Exegetical Version
Pastoral Version

The Whole of Love

A diamond has many faces, and each one catches the light differently. Turn it slightly, and something new shines through. Love in Scripture is like that. The Bible never treats love as a single, flat idea. It presents love as the very nature of God, as the sum of His law, as a command that reaches all the way to our enemies, as the proof of genuine faith, and as evidence that eternal life has already begun.

This study gathers those facets in one place:

• God as the source of all love;
• the great commandment to love Him with all we are;
• the inseparable bond between loving God and loving our neighbor;
• love’s farthest reach, to our enemies;
• love that shows itself in obedience;
• the mercy God desires more than sacrifice;
• the marks of real love;
• love’s connection with eternal life.

The New Testament’s chief word for this love is ἀγάπη. It is not defined by feeling or attraction but by a deliberate, self-giving commitment to the good of another. It is the love God is, the love He commands, and the love He pours into His people by the Holy Spirit.

The aim of the study is practical. It does not stop at defining love. It lets each facet ask something of us: where must the way we love God and one another change, and where should it grow stronger? Love is not learned quickly. It is learned by being loved and by practicing love day after day.

An exegetical version and a pastoral version of this study are both available.