Love. God is love (quotes from the New Testament) God is love and abiding

The commandment of all commandments, Christ taught, is love for God with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength, and love for your neighbor, which has as its source love for God. The teaching of Christ was the path to love, His life was an example of love, His death was a revelation of new, sacrificial love, His Resurrection was a guarantee that love in the Christian community has an inexhaustible source.

Man is created in the image of God and must conform to the attributes of his Creator. That is why man is commanded to love God and his neighbor created in the image of God. The commandments of love are called by the Savior the greatest commandments: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind: this is the first and greatest commandment; the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself.”(). Love for God and neighbor in Christianity is achieved through union with God. It is called the fruit of the action of God Himself in man: “God is Love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him”(). Love is the fruit of the action of the Holy Spirit in the human heart. Since love presupposes a living union of man and God, it leads to the knowledge of God and is called theological virtue.

Love is the foundation of the Christian life. Without it, the Christian feat and all virtues are meaningless: “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and have all knowledge and all faith, so that I could move mountains, but do not have love, then I am nothing. And if I give away all my property and give my body to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good.” ().

The main signs of Christian love are defined by the apostle: “Love is long-suffering, it is kind, love does not envy, love is not arrogant, is not proud, does not act rudely, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” ().

There are four verbs in the Greek language to capture the different aspects of the feeling of love in a word: Στοργη (bargaining), έ̉ρος (eros), φιλία (philia), αγάπη (agapi).
Philia (φιλία) - friendly love, eros (ἔρως) - aspirational love (usually understood only as sensual love); storgi (στοργή) - love within the family, clan, friends, loved ones; agapi (ἀγάπη) - spiritual love, love-respect, good attitude (this is the word that was chosen by the Savior to fill it with a new meaning of spiritual love).

Does Divine love imply forgiveness?

As the Infinite One, God possesses the fullness of limitless perfections (see for more details:). In this sense, He is called the All-Perfect. Love is one of His perfections, one of the Divine properties ().

The boundless love of God is poured out on all of His creation, including people. Both in relation to the world and in relation to man, this property is manifested in the sending of blessings, revealing itself in all His deeds. Divine love was manifested in a special way in the work of man ().

However, in order to live in the Kingdom of Heaven, a person must be internally prepared for this. Willingness implies nothing more than a special state of mind, the desire to live in love with God and the reluctance to live in.

If any sinner does not want to be freed from sins and vices, does not strive to live a righteous life, does not listen to God, is at enmity with his neighbors, then what should he do in the Kingdom of Saints? After all, life in this Kingdom implies exactly the opposite.

The sentencing of lawless people to eternal stay in hell will not be an externally (legally) imposed punishment, but will be fully consistent with their internal moral state and attitude.

This will also reveal God’s goodness, love, and mercy. Strange as it may seem, but according to the fathers, although unrepentant sinners will have to suffer in hell, if they were not in hell, but in Paradise, their suffering would be much more painful.

Gospel according to Matthew ():
43 You have heard that it was said: love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
44 But I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you,
45 May you be sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
46 For if you love those who love you, what will be your reward? Don't publicans do the same?
47 And if you greet only your brothers, what special thing are you doing? Don't the pagans do the same?
48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

archpriest:
Love is the goal. Fighting passions is the way. Prayer is the driving force.

Archpriest Maxim Kozlov:
True love is the desire for an eternal life for a loved one and only one person; the desire is such that it surpasses and conquers everything, that for its sake you can forget about everything and endure everything else, including from this person.

reverend:
...do not demand love from your neighbor, for the one who demands (it) is embarrassed if he does not meet it; but it’s better that you yourself show love for your neighbor, and you will calm down, and in this way you will lead your neighbor to love.

reverend:
If you find that there is no love in you, but you want to have it, then do deeds of love, although at first without love. The Lord will see your desire and effort and put love into your heart.

