love

 

With the Days of Awe* upon us, I thought it a good exercise to meditate on some things that Scripture says about loving one another. Yeah...love. Not like. Not being polite. Not pretending, but honest love. Can I love those around me, even those who hate me, with the love that is expected by the Master?

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.

Leviticus 19:18

If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

1 John 4:20

And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:3

Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

1 John 3:18

'Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,' declares the LORD.

Zechariah 3:17

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

1 Corinthians 13:2

Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

~Romans 3:8  

*The ten days starting with Rosh Hashanah and ending with Yom Kippur are commonly known as the Days of Awe (Yamim Noraim) or the Days of Repentance. This is a time for serious introspection, a time to consider the sins of the previous year and repent before Yom Kippur.