1 Corinthians 13 New International Version
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1
3 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Love—The Greatest Commandment
1. Matthew 22:37–40
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
2. Mark 12:30–31
30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
3. Romans 13:8–10
8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
9 For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
4. Galatians 5:13–14
13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
5. 1 John 4:20–21
20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
“Peter, do you agape me?”
Not just any kind of love is the greatest commandment in Scripture. Agape love is the greatest commandment. The gospel of Matthew, Mark, John, and verses of Galatians, and Romans tell us that love is the fulfillment of the law, and there is no greater commandment than to love our neighbour as ourself.
When Jesus asks Peter “Do you love (agape) me?” and Peter replies “You know I love (phileo) you,” there’s a nuance that the English translation misses. “Love” can be agape (self-sacrificial), phileo (brotherly/friendship), or eros (romantic/desiring). Peter thrice answered that he loved Jesus Christ in brotherly love. Jesus Christ was looking for his confession of agape.
John 21:15-17 KJV:
15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love [phileo] thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love [phileo] thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love [phileo] thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
God’s Agape is the Only Real Love, The World’s—a Counterfeit of the Flesh
Agape love is self-sacrificing, divine love flowing from the source—God. It does not seek its own meaning it seeks the best for the other person, not selfishness as eros does. Only those who reside in God, can let the love of God flow through them. Unsaved people can never experience the level of love of a believer endwelled by God’s agape.
Apart from God’s indwelling love, we do not have the capacity to love and be loved—which is why He sent the Holy Spirit as a helper. The Holy Spirit who enables us to fulfill God’s purpose for our life, be sancitified through our life, and have God’s discernment.
Love Is Only a Fruit of the Holy Spirit
Agape love—the only true form of love is a work of the Spirit. This is why we can not be unequally yoked with uneblievers—they have no capacity to love divinely and self-sacrificially as God enables believers surrendered to Him.
In Galatians 5, Paul describes works of the flesh—envy, idolatry, sorcery, immorality, etc. And in Galatians 5:22-25, he describes love as a fruit of the spirit, not as something we can conjure up.
Galatians 5:22-25 KJV:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
And all the fruit from Galatians 5:22 is a result of love expressing itself as Dr. Stanley says: “joy is love enjoying, peace is love resting, patience is love waiting, kindness is love reacting, goodness is love choosing, faithfulness is love keeping its word, gentleness is love being able to empathize, self-control is love resisting temptation.”
Paul didn’t say it was the fruit of a Christian, he said “the fruit of the spirit” of we are to walk in, while crucifying our flesh.
Agape love is God flowing through us, loving through us—not what we can force ourselves to feel. It is why Jesus said:
John 15:5:
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Apart from Christ, we can do nothing, we can’t genuinely love at it’s purest, most divine, self-sacrificial level that God loves us with, without Him who created love itself.
Life–Even of Discipleship–Means Nothing, Apart from Love
In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says that if you walk in the gifts of the spirit (prophecy, tongues, etc.), but don’t have love—you have nothing.
Love is unselfish, willing to serve, to sacrifice, to be used by God for others to become who they are supposed to be. Love is where one is saved, sanctified—not through knowledge, not through exercising the gifts of the spirit, through works.
The purpose of life is to be sanctified to be like Christ, as we love God and one another as God loves us, expressing that love through servitude. Love is the fulfillment of the law, the root of all the fruit of the spirit, the way we repent from sin by being sanctified through God’s love as He changes our desires towards His commandments (guardrails for life).
Conditional, Worldly Love and Why We Must Not Be Unequally Yoked
People think they’ve experienced love, until they enter a God-centered relationship with the agapelove that worldly eros and philia can’t give you: selfless, sacrificial, serving love.
Agape love is felt through actions, not words. And the world’s conditional love is seen through transactionary relationships—whether it’s a relationship based off financial transaction, sexual transaction, or even the conditional love of a parent who only externally trophies their scapegoated child.
Commandments are guard rails to live life. Love neighbor and love God. If I love someone, I wont sin. Therefore love is the fulfillment of law. Cant love and steal,etc. To love someone is to respect them. God has given us the ability to love and love demands commitment, not sin.
You can’t treat others how they treat you. It only hurts you more to become quiet and hardened.
