• A new commandment – this is not a suggestion
• By this all will know you are My disciples

Love is a decision

Psalm 18:1 “I will love You, O LORD, my strength.”

• Have you made that decision?
• This love is from your inner most being

Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD,

Searching all the inner depths of his heart.

Corporate Love

1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”

• “Let us” indicates a corporate decision
• Everyone who loves is born of God

Fervently Love One Another

1 Peter 1:22-23 “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,”

• What purifies your soul?
• Fervent – G1618 – Intently, without ceasing
• “see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.” (KJV)

The Perfect and Royal Law

James 1:25 “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.”

2:8 “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well;”

• The Perfect Law of Liberty – The person who is totally free is the person that loves.
• The Royal Law of the Scripture

Jesus was moved with compassion

Mark 1:40-42 “Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.”

• Compassion – G4697 – to have the bowels yearn, feel sympathy, to pity

John 7:38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

The Same Love

Philippians 2:1-4 “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

• Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit
• Look out for the interest of others
• What is motivating you?