Cross Referencing Series Pt. 5 - Love

Our first verse about love from the concordance of our Bible will be 1 John 4:16. It says, "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." This verse is so important for us to know! God is telling us that He is love and that He will never be too busy to love us. This is proof that we will never have to go through anything alone, even if it doesn't seem like it. This verse's cross reference then leads us to multiple verses, but we will only be doing 1 John 4:12 and 1 John 4:8, feel free to do more on your own. 1 John 4:12 says, "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." This verse is all about how we must have faith in God's love. A very large percentage of people only believe in what they see. Think about it, how many times have you talked about your beliefs just to have someone respond with, "God can't be real because you can't see Him." And we can't try to convince those people that you just have to have faith, because that's not something that everyone can do, and that's ok. But what we can do is to show them love, because where there's love, there's God. Since this verse still says the word "love" in it, that means that we're not done exhausting the verse. So we go to the cross reference for that verse, there are multiple, but we'll only be using John 1:18. It says, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known." This verse restates that God does most things unseen, so we have to trust that He will be there for us, even if we can't see Him. Since we have now fully exhausted this verse, it's time to move on! The second verse, 1 John 4:8 says, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." This verse is saying that if you don't have love in your life, that means that you don't have God. This doesn't mean that God is the reason you don't have a significant other. This just means that if you have God, there won't be one moment in your life when you are not loved. Although this verse still says the word "love," when you go to the cross reference for it, it will lead you back to the original verse (1 John 4:16), which is another way of telling if the verse is fully exhausted. Since we have finished exhausting our verse, it's time to move on to our second verse from the concordance.

Our second verse about love from the concordance of our Bible will be the iconic verse, John 3:16. It says, "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." This verse is extremely famous, and you can probably tell why! It's absolutely incredible. This verse shows that God loves us so much, that He wants us to never have to leave Him. This verse then leads us to many verses, but we will be picking only Romans 5:8 and 1 John 4:9. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners Christ died for us." This verse shows that we don't have to pretend to be perfect for God, He knows that we have faults, yet He advocates for us and protects us regardless. Usually, we would continue to exhaust this verse, but the cross reference for it leads us back to John 3:16, so we know that it is fully exhausted and we can move on. 1 John 4:9 says, "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." This verse measures just how much God loves us. He went above and beyond to show that He was there for us, think about that when you're feeling all alone. Once again, we would usually continue to stress this verse, however this verse's cross reference actually leads us back to John 3:16, so we know that we are done.