Topical Collection
Love
Love is the word the Bible uses more than almost any other to describe God himself — "God is love," John writes flatly. But the love scripture describes is often sharper and more demanding than the soft-focus version we're used to. It's proven at the worst possible moment, aimed at the undeserving: God demonstrated his love "while we were yet sinners," not once we'd cleaned ourselves up. It's described mostly as action rather than feeling — patient, kind, keeping no record of wrongs. And it has power to do what willpower can't: perfect love, John says, casts out fear. The verses gathered here trace love in two directions at once — the love God has toward us, unearned and unshakable, and the love we're then freed to extend to others because we're no longer scrambling to earn our own. If you've quietly believed God loves an improved version of you and merely tolerates the real one, start with these. The love here was settled before you contributed anything, which means it can't be lost by your failures. Being loved like that is what makes it possible to love.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
“Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn't envy. Love doesn't brag, is not proud, doesn't behave itself inappropriately, doesn't seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 — the famous description of love, read as a challenge rather than a wedding reading.
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1 John 4:18
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.”
1 John 4:18 — how perfect love casts out fear, and what kind of fear it drives away.
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Romans 5:8
“But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 — God proves his love not for the deserving, but for us while we were still sinners.
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2 John 1:6
“This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.”
2 John 1:6 — this is love, that we walk according to his commandments.
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Leviticus 19:18
“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Leviticus 19:18 — love your neighbor as yourself, the command Jesus called second greatest.
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Ruth 1:16
“Ruth said, "Don't urge me to leave you, or to return from following you; for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God."”
Ruth 1:16 — where you go I will go; your people will be my people.
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Song of Solomon 8:7
“Many waters can't quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned.”
Song of Solomon 8:7 — many waters can't quench love, neither can floods drown it.
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Zephaniah 3:17
“Yahweh, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17 — God rejoices over you with singing and quiets you with his love.
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