First Love

`But I have against thee: That thy first love thou didst leave! — read the full passage →

`But I have against thee: That thy first love thou didst leave!

we--we love him, because He--He first loved us;

fear is not in the love, but the perfect love doth cast out the fear, because the fear hath punishment, and he who is fearing hath not been made perfect in the love;

in this is the love, not that we loved God, but that He did love us, and did send His Son a propitiation for our sins.

and we--we have known and believed the love, that God hath in us; God is love, and he who is remaining in the love, in God he doth remain, and God in him.

greater love than this hath no one, that any one his life may lay down for his friends;

he who is not loving did not know God, because God is love.

If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling; — read the full passage →

for God did so love the world, that His Son--the only begotten--He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during.

And Jesus said to him, `Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding--

`This is my command, that ye love one another, according as I did love you;

and God doth commend His own love to us, that, in our being still sinners, Christ did die for us;

in this shall all know that ye are my disciples, if ye may have love one to another.'

See ye what love the Father hath given to us, that children of God we may be called; because of this the world doth not know us, because it did not know Him;

if any one may say--`I love God,' and his brother he may hate, a liar he is; for he who is not loving his brother whom he hath seen, God--whom he hath not seen--how is he able to love?

the love to the neighbour doth work no ill; the love, therefore, <FI>is<Fi> the fulness of law.

for this is the love of God, that His commands we may keep, and His commands are not burdensome;

Beloved, if thus did God love us, we also ought one another to love;

and because of the abounding of the lawlessness, the love of the many shall become cold;

and may we consider one another to provoke to love and to good works,

`To the messenger of the Ephesian assembly write: These things saith he who is holding the seven stars in his right hand, who is walking in the midst of the seven lamp-stands--the golden: — read the full passage →

`A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; according as I did love you, that ye also love one another;

may we rejoice and exult, and give the glory to Him, because come did the marriage of the Lamb, and his wife did make herself ready;

God no one hath ever seen; if we may love one another, God in us doth remain, and His love is having been perfected in us;

Beloved, may we love one another, because the love is of God, and every one who is loving, of God he hath been begotten, and doth know God;

the Lord is not slow in regard to the promise, as certain count slowness, but is long-suffering to us, not counselling any to be lost but all to pass on to reformation,

and now there doth remain faith, hope, love--these three; and the greatest of these <FI>is<Fi> love.

In this made perfect hath been the love with us, that boldness we may have in the day of the judgment, because even as He is, we--we also are in this world;

And the fruit of the Spirit is: Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith,

The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, — read the full passage →

with a price ye were bought, become not servants of men;

for ye were bought with a price; glorify, then, God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

A revelation of Jesus Christ, that God gave to him, to shew to his servants what things it behoveth to come to pass quickly; and he did signify <FI>it<Fi> , having sent through his messenger to his servant John,

and this <FI>is<Fi> the command we have from Him, that he who is loving God, may also love his brother.

In this was manifested the love of God in us, because His Son--the only begotten--hath God sent to the world, that we may live through him;

And the fruit of the Spirit is: Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, — read the full passage →

And we make known to you, brethren, the grace of God, that hath been given in the assemblies of Macedonia, — read the full passage →

but, according as it hath been written, `What eye did not see, and ear did not hear, and upon the heart of man came not up, what God did prepare for those loving Him--'

for the wages of the sin <FI>is<Fi> death, and the gift of God <FI>is<Fi> life age-during in Christ Jesus our Lord.

but seek ye first the reign of God and His righteousness, and all these shall be added to you.

`Thou dost not take vengeance, nor watch the sons of thy people; and thou hast had love to thy neighbour as thyself; I <FI>am<Fi> Jehovah.

for by grace ye are having been saved, through faith, and this not of you--of God the gift,

let all your things be done in love.

The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up,

and if I have prophecy, and know all the secrets, and all the knowledge, and if I have all the faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing;

If with the tongues of men and of messengers I speak, and have not love, I have become brass sounding, or a cymbal tinkling;

for I decided not to know any thing among you, except Jesus Christ, and him crucified;

To no one owe anything, except to love one another; for he who is loving the other--law he hath fulfilled,

in the love of brethren, to one another kindly affectioned: in the honour going before one another;

The love unfeigned: abhorring the evil; cleaving to the good;

`A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; according as I did love you, that ye also love one another; — read the full passage →

and thou shalt love the Lord thy God out of all thy heart, and out of thy soul, and out of all thine understanding, and out of all thy strength--this <FI>is<Fi> the first command;

`To the messenger of the Ephesian assembly write: These things saith he who is holding the seven stars in his right hand, who is walking in the midst of the seven lamp-stands--the golden: — read the full passage →

Beloved, every spirit believe not, but prove the spirits, if of God they are, because many false prophets have gone forth to the world;

in this we have known the love, because he for us his life did lay down, and we ought for the brethren the lives to lay down;

and, before all things, to one another having the earnest love, because the love shall cover a multitude of sins;

and above all these things, <FI>have<Fi> love, which is a bond of the perfection,

for all the law in one word is fulfilled--in this: `Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;'

for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith through love working.

so that he who is setting himself against the authority, against God's ordinance hath resisted; and those resisting, to themselves shall receive judgment.

that if thou mayest confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and mayest believe in thy heart that God did raise him out of the dead, thou shalt be saved,

therefore I say to thee, her many sins have been forgiven, because she did love much; but to whom little is forgiven, little he doth love.'

because nothing shall be impossible with God.'

