Lutheran Church Missouri Synod

The Love Study

The following study sketches the contours of what the holy Scriptures tell us about love: our love for God and neighbor and God's love for us.

I. The Law (passages where we are commanded to love)

A. Christians are to love God
1. They are to love Him completely / perfectly

Matthew 22:37: Jesus replied: "`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. (Cf. Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27)

2. They are to love Him first and most

a. Rather than money

Matthew 6:24 -- No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

b. More than family and their own lives

Matthew 10:37-38 -- Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

John 12:25 The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Revelation 12:11 -- They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

c. More than friends

John 21:15 -- When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" [the "these" in this passage refers to the other disciples]

d. More than popularity and the praise of people

John 12:42-43 -- Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

e. Instead of the world

1 John 2:15-16 -- Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world.

3. This love is measured by obedience to God's commands. In other words, God determines whether we love Him, not by what we say or by our feelings for Him, but by our obedience to His commands.

John 14:15 If you love me, you will obey what I command.

John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.

John 14:23-24 Jesus 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. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

1 John 5:3 -- This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.

4. This love is measured by our love for our brethren

1 John 4:20-21 If 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. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

5. This love is to be constant and unfading

Revelation 2:4-5 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.

B. Christians are to love their neighbors

1. As they love themselves

Matthew 22:39-40 And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Matthew 7:12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

2. As Christ has loved them

John 13:34-35 -- A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Ephesians 5:2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
 

3. Even when those neighbors treat them badly

Matthew 5:43-48 You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 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. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

4. Love automatically keeps the commandments

Romans 13:8-10 for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

5. Love is not just saying; it is doing

1 John 3:17-18 If 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? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

6. Love is . . .

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, 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.

7. Love means spending yourself fully for the other (not holding back)

2 Corinthians 12:15 -- So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less

8. Love speaks the truth in love. The "truth" in the following passage refers not merely to being honest. It refers to speaking true Christian doctrine, speaking "the truth" of God's Word in love.

Ephesians 4:14-15 -- Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

9. Love, by definition, builds up the other

1 Corinthians 8:1 Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

II. Gospel (passages were we are told about the love that God freely gives us)

A. God's Love for Us

In all these wonderful passages, notice that God's love does not depend on our love for Him or anything else of merit in us. There are no conditions to His love. God's love takes the initiative, before we love him, even though we don't love him. God's love is seen and measured by the gift of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. But the opposite needs to be stated also: apart from faith in Jesus Christ, outside of Jesus Christ, not God's love but only God's wrath is to be found (John 3:36). In other words, God is love, yes. But those who reject Jesus Christ and look for some other way to God do not have God's love but His fierce anger for rejecting His plan of salvation.

John 3:16 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.

Romans 5:5-8 -- And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ephesians 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 5:2 and 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 4:9-10 -- This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:16-18 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18 There 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.

Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 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.

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 -- May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

1 Thessalonians 1:4 For we know, brothers loved by God (beloved), that he has chosen you,

B. God's love gives us the power to love Him and our neighbor
 

Christians grow in sanctification not by "trying harder." They grow in their love for God in neighbor by growing in God's love in Christ for them. The Gospel is the power for sanctification, as well as the power for justification/salvation.

1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.

Luke 7:41-47 Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" 43 Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said. 44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

The two following verses are important. Both are written to those who are already Christian. Yet in both passages, Paul prays (or expresses a wish) that they grow in their knowledge and experience of God's love for them. If God's love can be compared to an ocean, then here Paul prays that the Thessalonians and Ephesians would wade more deeply into that ocean, to understand and experience God's love to a greater degree. This also should be our prayer for one another.

2 Thessalonians 3:5 May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance.

Ephesians 3:14-19 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

© Dr. Richard P. Bucher, Th.D