Scripture teaches that love is a fundamental aspect of God's nature, as seen in 1 John 4:8, which states that God is love. Jesus commands His followers to love their enemies, as recorded in Matthew 5:44 and Luke 6:27, demonstrating the profound impact of love on relationships. In contrast, hatred towards others is warned against, with 1 John 2:15 cautioning against loving the world. The apostle Paul beautifully describes the characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, highlighting its selfless and enduring nature.
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But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Hate evil, O you who love the LORD! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him.
To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate arrogant pride, evil conduct, and perverse speech.
You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.