Hieromonk Macarius (Markish):
Love is an internal principle of Christian life, inseparable from it itself. In the analogy of building a building, love should be likened to bricks or cement.

archpriest:
If we do not learn to love, then all of our Christianity is imaginary and exaggerated, it is self-deception and stupidity, the same Judaism. I, he says, go to church. And a Buddhist goes to temple. I, he says, pray. But a Muslim also prays. I give alms. But the Baptist also gives. I'm polite. Well, the Japanese are polite, pagans, and a thousand times more polite. They have taken this to an absolute level. So what is your Christianity? Show me. Christianity lies in only one thing, which is not found anywhere else: true Christianity lies in love.
There is no such commandment anywhere, because people always perceive love as a certain feeling. How can you command a feeling? It either exists or it doesn’t. Today I woke up with one feeling, tomorrow – with another. And how can you force yourself to love? No way, this is a completely impossible task. And Christ says: “I command you this” - He gave us such a commandment. And He gave us this path: “As you want people to do to you, do so to them.” If we apply this golden rule in life all the time, we will gradually understand what, in fact, is required of us in words, in thoughts, and in feelings. And everything that resists this in us must be swept aside, no matter how difficult it is. The difficulty is that sin has become our being. It has become characteristic of us, it has become our second nature. Therefore, everything in us resists the grace of God. But we still need to try not to obey the devil, but God. Of course, it is very difficult, under the influence of faith alone, to change your entire nature to a new one. If it were not for the Lord, this would be completely impossible. But He came to earth, founded it, which feeds us with its own - from them we receive the power of God, and with the help of the power of God all this can be accomplished.

:
God's love for man is so great that it cannot force, for there is no love without respect... Such is the Divine, and the classical image will seem very weak to anyone who has felt in God a beggar begging for love, waiting at the door of the soul and never daring to break it open.

reverend:
Love is not a property of the Divine, love is the essence of the Divine, and man, created in the image of God, must have love as his essence. Otherwise, he is a subhuman, half-human.

reverend():
People love each other praiseworthy or blameworthy for the following five reasons: or for God, - how the virtuous loves everyone, and even the unvirtuous loves the virtuous; or by nature, – how parents love their children, and vice versa; or out of vanity, - as one who praises one who praises; or out of self-interest, like a rich man for a salary; or by voluptuousness, - like one who works in the belly, and one who gives feasts to that which is under the belly. The first of these is commendable, the second is mutual, the others are passionate.

prot. James Bernstein:
Fundamental to Christianity is the postulate that “God is love” (). Followers of the monotheistic religions, Judaism and Islam, also believe that God loves. Jews, when asked who or what He loves, answer - His creation. However, the Orthodox emphasizes precisely that God is love. That is, love reveals to us the secret of the very essence of God and tells us what He was like before the appearance of the universe and time. He loved even before he created. So love is not an expression of His will directed towards creation. This is an integral part of His nature.

:
Only when love is so deep, fiery, bright, full of such joy and spaciousness that it can include those who hate us - actively, actively, evilly hating us - then our love becomes Christ's. Christ came into the world to save sinners, i.e. precisely those who, if not in word, then in life, turned away from God and hated Him. And He continued to love them when they responded to His preaching with mockery and anger. He continued to love them in the Garden of Gethsemane, on that terrible night of atonement, when He stood before His death, which He accepted precisely for the sake of these people who hated Him. And He did not waver in love when, dying on the cross, surrounded by anger and ridicule, abandoned, he prayed to the Father: “Forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing!” This is not only the love of Christ, His own love; This is the love that He commanded us, in other words, He left us as an inheritance: to die so that others would believe in this love and in its invincible power.

