Love.

Love.

Love is so incredibly important, seriously the most important thing there is. God's first commandment to His chosen is - to love God.

Mar 12:29  And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 

Mar 12:30  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. 

Mar 12:31  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 

Mat 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. 

Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment. 

Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 

Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. 

We HAVE to remember that the ONLY GREAT COMMANDMENTS the people had were the ten moral commandments.

Jesus KNEW that the first four commandments were all about LOVING GOD, and the last six commandments were all about loving our fellowman. JESUS KNEW because He was there when GOD gave the commandments, HE WAS THERE in agreement with the FATHER. Jesus wants US to know that those moral ten commandments were NOT being done away with! What reason would there ever be to get rid of commandments that are about LOVING HIM, LOVING the HEAVENLY FATHER- and LOVING EACH OTHER? There would be NO REASON. We deceive ourselves if we believe any of those ten commandments are not about loving God and our fellowman. 

Exo 20:1  And God spake all these words, saying, 

Exo 20:2  I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 

Exo 20:3  Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 

Exo 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 

Exo 20:5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 

Exo 20:6  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 

Exo 20:7  Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 

Exo 20:8  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

Exo 20:9  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 

Exo 20:10  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 

Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 

When we are told in Corinthians thirteen about love we are being told about God.

1Co 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

We are NOTHING without love.

1Co 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 

NOTHING WITHOUT OUT LOVE!

1Co 13:3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 

Imagine… giving all you have to feed the poor,  imagine being willing to die and NOT HAVING LOVE.  We equate those acts with love, don't we? But the truth is, we can do acts of seeming love without any love at all! Its shocking, it's hard to comprehend, isn't it? Can you give up everything for the poor so they can eat, and not have love, how?! Maybe there is an underlying  element of self-serving there that no one can see, perhaps the person doesn't even realize it? We NEED LOVE above all!

1Co 13:4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 

1Co 13:5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 

1Co 13:6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 

1Co 13:7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 

1Co 13:8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 

1Co 13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 

1Co 13:10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 

1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 

1Co 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 

1Co 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Please, may we LOVE as God would have us LOVE!!!!!!!  All through Jesus Christ our LORD and SAVIOR now and forever!!!!!!!