Love
WHAT IS LOVE?
“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend
over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather
does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis
too.” Rebecca – age 8
What love means to four eight year old…
“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on
shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.”
Karl – age 5
What love means to four eight year old…
“Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and
she takes a sip before giving it to him to make sure it taste
OK.” Danny - age 7
What love means to four eight year old…
“Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he
wears it everyday.” Noelle - age 7
What love means to four eight year old…
“Love is when Daddy gives Mommy the best piece of
chicken.” Elaine - age 5
What love means to four eight year old…
“I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all
her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.”
Lauren - age 4
What love means to four eight year old…
“Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and
doesn’t think its gross.” Mark – age 6
What love means to four eight year old…
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1,350,000,000 hits
1,960,000,000 songs
2, 750,000,000 books
1,650,000,000 movies
59, 000, 000 poems
Google Love…
“Love is the most used and neglected word in all the world.”
- Anonymous
Love
Stuff I love:
Stuff I love:
Stuff I love:
What does the
Bible say about
love?
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KJV – 310 in 280 verses
ESV – 551 in 505 verses
NLT – 641 in 575 verses
NIV – 567 in 526 verses
The Bible on Love:
• Old Testament Hebrew
• Ahab – strong (inward) emotional attachment to and desire
either to possess or to be in the presence of the object. A
strong affection and commitment to an object.
• Family, friend, romantic, sexual,
• New Testament Greek
• Eros – sensual, sexual, intimate love (NOT IN NT)
• Phileo – To approve of, to be affectionate toward, to show
signs of love to, to welcome.
• Friends, family, spouse children
• Agape - selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love, unearned
love that God has toward us.
Bible languages:
“Love is a verb” – John Mayer
Defining love:
• Can acts of love be done but no love be in them?
• Does motive matter?
Questions
• God is love.” 1 John 4:8
What …Who is Love
• “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life.” (John 3:16)
• “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us,
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1
John 3:16)
Love in action…
Illustration
• God is love, and love is from God. Therefore, loving
others is doing whatever it takes for them to have as
much of God as they can.
Jon Bloom: “Desiring God”
• 1 Corinthians 13:1-13
“…but have not love…”
The “Love” passage
1. Words
2. Time
3. Gifts
4. Touch
5. Service
Five Love Languages
• God is love and therefore our source of love. And the
kind of love we all need, Agape. Our tanks, and those of
others we desire to fill, will forever be empty if we are
filled with anything or anyone but Him.
Summary
Love
SESSION 2
“You really shouldn’t say “I love you” unless you mean it.
But if you mean it, you should say it a lot because people
forget.” – Jessica age 8
What love means to four eight year old…
‘During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared.
I looked at all the people watching mE anD saw my daddy
waving and smiling and stuff. He was the only one doing
that. I wasn’t scared anymore. – Cindy 9
What love means to four eight year old…
“Love is when mommy sees daddy sweaty and smell and
still says he as good lookin’ as Robert Redford.
Chris – age 7
What love means to four eight year old…
“Love is what makes you smile even when your tired.”
Terri – age 4
What love means to four eight year old…
Re-Cap Last Week
“Love is a verb” – John Mayer
Defining love:
• Love is a noun.
• God is love.” 1 John 4:8
What …Who is Love
• “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that
whoever believes in him should not perish but have
eternal life.” (John 3:16)
• “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us,
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” (1
John 3:16)
Love in action…
• Old Testament Hebrew
• Ahab – strong (inward) emotional attachment to and desire
either to possess or to be in the presence of the object. A
strong affection and commitment to an object.
• Family, friend, romantic, sexual,
• New Testament Greek
• Eros – sensual, sexual, intimate love (NOT IN NT)
• Phileo – To approve of, to be affectionate toward, to show
signs of love to, to welcome.
• Friends, family, spouse children
• Agape - selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love, unearned
love that God has toward us.
Bible languages:
• God is love and therefore our source of love. And the
kind of love we all need, Agape. Our tanks, and those of
others we desire to fill, will forever be empty if we are
filled with anything or anyone but Him.
Summary
God’s love for God
“Gods love for his glory is the foundation of His love for Us”
- John Piper
God’s Love for His Glory
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1 Samuel 12:22
Isaiah 48:9,11
Ephesians 1:6, 12, and 14
1 Corinthians 10:31
God’s love for His glory
No wonder she married me…
• God is Holy
• Isaiah 6:3
• Nothing or no one is comparable to him
• Set apart
God’s Holiness
• The shining forth of his holiness
• It is the manifest display of his worth and beauty
• His glory is his holiness on display
God’s glory
• When we understand how great God is we will want
others to know Him and thus really love them.
• God knows he is the greatest so it benefits us that God act
out of the love he has for his glory
Discussion points
• Jesus is the incarnation of God’s love for us
• Jesus is “who” and “how” we experience the love of God
• 1 John 4:9-102
God’s love for us
“Jesus said unto them, If God were your
Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded
forth and came from God; neither came I of
myself, but he sent me.”
John 8:42
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13
“but God shows his love for us in that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’
ROMANS 5:8
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For
your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are
regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”37 No, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved
us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels
nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor
powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
ROMANS 8:35-39
“Rather than let scripture remind us of a love we cannot
produce, let it remind us of a love we cannot resist – God’s
love”
Max Lucado
• Our ultimate love for others is that they would know God.
God’s love in us for others
"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another
person is essential to your own." — Robert Heinlein
Love Qoutes
"We're all a little weird, and life's a little weird. And when
we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours,
we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call
it love." — Dr. Seuss
Love Qoutes
"There is no remedy for love but to love more." — Thoreau
Love Quotes
"Love is a serious mental disease." — Plato
Love Quotes
“I’m not a smart man, but I know what love is.”
Forest Gump
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Leviticus 19:18
John 13:35, 15:12, 15:17,
Matthew 5:44
Romans 12:10, 13:8
Galatians 5:14
Ephesians 5:2
1 Thessalonians 4:9-10
1 John 4:1-8
Bible Verses
I Corinthians 13:1-13
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Patient – bear offenses, not to loose heart
Kind – to show one’s self as mild
Not envious/jealous – to burn with zeal
Not arrogant – to boast one’s self, to self display, or to swell up or
puff up
Not rude – to prepare disgrace for
Insist in own way – about him/herself
Irritable or resentful – to provoke to anger, troublesome, injurious,
destructive
Rejoice in wrongdoing – injustice
Rejoices in truth – personal excellence
Attributes
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Bears – to protect
Believes – to place confidence in
Hopes – to trust in
Endures – to bear calmly and courageously ill treatment
Never ends – to fall from a thing
Attributes