1.JUSTICE without Love makes a person CRUEL.
2. IS IT TRUE without Love makes a person CRITICAN.
3. UPBRINGING without Love makes a person TWO-FACED.
4. MIND without Love makes a person Cunning.
5. WELCOME without Love makes a person HYPOCRITICAL.
6. COMPETENCE without Love makes a person INCOMPLETE.
7. POWER without Love makes a person A RAPIST.
8. HONOR without Love makes a person arrogant.
9.WEALTH without Love makes a person GREEDY.
10. FAITH without Love makes a person A FANATIC.
11. DUTY without Love makes a person IRRITANT
12. RESPONSIBILITY without Love makes a person UNCEREMONY

Word from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill after the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on Friday of the first week of Great Lent

On March 11, 2011, on Friday of the first week of Great Lent, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' celebrated the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the Church of the Holy Blessed. Tsarevich Dimitri at the 1st City Hospital in Moscow. At the end of the service, the Primate of the Russian Church addressed those gathered with a Primate’s word.

Your Eminence, venerable Bishop Panteleimon! Dear fathers, brothers and sisters!

I rejoice at the opportunity to perform the Divine service during the first week of Great Lent here, in the St. Demetrius Church, in the community of Sisters of Charity, in a community where there are so many children who are students of the church high school, in a community that, perhaps, does more things in the city of Moscow mercy than any other Moscow parish.

We are completing the first week of Great Lent and completing this week’s reading of the great prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian “Lord and Master of my life...”. And when Saint Ephraim, with his inspired words, calls us to ask God for mercy, to ask God for a gift, we remember love: “Give spirit... love to me, Thy servant.”

The word “love” is used in everyday life so often and in such different contexts that modern people are no longer able to clearly understand its meaning. Like many holy things, by the power of the devil this word is often desecrated and devalued in human life. But this does not make the concept of love any less significant. As the Apostle John the Theologian tells us, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16), and this is an exhaustive definition of love.

Even if only these words were revealed to us, they would certainly give us the opportunity to touch the greatest Divine secret, but much would remain incomprehensible. The Lord deigned to reveal to us something more about His life - it is this Revelation of God about Himself that gives us a full understanding of what love is. The Lord sends His Only Begotten Son to sacrifice Himself for the sins of people (see: John 3:16; 1 John 4:9). He doesn’t send because he has to. Sends not because it is expedient. He sends not because this makes up for some loss of logic in the historical existence of the human race, but only because He loves His creation. It is through the Lord Jesus Christ that we learn that love is sacrifice.

But we also learn something very important. God reveals Himself to us as One in essence, but Trinity in Persons. We believe in the Holy Trinity, the inner law of life of which is love, uniting three Persons with a single nature. This is an absolute, unclouded and indivisible unity, and therefore we can say that love is unity. The unity of the persons of the Holy Trinity is achieved through internal communication, and therefore we can also say that love is a unity that is achieved through the communication of people.

So love is sacrifice, it is communication and it is unity. God was pleased to reveal these sublime Divine dogmas in human life, and through the redemptive merits of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, He recreates the image of Divine love in earthly human life. He creates the Church - a community of His followers who, through communication with God and with each other, achieve unity. We find this unity when we all together celebrate the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Savior. By partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, we become one body, we become a community living and existing in the image of God.

But in real life everything is not so simple. Where the Holy Spirit acts and where disparate people, different in their position, nationality, age, culture, and language, become united in the image of the Holy Trinity, sin also acts there at the same time. On the one hand, the Church, while on earth, embodies and expresses this unity in the image of the Holy Trinity; on the other hand, people who are baptized and are members of the Church very often do not have the strength to realize and show this unity to the world outside the sacrament of the Church, outside the Holy Eucharist, outside the church, where life begins filled with unrest and conflicts.

In order for us to be able to truly realize the unity we have acquired in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist with each other and with God in the life of this world, we must also remember that love is a sacrifice. And if we find ourselves capable of giving a piece of ourselves, sacrificing our time, our attention, our love, our means - sacrificing to those who need it, then we will live outside the temple according to the law of love.

What happens in this community is very important, because there is a school of sisters of mercy here, here the students of this school learn to understand what it means to give a piece of their heart to others, to share their lives with others, to sacrifice something that they themselves need. We must remember - and perhaps first of all those who take upon themselves the great responsibility of serving mercy - that through this sacrifice that we make to people, God gives us His love.

