Truly Knowing God
By Patricia Bankhead
It is not enough to hear of God, to think of God, to speak of God, or even to pray to God; but we must truly know God. To truly know God is to love. You can pray, study the bible, speak in tongues, do good deeds, but without love it is all in vain. 1 Corinthians 13:2, says, If I have not love, I am nothing.
Love is the greatest gift you could ever give or receive, even greater than faith. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE. I Cor 13:13
Jesus commanded us to love, to love God and to love one another, John 15:9-15. He gave us these commands so that we would abide in love- to live in love. And to live in love is to live in God, because God is love.
Now let us delve deeper in love as we go to 1 John 4 and 1 Corinthians 13.
1 John 4 (NKJV)
Knowing God Through Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God's Love Manifested
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Seeing God Through Love
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
The Perfection of Love
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.
Obedience to Love
20 If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he 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 this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
How to Express Love
1 Corinthians 13 (NKJV)
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.
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