8. Love


8a. How do you learn to love?
Learning to love means learning to give. Begin by giving yourself to God. He deserves your first allegiance, your highest love. What's more, He desires it! As you give yourself to God, you will experience His love more fully each day. The second step is learning to love others. As you experience Gods love, you will be able to love others more and more deeply in word and deed. Start sharing Gods love with others. It pays great dividends
John 3:16	¹⁶"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 15:13	¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Romans 5:6-8	⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Matthew 22:37-38	³⁷Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment.
Deuteronomy 10:12	¹² And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
John 14:23	²³Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Ephesians 5:1-2	¹Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
1 John 4:7	⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:20-21	²⁰If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
The word love occurs 43 times in the first epistle of John in one form or another. Read this letter and underline every reference to love in it. Then on a separate piece of paper, write down what you learned about love from 1 John.


8b. How do you express your love to God?
There are many ways to express you love including obedience, service, fellowship and sacrifice. There are also important means of verbally expressing your love to God. These are praise and worship. In a broad sense, worship refers to the direct acknowledgement of God. It also refers to an intense love or admiration for God. Praise is the verbal expression of this love or admiration. To praise God means to verbally magnify His glory and greatness. God wants to hears your praise and worship.
Psalm 150	Praise the LORD . Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. ² Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. ³ Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, ⁴ praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, ⁵ praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. ⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD . Praise the LORD .
Matthew 4:9-10	⁹"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." ¹⁰Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'
John 4:23-24	²³Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Hebrews 13:15	¹⁵Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name.
1 Peter 2:9-10	⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Psalms 103:1-13	¹ Praise the LORD , O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. ² Praise the LORD , O my soul, and forget not all his benefits- ³ who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, ⁴ who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, ⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. ⁶ The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. ⁷ He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: ⁸ The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. ⁹ He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; ¹⁰ he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. ¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; ¹² as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. ¹³ As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;










8c. What does it mean to love others?
The Bible tells us to love one another in a very practical way. Loving our neighbor means meeting the needs of the people we encounter in life. We must give them a helping hand in whatever way we can, even if it costs us something.
Matthew 22:36-40	³⁶"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" ³⁷Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
John 13:35	³⁵By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Colossians 3:12-13	¹²Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Matthew 6:14-15	¹⁴For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
Colossians 3:12	¹²Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
1 John 2:9-11	⁹Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. ¹⁰Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. ¹¹But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
1 John 3:14-15	¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
1 John 4:8	¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
1 John 3:16-18	¹⁶This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. ¹⁷If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? ¹⁸Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 4:11	¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:12	¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.




8d. Why should you share your faith?
You must begin to share your faith with others. This is an act of love. Everyone who does not believe the gospel and accept Christ as Savior is doomed to hell. If you love people, you will endeavor to bring them to Christ. Faith and love go together. It is by faith that you receive God's lover.. It is by trusting in Him that you are set free to give yourself to others in love. As you trust God and grow in love, you will develop a burning desire to share his love with others.
Galatians 5:6	⁶For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Ephesians 1:15	¹⁵For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
Ephesians 6:23	²³Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:4	⁴because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints--
1 Thessalonians 1:3	³We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:8	⁸But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
2 Thessalonians 1:3	³We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing.
1 Timothy 1:5	⁵The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
Philemon 1:5	⁵because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints.
Matthew 10:32	³²"Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.
2 Corinthians 5:18-20	¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Matthew 22:37-39	³⁷Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.
Romans 10:1	¹Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved.
1 Thess 3:12	¹²May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.
1 John 4:11	¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:18	¹⁸There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.






8e. How do you become a witness?
If you love people, you will want them to come to Christ. If you love Christ, you will want to become a witness for Him. It is not just what you say, but what you are which speaks most clearly to others. Your Christian growth was bringing out a new, God-given character for others to see. He takes your best qualities and magnifies them. He takes your difficult characteristics and helps you put them inside. He also gives you brand new qualities you didn't know existed.

Acts 1:8	⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Romans 10:13-15	¹³for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." ¹⁴How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Matthew 5:16	¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Acts 2:38	³⁸Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 20:24	²⁴However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.
Luke 24:48-49	⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high."
Acts 1:8	⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."



8f. Standing on your own two feet!