Mercy is a school of love. The modern world, modern society sometimes asks itself in bewilderment why in our enlightened age, when almost everyone has an education, when science has reached such heights, we see so much suffering, crime, family tragedies, human grief. And you don’t need to be a philosopher to say: neither education, nor strength, nor power, nor money - all that is so desirable for modern man - are unable to give people love, are unable to bring them happiness. And no matter how unfashionable the lifestyle that you lead in your community may be, no matter how skeptically someone looks at you, not sharing your ideals, remember that through the sacrifice that you make to God, you are given the great grace-filled power of love. It is this power that will help you in life. She will help you create and maintain your families. And if someone remains lonely, it will help avoid feelings of despondency and direct your attention to the things that are so important - to the works of mercy.

“Lord and Master of my life, grant the spirit of love to me, Your servant.” Let us ask the Lord to strengthen our strength and help us to accept this great gift, which contains a particle of Divine life, and through this gift, with our hearts and minds, to feel and accept God, Who is love. Amen.

Vitaly, thank God for your desire to know the Truth.

To answer the question, I suggest looking at the context of the message where this thought occurs. And then we will study the material within the framework of the passage of the letter of John.

Let's look at the context of 1 John chapter 4

7 Beloved! let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.
9 The love of God for us was revealed in this, that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might receive life through him.
10 This is love, that we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved! if God loved us so much, then we should love each other.
12 No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, then God abides in us, and His love is perfect in us.
13 We know that we abide in Him and He in us by what He has given us of His Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 And we knew and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17 Love reaches such perfection in us that we have boldness on the day of judgment, because we walk in this world as He does.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is torment. He who fears is imperfect in love.
19 Let us love Him, because He first loved us.
20 He who says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21 And we have this commandment from Him, that whoever loves God should also love his brother.
1 John 4

LOVE

Not one Apostle spoke as often about love as John.

All his messages are filled with a call to love.

The story has been preserved that when John was old and very weak, they brought him to church, and while preaching he always said:

“Children, love each other. This is the Lord's commandment."

In the above passage, John returns to his favorite theme of love as the leading theme of the letter. He insists that salvation by the grace of Christ does not free us from the obligation to obey Christ's commandments.

The main commandment of Christ is love.

• We know Christ if we keep His commandments (2:3).
• “Whoever says, ‘I know Him, but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him’” (2:4).
• And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments (3:22).
• And His commandment is that we...love one another (2:23).
• He who keeps His commandments abides in Him (3:24).
• And we have this commandment from Him, that whoever loves God should also love his brother (4:21).
• For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments (5:3).

1. Love is from God (4.7)

All love comes from God, Who Himself is love. As the English commentator A.E. Brooke put it: “Human love is a reflection of some Divine essence.” We are closest to God when we love. Clement of Alexandria once said something astonishing: that a true Christian “trains himself to become God.”

• He who abides in love abides in God (4:16).
• Man is created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26).

God is love and, therefore, in order to be like God, and in order to be what he, in fact, should be, a person must also love.

2. Love is connected with God in two ways.

Only by knowing God can one learn to love, and only one who loves can know God (4.7.8).

Love comes from God and love leads to God.

3. God is known by love (4:12).

We cannot see God because He is Spirit, but we can see what He does.
We can't see the wind, but we can see what it can do. We cannot see electricity, but we see its effect.

The influence exerted by God is love. When God dwells in a person, the person is convicted by the love of God and the love of people. God is known through His influence on that person. Someone has said, “A saint is a man in whom Christ lives again,” and the best demonstration of the existence of God is not a series of proofs, but a life full of love.

4. The love of God was revealed to us in Jesus Christ (4:9).

In Jesus we see two aspects of God's love.

a) This is unconditional love. God, in His love, could offer His only Son as a sacrifice that nothing could compare to.

b) This is completely undeserved love. It is not surprising that we love God if we remember all His gifts to us, even before Jesus Christ; it is amazing that He loves such poor and disobedient creatures as we are.

5. Human love is a response to God's love (4:19).

We love because God loved us.