`Go, and thou hast called in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus said Jehovah: I have remembered for thee The kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, Thy going after Me in a wilderness, in a land not sown.

Set me as a seal on thy heart, as a seal on thine arm, For strong as death is love, Sharp as Sheol is jealousy, Its burnings <FI>are<Fi> burnings of fire, a flame of Jah!

and the great dragon was cast forth--the old serpent, who is called `Devil,' and `the Adversary,' who is leading astray the whole world--he was cast forth to the earth, and his messengers were cast forth with him.

remember, then, whence thou hast fallen, and reform, and the first works do; and if not, I come to thee quickly, and will remove thy lamp-stand from its place--if thou mayest not reform;

I have known thy works, and thy labour, and thy endurance, and that thou art not able to bear evil ones, and that thou hast tried those saying themselves to be apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, — read the full passage →

These are in your love-feasts craggy rocks; feasting together with you, without fear shepherding themselves; clouds without water, by winds carried about; trees autumnal, without fruit, twice dead, rooted up;

kindness to you, and peace, and love, be multiplied!

All these, then, being dissolved, what kind of persons doth it behove you to be in holy behaviours and pious acts?

Be sober, vigilant, because your opponent the devil, as a roaring lion, doth walk about, seeking whom he may swallow up,

And finally, being all of one mind, having fellow-feeling, loving as brethren, compassionate, courteous,

Your souls having purified in the obedience of the truth through the Spirit to brotherly love unfeigned, out of a pure heart one another love ye earnestly,

for the bodily exercise is unto little profit, and the piety is to all things profitable, a promise having of the life that now is, and of that which is coming;

Because of this also, we--we do give thanks to God continually, that, having received the word of hearing from us of God, ye accepted, not the word of man, but as it is truly, the word of God, who also doth work in you who believe;

who did rescue us out of the authority of the darkness, and did translate <FI>us<Fi> into the reign of the Son of His love,

Call upon you, then, do I--the prisoner of the Lord--to walk worthily of the calling with which ye were called, — read the full passage →

that He may give to you, according to the riches of His glory, with might to be strengthened through His Spirit, in regard to the inner man, — read the full passage →

The love is long-suffering, it is kind, the love doth not envy, the love doth not vaunt itself, is not puffed up, — read the full passage →

every branch in me not bearing fruit, He doth take it away, and every one bearing fruit, He doth cleanse by pruning it, that it may bear more fruit;

And supper being come, the devil already having put <FI>it<Fi> into the heart of Judas of Simon, Iscariot, that he may deliver him up,

`Verily, verily, I say to you, He who is believing in me, hath life age-during;

for God did so love the world, that His Son--the only begotten--He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during. — read the full passage →

Let not kindness and truth forsake thee, Bind them on thy neck, Write them on the tablet of thy heart, — read the full passage →

`But I have against thee a few things: That thou dost suffer the woman Jezebel, who is calling herself a prophetess, to teach, and to lead astray, my servants to commit whoredom, and idol-sacrifices to eat;

`But I have against thee a few things: That thou hast there those holding the teaching of Balaam, who did teach Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat idol-sacrifices, and to commit whoredom;

for not by will of man did ever prophecy come, but by the Holy Spirit borne on holy men of God spake.

and when the kindness and the love to men of God our Saviour did appear

in hypocrisy speaking lies, being seared in their own conscience,

Become, then, followers of God, as children beloved,

with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love,

among whom also we all did walk once in the desires of our flesh, doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath--as also the others,

with Christ I have been crucified, and live no more do I, and Christ doth live in me; and that which I now live in the flesh--in the faith I live of the Son of God, who did love me and did give himself for me;

for the love of the Christ doth constrain us, having judged thus: that if one for all died, then the whole died,

I call upon you, therefore, brethren, through the compassions of God, to present your bodies a sacrifice--living, sanctified, acceptable to God--your intelligent service; — read the full passage →

so then the faith <FI>is<Fi> by a report, and the report through a saying of God,

As to the rest, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might; — read the full passage →

but even if we or a messenger out of heaven may proclaim good news to you different from what we did proclaim to you--anathema let him be! — read the full passage →