15 Bible Verses That Teach Us To Love Like God
Love is the greatest gift of all. The Bible tells us that God is love. (1 John 4:8) His very nature is LOVE. And we are expected to love like God.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2
Without love, we would not have been created. It was because of love that God created us to worship Him.
Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. Revelation 4:11
Without love, we would not have been redeemed. God desired to spend eternity with us then offered us a way to become His child.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
It’s been said that love is “a many splendored thing,” and when we meditate on it and allow our minds to wrap around the true meaning of love, we see that it truly is splendor.
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God’s Love for People
God loves all people, not just those who have accepted His gift of eternal life. Before being adopted into the family of God, the Bible says we are at enmity with God.
During that time, He loves us even though we may hate Him.
Jesus taught us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. And God sets the example.
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
Good blesses sinners and saints in the same way.
- in nature
- in health
- in relationships
The unsaved are just as blessed as the saved as we all experience a beautiful sunset or sunrise or the beauty and wonder of a thousand other sights we see in the world that God created for us.
Think about the ocean and all the wondrous beauty it holds, the mountains and their majestic splendor, or the spectacular display of a sky filled with sparkling stars and orbiting planets.
God created all this for us to see. God is so good!
The unsaved and the saved enjoy good health and meaningful relationships. As Christians, we like to tell people that they can have things better if they become a Christian, but it’s hard to convince them when their lives are better than many church people they know.
God has blessed them, and they are enjoying that blessing.
Unfortunately, their blessings are temporal.
God’s Love is Eternal
For the unsaved, God’s love is temporal. They will experience the blessing and the happiness only while they live here on earth.
For the saved, God’s love is eternal. God’s love makes way for us to spend eternity in His presence.
God’s love prevents us from spiritually dying so we may one day live forever with Jesus.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:17
15 Bible Verses that Teach Us to Love Like God
Jesus tells us that two GREAT commandments sum up all the other commandments and 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. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 22:37-40
I encourage you to not only read the verses below but to meditate on them. Take a moment to realize the truth in each verse and the significance each verse could have in your faith-walk.
(1) 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 13:34
(2) Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. 1 John 2:9-10
(3) Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.. 1 John 3:18 (NIV)
(4) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
(5) Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:8
(6) 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. We love because he first loved us. 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 4:18-20
(7) This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:12-13
(8) Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8
(9) But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Luke 6:35
(10) And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:14
(11) When [Jesus] had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” John 13:12-14
(12) 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 13:1
(13) Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
(14) [Love] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 1 Corinthians 13:6
(15) Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:7
God’s love gave us Jesus. Jesus’ love sent the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit lives inside each of us, giving us the grace to love like God.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35
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