by the heart and directed by the mind, and all one’s strength must be put behind that effort.

Love is expansive

The true love that is a fruit of God’s spirit is expansive. (2 Cor. 6:11-13) It is not stingy, confined or circumscribed. It must be shared to be complete. One must first love God (Deut. 6:5) and his Son (Eph. 6:24), then the whole association of his Christian brothers throughout the world. (1 Pet. 2:17; 1 John 2:10; 4:20, 21) He must love his wife, and she her husband. (Prov. 5:18, 19; Eccl. 9:9; Eph. 5:25, 28, 33) Love is to be extended to one’s children. (Titus 2:4) All mankind, even a person’s own enemies, are to be loved and Christian works are to be exercised toward them. (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:32-36) The Bible, commenting on the fruits of the spirit, of which love is first, says: “Against such things there is no law.” (Gal. 5:22, 23) This love has no law that can limit it. It may be practiced at any time or place to any extent toward those to whom it is due. In fact, the only debt Christians should be owing one another is love. (Rom. 13:8) This love for one another is an identifying mark of true Christians.—John 13:35.

HOW THE LOVE OF GOD ACTS

Love, such as God is, is so wonderful that it is hard to define. It is easier to tell how it acts. In the following discussion of this fine quality its application to Christians will be considered, for the apostle Paul, in writing on the subject, first emphasizes how essential it is for a Christian believer, then details how it acts unselfishly: “Love is long-suffering and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, does not get puffed up, does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked. It does not keep account of the injury. It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”—1 Cor. 13:4-7.

“Love is long-suffering and kind.” It puts up with unfavorable conditions and wrong actions of others with a purpose, to work out the eventual salvation of those doing wrong or of others involved in the circumstances, and to bring honor and vindication, finally, to God’s name. (2 Pet. 3:15) Love is kind, no matter what the provocation may be. Roughness or harshness on the part of a Christian toward others would not accomplish any good. Nonetheless, love can be firm and act in justice in behalf of righteousness, those having authority disciplining wrongdoers; but even then, kindness is employed. Unkindness brings no benefit to the doer and can separate the one doing unrighteousness even farther from repentance and right works.—Rom. 2:4; Eph. 4:32; Titus 3:4, 5.

“Love is not jealous.” It is not envious of good things coming to others. It rejoices in seeing a fellowman receiving a position of greater responsibility. It does not begrudge even one’s enemies receiving good things. It is generous. God makes his rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matt. 5:45) God’s servants having love are content with their lot (1 Tim. 6:6-8) and their place, not getting out of place or selfishly seeking the position occupied by another. Satan the Devil selfishly and enviously did get out of his place, even desiring worship to be given to him by Jesus Christ.—Luke 4:5-8.

Love “does not brag, does not get puffed up.” It does not seek the applause and admiration of creatures. (Ps. 75:4-7; Jude 16) One having love will not push the other person down to make himself appear greater. Rather, he will exalt God, and sincerely encourage and build up other persons. (Rom. 1:8; Col. 1:3-5; 1 Thess. 1:2, 3) He will be happy to see another Christian make advancement. And he will not boast of what he is going to do. (Prov. 27:1; Luke 12:19, 20; Jas. 4:13-16) He will realize that all he does is due to the strength coming from Jehovah. (Ps. 34:2; 44:8) Jehovah told Israel: “Let the one bragging about himself brag about himself because of this very thing, the having of insight and the having of knowledge of me, that I am Jehovah, the One exercising loving-kindness, justice and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I do take delight.”—Jer. 9:24; 1 Cor. 1:31.

Love “does not behave indecently.” It is not ill-mannered. It does not engage in indecent behavior, such as sexual abuses or shocking conduct. It is not rude, vulgar, discourteous, insolent or coarse, or disrespectful to anyone. One having love will avoid doing things that, in appearance or actions, disturb his Christian brothers. Paul instructed the congregation at Corinth: “Let all things take place decently and by arrangement.” (1 Cor. 14:40) Love will also prompt one to walk honorably in the view of others who are not Christian believers.—Rom. 13:13; 1 Thess. 4:12; 1 Tim. 3:7.

Love “does not look for its own interests.” It follows the principle: “Let each one keep seeking, not his own advantage, but that of the other person.” (1 Cor. 10:24) Here is where concern for the everlasting welfare of others shows itself. This sincere concern for others is one of the strongest motivating forces in love, and one of the most effective and beneficial in its results. The possessor of love does not demand that everything be done his way. Paul said: “To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to people of all sorts, that I might by all means save some. But I do all things for the sake of the good news, that I may become a sharer of it with others.” (1 Cor. 9:22, 23) Neither does love demand its “rights”; it is more concerned with the spiritual welfare of the other person.—Rom. 14:13, 15.

Love “does not become provoked.” It is not looking for an occasion or an excuse for provocation. It is not moved to outbursts of anger, which is a work of the flesh. (Gal. 5:19, 20) One having love is not easily offended by what others say or do. He is not afraid that his personal “dignity” may be injured.