His love makes us want to love Him as He first loved us, and our fellow men as He loves them.

6. There is no fear in love; when love comes, fear goes away (4:17.18).

Fear is the feeling of someone who expects punishment. As long as we see in God the Judge, the King, the Lawgiver, there is only room in our heart for fear, for such
We can only wait for God to punish us. But when we learned the true nature of God, love swallowed up fear. All that remains is the fear of disappointing His love for us.

7. The love of God is inextricably linked with the love of man (4.7.11.20.21).

As the English commentator Dodd beautifully put it: “The forces of love form a triangle, the vertices of which are God, self, and neighbor.” If God loves us, then we must love each other. John directly states that a person who claims to love God but hates his brother is a liar. There is only one way to prove your love for God - to love the people He loves.

There is only one way to prove that God dwells in our hearts - to constantly show love to people.

GOD IS LOVE

In this passage we encounter perhaps the greatest characteristic of God in the entire Bible—God is love. It's amazing how many new paths this phrase opens up and how many questions it answers.

1. It explains the act of creation.

Sometimes we simply begin to wonder why God created this world. Disobedience and complete lack of reciprocity on the part of man constantly disappoints and oppresses Him. Why did He need to create a world that brings nothing but troubles and worries?

There is only one answer to this - creation was an integral part of His very nature. If God is love, then He cannot exist completely alone.

Love requires someone to love and to be loved.

2. It provides an explanation of free will.

True love is a free mutual feeling.

If God were only law, He could create a world in which people moved like automatons, without any choice. But if God created people this way, He could not have any personal relationship with them. Love must necessarily be the free reciprocity of the heart, and therefore God, in a conscious act of self-restraint, endowed people with free will.

3. It provides an explanation for the phenomenon of providence.

If God were simply reason, order, and law, He could, so to speak, create the universe, “start it, set it in motion, and leave it.”

There are things and devices that we buy only to put them somewhere and forget about them; The best thing about them is that you can leave them and they will work on their own. But precisely because God is love, for
His act of creation was love.

4. It explains the phenomenon of atonement.

If God were only law and justice, He would simply leave people with the consequences of their sin.

The moral law comes into effect - the soul that has sinned will die, and eternal justice will inexorably inflict punishment. But the very fact that God is love meant that He wanted to find and save what was lost. He had to find a remedy for sin.

5. She gives an explanation of the afterlife.

If God were simply the Creator, people could live for their short period of time and die forever.

A life extinguished too soon would be like a flower withered too soon by the cold breath of death. But the very fact that God is love is proof that the accidents and problems of life are not the last word, and that love will balance this life.

SON OF GOD AND SAVIOR OF MEN

Before moving from this passage to the next, let us note what it says about Jesus Christ.

About Love for God and neighbor - Natalia Belyanova specially for “Orthodox Life”. Together with her husband, priest Sergius Belyanov, they have been together for 20 years and have been publishing the children's Orthodox magazine “Droplets” for about 10 years.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)
IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD...and THE WORD WAS GOD!

Good, kind words can transform a person - transform them in the literal sense of the word.
There is such a holiday - “Transfiguration of the Lord.” When Christ revealed Himself to His disciples in His glory, He miraculously transformed into a light silver robe, emitting an amazing Divine glow.
If the Gospel “The Word is God” is true, then the word is really capable of changing and transforming. Literally. For some, it may be a matter of faith. Anyone who has at least once felt how a word can influence a situation, life circumstances, change a person or inspire (however, as well as humiliate and offend a person...), will never be able to be indifferent to words, consider them “an empty phrase.” If a person does not think about, does not understand or does not feel the physical effect of the words we speak, this does not mean that the words do not affect him. Most likely, such a person is either simply not observant, or not deep-thinking, or perhaps hard-hearted, which is called “petrified in soul.”
The influence of words on pure souls – on children – is especially noticeable. Children have a great sense of the Word and words. Do adults need something like this? Of course it is necessary.

