Matthew 22:34-40
The Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
John 3:16
God LOVES the World
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Hebrews 11:6
Without Faith it is Impossible to Please God
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
1 John 4:7-21
God’s LOVE and Our Love
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
Deuteronomy 7:7-9
God is Faithful Keeping His Covenant of LOVE
7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Joshua 21:45
God's Promises Are Kept
45 Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.
Matthew 24:35
God's Word is Kept
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
John 14:6
I AM Truth
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
1 Corinthians 13:8-13
Three of Life's Great Virtues
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
When Jesus teaches us about the Greatest Commandment, He teaches it is to love God and to love our neighbor...Jesus tells us all the Books of the Law, and the Books of the Prophets in our Bibles hang on this commandment...Believing in God has its foundation and basis in love...
God is LOVE...God is a faithful God...He remains faithful to those who love Him and keeps His commandments...It takes faith to please God...These verses tell us believing in God and following Him and His Son require love and faith...
How does one explain love, and how does one explain that God is LOVE...Love is a hard thing to define, explain and even understand...For me it takes faith to help explain love...It also takes trust...When I think of love, I naturally think of God and my wife...I also have faith in my wife...We have had a good life together...I believe in her and what she has done over the years, and that she loves me...Faith and love do go together...I have been married for over thirty plus years and she is a loving and faithful wife...For over thirty years my wife has faithfully stood beside me and loved me...We have been through many challenges...There have been good times and there have been some rougher times...But through all of our times, she loves me...And I have this faith that she loves me...I believe in her and it is because of my love for her...And I completely trust her...If I would give her everything I/we have and entrust her with it...I have faith that she would do the right things with everything we have done together...She has been trustworthy and faithful for thirty some years and it would not be in her character to do something unfaithful and untrustworthy after all these years...
Now God is eternal...He has been around infinitely more thirty some years...I believe that He exists...And I have faith in Him...I also trust Him...I surely believe over time His will is done, and His will gets done...I believe by giving up His Son on the cross, is the most loving thing a Father could do to show His LOVE for others...After all, being our Creator and Father, He understands how we feel about a death of a son and our family members...He feels our tears...I believe in the Bible...I have faith in the Bible...I believe in His Word...I believe that God is love and that He LOVES me...I believe that He sent His Son to us and for us...I believe Jesus has been there for me and my wife in our challenges, as well as our good times...I believe in God and His Son because of love, trust, and faith...Since I believe these things I would find it difficult to forsake Him, and deny that He exists...Joshua wrote that God has always kept His promises, and St. Matthew writes the heaven and earth will pass away, but His Words will never pass away...And His Word remains with us today...For me these things are true and the Truth...God's LOVE never fails...
Now Jesus, who is God's Son says, He is the Truth...And He is the Absolute Standard for goodness...His Son completes our proof...
One cannot see love or touch love...And I have explained love through an example of love and not the actual feeling or feelings of love...I also find it quite mysteriously strange and odd that the greatest things in life cannot be seen and touched (and are intangible), and are so difficult to put into words...So for me, even though that love and faith and trust are all intangible things, they are also very personal things...The Great Commandment is all about LOVE, and love is the foundation of a good life...Loving God and family and friends are so important...And even though these things are difficult to put down in words what they are, they are so important to us in life...When one looks back and reflects on their life, love and trust and faith and Truth, along with hope are the most important of things in life...