LOVE, THE GREATEST VIRTUE (Are you walking in it?)

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LightShinesInTheDarkness

LightShinesInTheDarkness

Senior Member
Dec 11, 2017
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(A REMINDER FROM THE WORD OF GOD...)​





If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.



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.



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 13:1-3)





LOVE...​



Is patient


Kind


Not arrogant


Not rude


Does not insist on its own way


Is not irritable


Is not resentful


Does not rejoice at wrongdoing


Rejoices with the truth


Bears all things


Endures all things

(1 Corinthians 13:4-7)



Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7,8)



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. And this commandment we have from Him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:20,21)



By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 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? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18)



For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 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.


...Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
(1 John 3:11,12,15)



Let love be genuine. (Or "without dissimulation") (Romans 12:9)



Love does no wrong to a neighbor. (Romans 13:10)



Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:31,32)



"All things are lawful," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful," but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. (1 Corinthians 10:23,24)



And He said to His disciples, "Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.


Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' you must forgive him." (Luke 17:1-4)



But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.


Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
(1 Corinthians 8:7-13)


I know and am persuaded in the Lord that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you consider good be spoken of as evil.
(Romans 14:14-16)


So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:31,32, 11:1)



We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please Himself... (Romans 15:1-3)



My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James 5:19,20)



Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
(1 Corinthians 16:13,14)


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. (2 John 6)







(All Scripture taken from ESV.)​
 
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"But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-48)




"Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:19)
 
Love is the greater virtue of the three because God is love and it outlasts them all. Long after faith and hope are no longer necessary, love will still be the governing principle that controls all that God and his redeemed people are and do.

Believers have received the love of God in their hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to them (Romans 5:5) when they believed the gospel (Ephesians 1:13). We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). I absolutely strive to walk in love. :)
 
LightShinesInTheDarkness said:
LOVE...

Not arrogant


Not rude


(All Scripture taken from ESV.)
Click to expand...
Amen!
(A REMINDER FROM THE WORD OF GOD...)
Click to expand...
This is Jesus' commandment, That we love one another, as He loves us. No Greater love have no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. This is His commandment, That we love one another, as He have loved us.

John 15:13,12

 
tourist said:
I walk in it but stumble all of the time.
Click to expand...

We all stumble in many ways. (James 3:2)

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John 2:1)

Perfection is unattainable in this life, due to our sinful nature, but it is always the goal for those who love the Lord. Keep the NT standard---God's standard---as your standard, and the example of Christ as your example, and you will remember how to walk and will rightly strive for perfection and will do well.

Adopt a different standard, and you will be content to settle for less; but the NT standard remains the Christian standard, nevertheless, so we who are in Christ would all do well to remember what that is and keep to it, as this is the standard we will be judged according to, and not our own or someone else's.

...The one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:25)

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
 
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church...

...Let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she *respects (phobetai) her husband.
(Ephesians 5:25-29,33)

*Phobetai (she fears) in Greek means to fear in reverence, the same kind of fear that Christians are to have towards God. The way a wife treats her husband is the way she treats Christ, and she will have to give an account to the Lord for it, just as husbands will have to give an account to Him for how they treated their wives.

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. (1 Peter 3:6)

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. (1 Peter 3:7)
 
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of Godliness, but denying its power. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)



Are you one of them?




By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before Him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God... (1 John 3:19-21)
 
​TRUTH: If you're not loving God by keeping His commandments, you're not loving others either; and if you're not loving others as God says to love them, you're not loving God.
 
"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"


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. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39)



But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"


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.


Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.


But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 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 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.'


Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?"


He said, "The one who showed him mercy."


And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."


(Luke 10:29-37)
 
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
(1 John 5:2-4)
 
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