Are words of love even necessary? Certainly! Words of kindness, words of love and warmth, support and approval, in the best Divine understanding of their meaning, are needed by everyone, regardless of age, education and spiritual development.

“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” (John 4:16)
GOD = WORD = LOVE

Of course, if words are spoken in vain, not confirmed by deeds, actions, feelings, then such words have no power. This already relates to the sin of idle talk. But this is a separate topic.
For me, “talking” and “confirming words with deeds” are the same thing. I try to make it this way, as much as I can, in a Christian way. This is constant, continuous work. This is a search. This is the way. On which, sometimes, you stumble and get lost... But it’s still a joyful and necessary path. One elder said that virtue is of two types - innate and acquired; both types are good, both benefit a person.
This is true. Any habit (good or bad) eventually becomes our second nature, a way of life. Good habits benefit the person himself and those around him.

Saying words of love, support and approval as often as possible is very important! This is why man was given language. We, as creatures of God, were created by Him to live glorifying God - both in words and in deeds. But words of love cannot come from us that are addressed only to God and not addressed to our neighbor. This is somehow not God’s way. In confirmation of this there are two main Commandments given by the Lord Jesus Christ: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is similar to it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets are based on these two commandments” (Matthew 2:37-40).

SHOULD I TELL (or not tell) FIRST?

Yes, talk. Let everyone be the first, let our words of love be heard by our neighbors - parents, old people, grandparents, husband, wife, children, those around us. If you love it when your neighbors smile, speak up! The more you give, the more you are filled. In this, human strength, wisely arranged by God, is strengthened, the family is strengthened, and happiness is acquired. The Gospel says: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We are told to “love,” not “receive and expect.” If you do not draw from a water source, it will become silted, clogged with dirt and may dry out. And the man? The structure of the most complex mechanism is unique, subtle, inimitable, ingenious, like God’s creation.
Love for a person is completeness and happiness, the power of God Himself, when we become a PART of Himself. Can a human unique “source” of words and speech remain silent? In several chapters of the Gospel, different evangelists repeat one important thought: “A good man brings good things out of a good treasure, and an evil man brings evil things out of an evil treasure, for out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Like this. The heart is not filled with anything - and there is nothing to say.
Simple words addressed to your neighbor: “I love you”, “how good you are”, “the best”, “hugs”, “I miss”, “I’m waiting”, “very, very, very”, “very, very, very much” "… etc. - it’s as simple and as important as adding salt and spices to food to make it tastier and healthier.

“But let your word be: yes, yes; no no; and anything beyond this is from the evil one.”
According to the Bible, at the very beginning, as soon as human history began, people spoke a little differently. The ancient old man Adam speaks simply. “And the man said, Behold, this is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she will be called woman, for she was taken from man.” (Bible, 2, 23). All. But even in such words one can hear poetry and a warm, tender attitude towards his wife. Why were these words included in the Bible? Apparently, these were important words: “yes, yes.”
Then people were just beginning to master speech, to come up with new names and words. Since then, man has become more developed, more refined, and, in the Gospel way, new. Today, speech has developed incredibly, both spoken and written. Perhaps today, starting to speak in simplified terms means returning to the dilapidated and depleting.
The modern world sets new goals, dictates new terms of communication, more and more displacing God and filling the voids with material things. This is noticeable even in the field of linguistics. Our contemporaries, more than ever, need warm and kind words. This is a physical, life-giving necessity - to introduce God the Word, the words of God-Love, into your speech! This is the direct responsibility of a person. A vital need for balance and harmony, for strengthening the power of God in each of us, for strengthening and increasing love! A vital necessity in the Name and Glory of the Lord, in confirmation of love for one’s neighbor - so that we all feel HAPPY!

