God is LOVE

"in my mind, the essence of the gospel is love. everything else–and i mean everything–is secondary to love.

in matthew 22:37-40, when the lawyer asks christ to identify the most important commandment, jesus answers: thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. this is the first and great commandment. and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

in romans 13:8,10 we learn to “owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. . . . love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” and galatians 5:14 reiterates the idea: “for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” it seems very clear to me that to love will naturally lead to living christ’s teachings, to living a christlike life.

the scriptures also make it clear that love is the avenue to knowing god and thereby gaining eternal life. john 3:16 teaches us that “god so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” and john 17:3 clarifies that eternal life is to know god and jesus christ. 1 john 4:8 clarifies that he that loveth not knoweth not god because god is love."


Thank you, Amelia...for putting words to feelings I find it hard to express. I feel so clear about my goals today after reading this.