What the Bible Says About Loving Others
What does the Bible say about loving others?
We have lost sight of love. No longer do we love others the way we should and this is a huge problem in Christianity. We're afraid to love others. There are many believers who need support from the body of Christ but the body has been blinded by selfishness. We say we want to love like how Christ loved but is it true? I'm tired of words because love doesn't come from the mouth, it comes from the heart.
Love is not blind to what is going on. Love sees what other people do not see. God made a way even though He didn't have to make a way. Love moves like God even though it doesn't have to move. Love turns into action!
Love causes you to weep with others, sacrifice for others, forgive others, include others in your activities, etc. One of the most disturbing things that I have noticed in Christian churches today is that we have our own cliques.
Within the church we have made a reflection of the world. There's the cool crowd and "it" circle that only wants to associate with certain people which reveals a heart of haughtiness. If this is you, then repent. When you realize God's love for you, then you want to pour out that love upon others.
A loving heart seeks out those who need love. A loving heart is bold. It doesn't make excuses on why it can't love. If you ask for it God is going to put people in your life who need your love. It's time for a change. Allow the love of God to change you and compel you to make sacrifices.
Christian quotes about loving others
"Don't wait for other people to be loving, giving, compassionate, grateful, forgiving, generous, or friendly… lead the way!"
"Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy."
"Love others so radically they wonder why."
"We love others best when we love God most."
"Be so busy loving God, loving others, and loving your life that you have no time for regret, worry, fear, or drama."
"Love people the way Jesus loves you."
"Love God and He will enable you to love others even when they disappoint you."
"Do not waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor; act as if you did." – C.S. Lewis
"Run after the hurting, go after the broken, the addicted, those that have messed up, that society has written off. Go after them with love, with mercy, with the goodness of God."
"Being loving is at the heart of the Christian message, as through loving others, we show our faith."
What is christian love for one another?
Believers should have a deep love for others. Evidence that you have been born again is that you have a deep love for your brothers and sisters in Christ. I've met people who claimed to be Christian but they had no love for others. They were mean, rude, ungodly in speech, stingy, etc. When a person bears bad fruit that is evidence of an unregenerate heart.
When a person is a new creation through repentance and faith in Christ alone you will see a change of heart. You will see a person who desires to love how Christ loved. Sometimes it is a struggle, but as believers we seek to love Christ more and when you love Christ more it leads to loving others more.
God gets glory by our love for our brothers and sisters. Always remember that the world takes notice. It should be evident that God's love is within you, not only by how you act inside the church but also how you act outside the church.
1. 1 John 3:10 "By this the children of God and the children of the devil can be distinguished: Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother."
2. 1 John 4:7-8 "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."
3. 1 John 4:16 "And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him."
4. 1 John 4:12 "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us."
5. Romans 5:5 "And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
What does the Bible say about loving others unconditionally?
Love should be unconditional. These days love is a struggle. We don't love anymore. I abhor the conditional love that I am seeing today. This is one of the main reasons for high divorce rates. Love is superficial. Love is based upon finances, appearance, what can you do for me now, etc. Genuine love never ends. Genuine love will continue to love until death. Jesus' love persevered through the hardship.
His love persevered for those who had nothing to offer Him! His love kept going even though His bride was messy. Could you ever picture Jesus saying, "I'm sorry but I fell out of love with you." I could never picture such a thing. You don't fall out of love. What is our excuse? We are to be imitators of Christ! Love should govern our lives. Is love leading you to go the extra mile like it led Christ to go the extra mile? Love has no stipulations. Examine yourself.
Has your love been conditional? Are you growing in selflessness? Are you growing in forgiveness or bitterness? Love restores a bad relationship. Love heals brokenness. Wasn't it the love of Christ that restored our relationship with the Father? Wasn't it the love of Christ that bandaged our brokenness and gave us an abundance of joy? Let's all learn to love with the love of Christ not expecting anything in return. Love should pursue reconciliation with all our strained relationships. Forgive much because you have been forgiven much.
6. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
7. John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends."
8. 1 Corinthians 13:8 "Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end."
9. Ephesians 4:32 "And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ."
10. Jeremiah 31:3 "The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."
How to love others according to the Bible?
The problem in Christianity today is that we don't know how to love. We have reduced love down to something that we say. Saying the words, "I love you" has become so cliche. Is it genuine? Does it come from the heart? Love is not love if the heart is not in it. We are to love without hypocrisy. Genuine love should lead us to humble ourselves and serve others. Love should lead us to talk to others. Loving others will lead to making sacrifices. Love should compel us to sacrifice time to genuinely get to know others.