The definition of love in the New Testament is given by the Apostle Paul:
If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, then I am a ringing brass, or a sounding cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries, and have all knowledge, and all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but do not have love, then I am nothing. 3 And if I give away all my goods and give my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, it is kind, love does not envy, love does not boast, it is not proud, 5 it does not behave unruly, it does not seek its own, it is not provoked, it does not think evil. 6 He does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; 7 He bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails, although prophecies cease, and tongues are silent, and knowledge is abolished. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will cease. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; and when he became a husband, he left behind his children. 12 Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; Now I know in part, but then I will know, even as I am known. 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope, love; but love is the greatest of them all. FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS BY THE HOLY APOSTLE PAUL Chapter 13.

In answer to the scribe’s question about the greatest, most important of all the commandments, Jesus Christ calls the greatest two commandments, about loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. The spirit of these two commandments permeates the entire messianic teaching of Christ.

37 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 The second is similar to it: Love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Matthew 22:37-40

Beatitudes

* 3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven...
* 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
* 5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
* 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.
* 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
* 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
* 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
* 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
* 11 Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and slander you in every way unjustly because of Me.
* 12 Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven: even so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Mt 5:3-12)

Other commandments of the Sermon on the Mount:

* 21 You have heard that it was said to the ancients: Do not kill; whoever kills will be subject to judgment.
* 22 But I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother without cause will be subject to judgment; whoever says * to his brother: “cancer” is subject to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says: “madman” is subject to fiery hell.
* 23 So, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something * against you,
* 24 Leave your gift there before the altar, and go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
* 25 Make peace with your adversary quickly, while you are still on the way with him, lest your adversary hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the servant, and they throw you into prison;
* 26 Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid the last coin.
* 27 You have heard that it was said to the ancients: You shall not commit adultery.
* 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
* 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away from you, for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell.
* 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you, for it is better for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body should be cast into hell.
* 31 It is also said that if anyone divorces his wife, he should give her a divorce decree.
* 32 But I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for the guilt of adultery, gives her cause to commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
* 33 Again you have heard what was said to the ancients: Do not break your oath, but fulfill your oaths before the Lord.
* 34 But I say to you: do not swear at all: not by heaven, for it is the throne of God;
* 35 nor the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King;
* 36 Do not swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black.
* 37 But let your word be: yea, yea; no no; and anything beyond this is from the evil one.
* 38 You have heard that it was said: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
* 39 But I say to you: do not resist evil. But whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other also to him;
* 40 And whoever wants to sue you and take your shirt, give him your outer garment too;
* 41 And whoever forces you to go one mile with him, go with him two miles.
* 42 Give to the one who asks from you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
* 43 You have heard that it was said: Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
* 44 But I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you,
* 45 May you be sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
* 46 For if you love those who love you, what will be your reward? Don't publicans do the same?
* 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what special thing are you doing? Don't the pagans do the same?
* 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Mt 5:21-48)

* 1 Be careful that you do not do your alms in front of people so that they will see you: otherwise you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

* 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

* 6 But you, when you pray, go into your room and, having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly.

* 14 For if you forgive people their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
* 15 But if you do not forgive people their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
* 16 Also, when you fast, do not be sad, like the hypocrites, for they put on gloomy faces in order to appear to people as fasting. Truly I tell you that they are already receiving their reward.
* 17 And you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
* 18 That you may appear to those who fast, not before men, but before your Father who is in secret; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly.
* 19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal,
* 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal,
* 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

* 24 No one can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other; or he will be zealous for one and neglectful of the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
* 25 Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will wear. Is not the life more than food, and the body than clothing? (Mt 6, 1, 3, 6, 14-21, 24-25)

*1 Judge not, lest ye be judged,
* 2 For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
* 3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not feel the plank in your own eye?
* 4 Or how will you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” and behold, there is a beam in your eye?
* 5 Hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see how to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

* 21 Not everyone who says to Me: “Lord!” Lord!”, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. (Matthew 7: 1-5, 21)

Other commandments of Jesus Christ

* 8 But you are not called teachers, for you have one Teacher - Christ, yet you are brothers;
* 9 And call no one on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven;
* 10 And do not be called teachers, for you have only one teacher - Christ.
* 11 Let the greatest of you be your servant:
* 12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

(Mt 23:8-12)

* 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, let you also love one another.