thessalonians 1:3)  We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

The final set of scriptures is a list of things we can do to help love one another and God and also grow in faith as well, all from 1 Thessalonians 5

(1 Thessalonians 5:8)  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

(1 Thessalonians 5:9)  For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

(1 Thessalonians 5:10)  who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.

(1 Thessalonians 5:11)  Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

(1 Thessalonians 5:12)  We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,

(1 Thessalonians 5:13)  and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.

(1 Thessalonians 5:14)  And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

(1 Thessalonians 5:15)  See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

(1 Thessalonians 5:16)  Rejoice always,

(1 Thessalonians 5:17)  pray without ceasing,

(1 Thessalonians 5:18)  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

(1 Thessalonians 5:19)  Do not quench the Spirit.

(1 Thessalonians 5:20)  Do not despise prophecies,

(1 Thessalonians 5:21)  but test everything; hold fast what is good.

(1 Thessalonians 5:22)  Abstain from every form of evil.

(1 Thessalonians 5:23)  Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(1 Thessalonians 5:24)  He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Here is a prayer to God with the goal to help us to  love one another as the bible commands us to so please pray with me:

 Father, I'm praying myself and all those who read this teaching, and all their families as well:
Help us love each other as we love ourselves. May the Holy Spirit, who has poured Your love into our hearts, give us Your selfless love, for our love falls far short of the mark. (Matthew 22:39; Romans 5:5)
May those who are married have Your perfect love especially for each other and their children. May every child be considered as Your reward, to be loved and nurtured and taught how to live lives that are obedient and pleasing to You. May we as a family be united in love. (Galatians 5:22a; Psalm 127:3; Ephesians 6:4b; 1 John 3:21–22; Colossians 2:2a)

May we submit ourselves to one another—considering others more important than ourselves, putting the others' interests ahead of our own. Help us to treat each other the way we would want to be treated in every circumstance. (Ephesians 5:21; Philippians 2:3b–4; Matthew 7:12)

May our relationships be built on these principles—for if they are, what could ever come between us? You always know what's best!

In Jesus’ Name I/we pray Amen.

Jesus always commands us to love one another but He also loves you more than you can know or even imagine it and longs to know you personally and have a personal relationship with you. If the Holy Spirit is tugging at your heart to invite Jesus into/back into your heart please pray the following prayer of commitment or recommitment with me:

Dear God in heaven, I come to you in the name of Jesus. I acknowledge to You that I am a sinner, and I am sorry for my sins and the life that I have lived; I need your forgiveness.I believe that your only begotten Son Jesus Christ shed His precious blood on the cross at Calvary and died for my sins, and I am now willing to turn from my sin.You said in Your Holy Word, Romans 10:9 that if we confess the Lord our God and believe in our hearts that God raised Jesus from the dead, we shall be saved.Right now I confess Jesus as the Lord of my soul. With my heart, I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. This very moment I accept Jesus Christ as my own personal Savior and according to His Word, right now I am saved.Thank you Jesus for your unlimited grace which has saved me from my sins. I thank you Jesus that your grace never leads to license, but rather it always leads to repentance. Therefore Lord Jesus transform my life so that I may bring glory and honor to you alone and not to myself. Thank you Jesus for dying for me and giving me eternal life.

Amen.

God bless you and yours