Bible Gateway crunched some numbers and came up with The Top 25 Bible Passages of 2009. Now, if you enjoy listings of The Top So-many Whatevers, starting as they do with the bottom of the list, You may be disappointed with this humble Blog-Post, as I've gone straight to the top.
The Number One Bible passage searched on BibleGateway.com was … First Corinthians Chapter Thirteen—The Love Chapter.
What does that fact tell us? Obviously, God's church is at least curious—possibly, concerned—about God's definition of love. And why not? The Apostle John had some rather compelling things to say about it.
1 John 3 vs. 10: Love is an evidence of spiritual lineage.
vs. 11: Love is the first New Testament commandment.
vs. 14: Loving the brethren proves we are redeemed.
vs. 16: Jesus' passion and death is our model for godly love.
vss. 17 & 18: Love not demonstrated by works is false. (also James 2)
1 John 4 vs. 7: Love is from God.
vs. 8: God is love.
vss. 9 & 10: Jesus' atonement for our sin proves God's love for us.
vs. 12: We don't need to see God if we see His love demonstrated in us.
vs. 16: God lives in us if we live in His love.
vs. 18: Love or fear; not both.
vs. 19: "We love because he first loved us."
vs. 20: If we don't love our brother, we don't love God.
vs. 21: That is God's command!
1 John 5:2 "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments."
God's gospel conveys this simple message—a message of enormous implications: Love is not optional, and its character is quite specific. Either we love everyone sacrificially, as Jesus did at the cross, or we are not His.
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