Honor, Praise and Worship to God

Anthony the Great makes some thought provoking insights in his interpretation of 1 John 4. even though we can do what we want to others, influence their decisions with lavish presents or hurt them, we cannot do anything to God, influence Him with physical gifts, or hurt God. Nevertheless, there are some, who when becoming a Christian, expected to love others naturally. However, when they could not, they judged themselves as failed

‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two precepts hang all the law and the prophets’ (Mathew 22.37, 38, 39, 40). ‘By this all men know that they are my disciples, if ye have love one to another’ (John 13.35) …’He who loveth God loveth his brother also’ (1 John 4.21) …’If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar’ (1 John 4.20) …The first thing that takes our attention is the saying of Jesus, ‘Thou shalt love,’ etc. (501-2)

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

God loved and care for His creation of humanity so much, that He sent Himself to earth in human form, Jesus Christ the messiah to save all people of all nations. God as Jesus develop human relationships with the people around Him, especially the twelve disciples who he sent out to proclaim the message of God’s kingdom. Jesus even spoke to the disciples about loving him more than they would ever love their wife or children before Him. God wanted to be your first love before anyone else in your life, he wanted a lasting deep relationship in your life, He wanted to actively involve with humanity. God loved humanity and wanted an eternal bond with His creation “that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall

All of this stems from a love for God that is to be a sacrificial love, an unconditional love. A love that puts God’s agenda ahead of his own. It is a love for

God loves us and He does not want anyone of us to perish but He wants us to have eternal life with Him and so He his Son to die for us and pay for our sins (John 3:16). In order to have eternal life, we have to accept Jesus in our life and believe

Another personal favorite scripture is also written in the gospel of John, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life (3:16). John is emphasizing the relationship between Father [God] and Son [Jesus]. He is saying that the Son has come from the Father and in order to see the Father one must first believe in the Son (125).

You can never, ever love enough, as we try each day to give, help, sow, grow, and live good lives. However, the greedy people who suck up all the love without returning the love will remain empty, living worthless lives of loneliness, while being surrounded by many people. The walk of love towards God is a walk for the few to take, who enjoy the peace and pleasure of God's presence,

Love never gives up; and its faith, hope and patience never fail. Love is eternal... when what is perfect comes, what is partial will disappear... Meanwhile, these three remain: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love. (I Cor. 13:7-8, 10, 13)

The Scriptures also tells us how we are to speak the truth: We are to speak it “in love”.What is "love" and how do you speak the truth in it? We might think of "love" simply as doing what benefits others the most. The original Greek word (agape) conveys this. It is like the love which God and Christ manifested for us. They did something for us! God loved us enough to send His son to this earth as the only acceptable, perfect sacrifice for sins. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Christ loved us enough to suffer the cruelest kind of death to pay the penalty for our sins. When we are told to love one another as Jesus loved us, we are talking about sacrificial good will. That is

Furthermore, I found this article interesting, “the way of love, -- of loving all men for God's sake, of humble gentle, patient love, -- is that which the Apostle so admirably describes in the ensuing chapter, 1 Corinthians 13. And without this, he assures us, all eloquence, all knowledge, all faith, all works, and all sufferings, are of no more value in the sight of God than sounding brass or a rumbling cymbal, and are not of the least avail toward our eternal salvation. Without this, all we know, all we believe, all we do, all we suffer, will profit us nothing in the great day of

When Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden tree, sin entered the world and that which was once good became corrupted. From that moment, we were separated from God. Yet because we were made in His image and He love us so much, He gave up his one and only son to die on the cross for our sins. One of God’s attributes is His benevolence, which means that He loves and cares about all His creation. He is also merciful, which means that He is very compassionate and tender-hearted towards us. I mention these specific attributes to emphasize the fact that these attributes were also present in the person of Christ. Jesus said, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), meaning that if we want to personally “know the love, the holiness, the power

Inherently, the focus of God is love and to respect His authority is to love Him. Learning to worship God as Trinity involves more than just searching for creative techniques. We need to know about the nature of our triune God if we are to worship him and enjoy him properly (Shaw 79). Often when I feel discouraged, the instinct is to blame God, the creator of everything. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in my own selfishness, that I forget all the things “God” has done, not just for me, but also for the world. His mercy is compassionate love for sinners who do not deserve the redemption in Christ that he offers. His grace likewise speaks of his free favor granted to sinners (Shaw 81). I am also reminded that God is transcendent. He surpasses time and money, earth and space. God is so important, that metaphors are constantly referred to as representing God: God is a rock, God is the light, God is the bread, God is a fortress, God is the potter and we are the clay (GCU text).

The Book of 1 John is a very important book because even thought it was written during the 90 A.D and the authorship of this book has not been discover. It has some meaningful information for the people during that time and is even relevant to the believers and unbeliever of today. The Book of 1 John has many themes displayed throughout this book even though it only has five chapters in the entire book. One of the major themes displayed in this book is love. 1 John 2:7-17 scriptures let us know that God’s greatest command and greatest gift to people is Love. He lets the people of this time that this is not a new commandment because it was required in the Old Testament and it remains in the New Testament. As a believer we must love everyone just as God love us. Another example of love being displayed in 1 John is 3:11-24 when God provided us with a clear example of his love by providing a bad example and a positive example of how love should be. From this example Blomberg mentioned that “We should expect the world to hate us as they hated Christ, but we should lay down our lives for one another if necessary. The next most powerful demonstration of the genuineness of our love comes when we share from the surplus of our material possessions to help those in need (Blomberg. 2006)”. Then lastly, 1 John 4:7-21 talks about love again, that when you love it should be divine and genuine. That love should be displayed in an emotion way but we should also show love to God by obeying

conviction (Example) John 3:16 “For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son, for whom so