Love should compel us to talk to the guy at church standing by himself. Love should compel us to include others in our conversation. Love should compel us to give more. To sum it up, even though love is not action, love will result in actions because a genuine loving heart compels us. Salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. As believers, we don't have to work for the love of God.
We don't have to work for our salvation. However, genuine faith produces works. Evidence of our faith in Christ alone is that we will obey. Evidence of our love is that we will go out of our way for those that we love. It could be something as simple as encouraging. It could be calling your family members more often and checking on them. It could be visiting your family and friends in the hospital or in jail.
We like to make excuses for why we can't perform simple acts of kindness. "I can't I'm introvert." "I can't I only have a debit card." "I can't I'm late." These excuses are getting old. Pray to love more. Pray to empathize with others more so that you may feel their burden. God blesses us with comfort, encouragement, finances, love, and more so that we can pour out these same blessings upon others.
11. Romans 12:9-13 "Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality."
12. Philippians 2:3 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves."
13. 1 Peter 2:17 "Treat everyone with high regard: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king ."
14. 1 Peter 1:22-23 "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God."
Love others as you love yourself.
It's natural to love yourself. As humans we feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, educate ourselves, work out our bodies, and more. Most people would never knowingly harm themselves. We all want the best for ourselves. Do what you would do to yourself. In your time of need wouldn't you want someone to talk to? Be that someone for someone else. Think about others in the way that you would think about yourself.
15. John 13:34 "A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so also you must love one another."
16. Leviticus 19:18 "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."
17. Ephesians 5:28-29 "In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church."
18. Luke 10:27 "He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' and 'Love your neighbor as yourself."
19. Matthew 7:12 "In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you. For this is the essence of the Law and the prophets."
Actions motivated by love
We should be motivated by love when we do things.
I must be honest. I've struggled in this area. You can always fool others, you can even fool yourself, but you can never fool God. God looks at the heart. God looks at why you did the things that you did. I have to always examine my heart.
Did I witness out of guilt or did I witness out of love for the lost? Did I give with a cheerful heart or did I give with a grudging heart? Did I offer hoping he said yes or did I offer hoping he said no? Do you pray for others expecting to be heard by God or to be heard by man?
I believe many people think they are Christian, but they are just lost religious churchgoers. In the same way, many people do good works but it means nothing to God. Why? It means nothing because the heart does not align with the act. Why do you do the things that you do? You can't love if the heart is not right.
20. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 "If I speak human or angelic languages but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body in order to boastbut do not have love, I gain nothing."
21. Proverbs 23:6-7 "Do not eat the food of a begrudging host, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of person who is always thinking about the cost. "Eat and drink," he says to you, but his heart is not with you."
22. Proverbs 26:25 "They pretend to be kind, but don't believe them. Their hearts are full of many evils."
23. John 12:5-6 "Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it."
Open rebuke is better than secret love
Love is bold and honest. Love encourages, love compliments, love is kind, but we must never forget that love will rebuke. Love is going to call others to repentance. Love proclaims the full extent of the gospel and does not sugarcoat. It is unbearable when someone proclaims repentance and I hear someone say, "only God can judge." "Why are you filled with hate?" What they are actually saying is allow me to sin in peace. Allow to me to go to hell. Tough love says what needs to be said.
I preach on what the Bible says about smoking weed, adultery, drunkenness, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, etc. not because I hate but because I love. If you're a doctor and you find out that someone has cancer are you not going to tell them out of fear? If a doctor knowingly knows about a patient's serious condition and he doesn't tell them, then he is wicked, he is going to lose his license, he is going to be fired, and he should be thrown in jail.
As believers who claim to love others how can we look at dead men who will spend eternity in hell and not preach to them the gospel? Our love should lead us to witness because we don't want to see our friends, family members, and others go to hell. Many people might hate you for trying to save their life but who cares? There is a reason that Jesus said that you will be persecuted.
On the cross in the midst of the persecution Jesus said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." That is what we should imitate. If you see someone about to fall off a cliff into a lake of fire would you be silent? Every day you see people who are heading to hell, but you say nothing.
True friends are going to tell you what you need to hear not what you want to hear. I want to end this section with this. Love is bold. Love is honest. However, love is not mean-spirited. There is a way to lovingly call others to repentance and tell them to turn from their sin without trying to argue. Our speech should be filled with grace and kindness.
24. Proverbs 27:5-6 "Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses."
25. 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."
What the Bible Says About Loving Others
Source: https://biblereasons.com/loving-others/