Scripture Folios
He First Loved Us
Deuteronomy 7:7–8 The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers, He brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Chapter Related Hosea 11:3–4 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms, but they never realized that it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with ropes of love; I lifted the yoke from their necks and bent down to feed them. Chapter Related Jeremiah 31:3 The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.” Chapter Related Isaiah 49:15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you!” Chapter Related Luke 15:20 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. Chapter Related John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Chapter Related Romans 5:8 But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Chapter Related 1 John 4:9–10 This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Chapter Related 1 John 4:19 We love because He first loved us. Chapter Related
Greater Love
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Chapter Related 1 John 3:16 By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Chapter Related Ephesians 5:2 and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God. Chapter Related 2 Corinthians 5:14–15 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again. Chapter Related
Love One Another
Leviticus 19:18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord . Chapter Related Leviticus 19:34 You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Chapter Related Mark 12:29–31 Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Chapter Related John 13:34–35 “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” Chapter Related 1 John 4:11–12 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. Chapter Related 1 John 3:17–18 If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth. Chapter Related John 21:17 Jesus asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was deeply hurt that Jesus had asked him a third time, “Do you love Me?” “Lord, You know all things,” he replied. “You know I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.” Chapter Related
Love Your Enemies
Exodus 23:4–5 If you encounter your enemy’s stray ox or donkey, you must return it to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it. Chapter Related Proverbs 25:21–22 If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you. Chapter Related 2 Kings 6:22–23 “Do not kill them,” he replied. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and then return to their master.” So the king prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. And the Aramean raiders did not come into the land of Israel again. Chapter Related Matthew 5:44–45 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Chapter Related Romans 12:20–21 On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Chapter Related
Love Never Fails
1 Corinthians 13:1–3 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing. Chapter Related 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Chapter Related 1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. Chapter Related 1 Corinthians 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love. Chapter Related 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love. Chapter Related Song of Solomon 8:6–7 Set me as a seal over your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unrelenting as Sheol. Its sparks are fiery flames, the fiercest blaze of all. Mighty waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, his offer would be utterly scorned. Chapter Related Romans 8:38–39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Chapter Related
Moses tells Israel that God did not choose them for their numbers, “but because the Lord loved you.” His love has no reason outside itself. Hosea sees him teaching a child to walk and bending down to feed him; a mother might forget her nursing child, but God will not forget. Then the proof: he gave his one and only Son, and “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” John puts it plainly: love is “not that we loved God, but that He loved us.” Every command to love comes after that. The Law already said to love your neighbor as yourself, and the foreigner too. Jesus calls it a new commandment because the measure is new: as I have loved you. And it is something done. John asks how the love of God can abide in someone who sees a brother in need and holds back his compassion, and Jesus answers Peter’s “You know I love You” with “Feed My sheep.” It reaches enemies the same way, with food and water. Elisha had a feast set before the raiders sent to seize him, and they did not come into the land again. Without love, Paul says, even faith that moves mountains is nothing. Love never fails. Mighty waters cannot quench it, and nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.