7-day plan: Love
God loved us first; from that we learn to love him, our neighbor and even our enemy.
One passage a day, with a question to think it over. Your progress stays on this device, no account needed.
Day 1 · God is love
John says God is love, and his love showed when he sent his Son
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love has not known God, because God is love. By this the love of God was revealed among us: that God has sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been brought to completion in us.
1 John 4:7–12 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
John writes that perfect love casts out fear (v. 18). What fear would you like to hand to God today?
Day 2 · What love is like
Paul describes love: patient, kind, without envy or pride
Love is patient, is kind; love does not envy; love does not brag, is not puffed up; it does not behave improperly, does not seek its own interests, is not provoked, does not keep a record of evil; it does not rejoice at unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Which word or phrase stays with you, and why?
Day 3 · Loving God
Listen, Israel: love God with all your heart, soul and strength
Hear, Israel: YHWH our Elohim, YHWH is one. You shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words that I am commanding you today shall be on your heart.
Deuteronomy 6:4–6 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What situation in your life does this passage speak to?
Day 4 · Loving your neighbor
Already in the law: no vengeance or grudge, love your neighbor as yourself
You shall not take vengeance, and you shall not bear a grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am YHWH.
Leviticus 19:18 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
What does it invite you to do today, even something small?
Day 5 · Loving your enemies
Jesus asks us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? So you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43–48 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Jesus says, “Love your enemies” (v. 44). What small gesture could you offer today to someone you find hard to like?
Day 6 · God is love
God gave his only Son so that everyone who believes has life
For God loved the world in this way: that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Jesus speaks of those who come to the light and those who prefer darkness (vv. 19-21). What helps you live with more clarity and truth?
Day 7 · What love is like
Without love, even the greatest gifts and sacrifices count for nothing
If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I have become a resounding bronze gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy and know all the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away as food all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I will be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1–3 · Read the whole chapterTo think about
Looking back over the week, what changed in how you see this topic?