Why is love important? - Love - TouchPoints

Genesis 1:26-28Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Leviticus 19:18“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”

Matthew 22:37-40Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

John 13:34“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

1 John 4:7-12Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

Love is important because God is love, and he made us to be like him. We cannot know God or follow God without making that love the guiding center of our lives.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 8, 13If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. . . . Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! . . . Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

Love is important because talents, accomplishments, and even sacrifices governed by any motive other than love will amount to nothing of eternal value. God desires a relationship with us. Obedience without love misses the point.

Hosea 6:6I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.

Micah 6:6-8What can we bring to the Lord? What kind of offerings should we give him? Should we bow before God with offerings of yearling calves? Should we offer him thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children to pay for our sins? No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Matthew 15:8“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”

Matthew 23:23“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”

1 John 4:20If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?

Love is important because throughout the Bible, God criticizes those who claim to follow him but forget to love. Avoiding sin and living a disciplined life is valuable, but if we live life from a checklist rather than loving God and others from our hearts, we miss the point.