You can’t save people, only love them and through that they can be saved
God Does Choose Marriages for those Who Seek and Obey His Will
God ordains marriages. And I choose divine covenant pairing, over human matchmaking out of my limited human knowledge. Just as I pray for God’s will, not mine over every other area of my life. Why do most Christians balk at the idea that sovereign, omnipotent God would not be in charge of something so influential over your salvation, sanctification and calling—like the influence of another through your lifetime, one that represents the marriage between Christ and the church?
I will share writings about this more in depth later, but people’s little faith in the sovereignty, and omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient knowledge of God who promises to instruct us in everything, and have the best plan for every area of their lives, makes them deny the idea of there being one God-ordained spouse which is God’s best.
I believe in the sovereign supremacy of God’s plans in all things—including the very facet of life—marriage— that represents the bride which is the church and the bridegroom—Christ. To think God doesn’t have a specific will for who you marry is not Scriptural..
The Craving for Love is the Craving for God: The Samitarian Woman
Months ago, I was praying about desiring covenant marriage if it is God’s will, and got a notification from a daily devotional. God answered my prayer.
It speaks about how we experience emptiness because we seek happiness and fulfillment outside of God alone—until we are joyful and at peace with God alone, nothing will make us happy. In John 4:2-5, Jesus traveled to the often bypassed Samaria because he knew a hurting woman needed to hear of the Father’s love, a woman felt tossed aside and craving love and fulfillment. Jesus tells her he knows she’s been wed five times. Her marriages hadn’t provided the love of Christ that she truly needed. Christ helped her recognize she was in need of salvation, not another man.
The Samitarian Woman – Craving Love Unfulfilled by 5 Husbands
John 4:10-21:
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Healing Isn’t in Theoretical Knowledge, but in Experienced Love
There’s a secret the world doesn’t know.
Love—agape love—heals what no therapist can. The love of Christ, and the love of Christ expressed interpersonally through loving others, and being loved. And yes, that involves romantic love as well.
Love is even fuel—think about how when you feel it, you are the most motivated. Love is your ‘why.’ That is why God calls on us to love one another as He loves us, and love Him. That is why you should also love yourself and rely on the love and peace of Christ alone, so that you are not waiting on external validation to fulfill you and propel you.
It’s not until my monastic, consecrated heart, mind and soul was violently awakened through unnerving, tension-filled dreams and synchronicities calling me to intercede in prayer, that I began to feel romantic love for the first time in my life. It is the most triggering, and most healing thing God can bless you with. But you have to surrender what you don’t understand at His altar.
Ultimately, he turned out to be unequally yoked, but Romans 8:28 stood true—as it healed and awakened so many facets inside me through the very breaking of my heart.
But what is heartbreak for a Christian, but just unreciprocated, self-sacrificial agape God commands, being directed at the wrong target (that God didn’t ordain)? To agape, and end up betrayed, is no betrayal of God nor self–for you still obeyed the greatest commandment. And we are even called to love and pray for our enemies.
I’m made of faith I wrestle with
—in God, people, redemption,
to the point of self-betrayal.
Or is what the world calls self-betrayal,
simply unreciprocrated—agape
— love which is self-sacrificial?
Nonetheless,
I offered it to an unequally yoked man.
But he was made of worldly fear and eros.
He left to offer it to others
—to offer eros, and works of the flesh thereof,
which have no preference nor satiation.
God does not call us to be a human sacrifice
on the altar of an unequally yoked lost soul’s potential.
The great Jehovah already sacrificed Himself,
and loves us with agape love—unconditionally
All the unconditional love,
recognition, protection, peace
— all the fruits of the spirit you seek in humans, come unconditionally and eternally from Christ only. And only someone rooted in the source of true agape, can let it flow through them to you, in a three-strand cord.
Scripture on Love:
Matthew 22:37–40
Matthew 22:37 — Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Matthew 22:38 — This is the first and great commandment.
Matthew 22:39 — And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Matthew 22:40 — On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
John 13:34–35
John 13:34 — A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
John 13:35 — By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
John 15:12
John 15:12 — This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Romans 13:8–10
Romans 13:8 — Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:9 — For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Romans 13:10 — Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Galatians 5:13–14
Galatians 5:13 — For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
Galatians 5:14 — For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
1 John 4:7–8
1 John 4:7 — Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1 John 4:8 — He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
1 John 4:19–21
1 John 4:19 — We love him, because he first loved us.
1 John 4:20 — If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
1 John 4:21 — And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
Deuteronomy 6:5
Deuteronomy 6:5 — And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Leviticus 19:18
Leviticus 19:18 — Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.