Love “does not keep account of the injury.” (Literally, it is not “reckoning the bad thing” [Kingdom Interlinear Translation].) It does not consider itself to be injured and so lay up that injury as something ‘on the books of account,’ to be settled, paid off in due time, in the meantime permitting no relations between the injured and the injurer to be carried on. That would be a vengeful spirit, condemned in the Bible. (Lev. 19:18; Rom. 12:19) Love will not impute evil motives to another, but will be inclined to make allowances and give others the benefit of the doubt.—Rom. 14:1, 5.

Love “does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.” It always sides with the right, finding no pleasure in wrong or in lies, or in any form of injustice, no matter if it is an enemy who is the victim. However, if a thing is wrong or misleading, it does not fear to speak out in the interests of truth and of others. (Gal. 2:11-14) Also, it prefers to suffer wrong rather than commit another wrong in an attempt to straighten out the matter. (Rom. 12:17, 20) But if another person is properly corrected by one having authority, the loving person will not sentimentally side with the chastised one and find fault with the correction or the authorized one who did the correcting. Such an action would not be love for the individual. It might gain the corrected one’s favor, but would harm rather than help him. Love rejoices with the truth, even though it upsets previous beliefs held or statements made. It sticks with God’s Word of truth.

Love “bears all things.” It is willing to endure, to suffer for righteousness’ sake. A literal rendering is, “all things it is covering.” (Kingdom Interlinear Translation) One having love will be slow to expose to others one who wrongs him. If the offense is not too serious, he will overlook it. Otherwise he will follow the course recommended by Jesus at Matthew 18:15-17. If the other person asks forgiveness after the wrong is privately pointed out to him, and repairs the damage, the one having love will show that his forgiveness is real, that it has completely covered the matter, as God has.—Prov. 10:12; 17:9; 1 Pet. 4:7, 8.

Love “believes all things.” Love has faith in the things God has said in his Word of truth, even though outward appearances are against it and the unbelieving world scoffs. This love, especially toward God, is a recognition of his truthfulness, based on his record of faithfulness and reliability, just as we know and love a true, faithful friend and do not doubt when he tells us something for which we may not have proof. (Josh. 23:14) Love believes all God says, though it may not be able to grasp it thoroughly, and it is willing to wait patiently until the matter is more fully explained or until getting an understanding. (1 Cor. 13:9-12; 1 Pet. 1:10-13) Love also trusts in God’s direction of the Christian congregation and his appointed servants and backs up their decisions based on God’s Word. (1 Tim. 5:17; Heb. 13:17) However, love is not gullible, for it follows God’s Word to “test the inspired expressions to see whether they originate with God,” and tests everything by the measuring rule of the Bible. (1 John 4:1; Acts 17:11, 12) Love produces confidence in one’s faithful Christian brothers, not suspecting them or disbelieving them unless there is absolute proof that they are wrong.—2 Cor. 2:3; Gal. 5:10; Philem. 21.

Love “hopes all things.” It has hope in all the things Jehovah has promised. (Rom. 12:12; Heb. 3:6) It continues to work, waiting patiently for Jehovah to bring fruitage, to make things grow. (1 Cor. 3:7) A person having love will hope the best for his Christian brothers through any circumstances in which they might be, even though some may be weak in faith. He will realize that if Jehovah is patient with such weak ones, he should certainly adopt the same attitude. (2 Pet. 3:15) And those he is helping to learn the truth he continues to assist, hoping and waiting for them to be moved by God’s spirit to serve him.

Love “endures all things.” Love is required for the Christian to keep his integrity toward Jehovah God. There is nothing the Devil can do to test the soundness of the Christian’s devotion and faithfulness to God but what love will endure in a way that holds him true to God.—Rom. 5:3-5; Matt. 10:22.

“Love never fails”; it endures and continues to grow. New knowledge and understanding may correct things we once believed; hope changes as the hoped-for things are realized and new things are hoped for, but love always remains in its fullness and continues to be built up stronger and stronger.—1 Cor. 13:8-13.

“A TIME TO LOVE”

As to the period of its extension to others, love is restricted only toward those whom Jehovah shows are unworthy of it, or toward those set in a course of badness. Love is extended to all persons until they show they are haters of God. Then the time comes for love’s expression toward them to end. Both Jehovah God and Jesus Christ love righteousness and hate lawlessness. (Ps. 45:7; Heb. 1:9) Those who in tensely hate the true God are not persons toward whom love is to be expressed. Indeed, it would accomplish no good to continue exercising love toward such ones, for those who hate God will not respond to his loving-kindness. (Ps. 139:21, 22; Isa. 26:10) Therefore God properly hates them and has a time to act against them.—Ps. 21:8, 9; Eccl. 3:1, 8.

THINGS NOT TO BE LOVED

The apostle John writes: “Do not be loving either the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world.” (1 John 2:15, 16) He says, later on, “the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) Accordingly, those who love God hate every evil way.—Ps. 101:3; 119:104, 128; Prov. 8:13; 13:5.

While the Bible shows that husbands and wives should love one another, and that this love includes the conjugal relationship (Prov. 5:18, 19; 1 Cor. 7:3-5), it points out the wrongness of sexual love toward another not one’s spouse, a fleshly, worldly practice. (Prov. 7:18, 19, 21-23) Another thing of the world is materialism, “love of money” (phi·lar·gu·riʹa, literally, “fondness of silver” [Kingdom Interlinear Translation]), which is a root of all sorts of injurious things.—1 Tim. 6:10; Heb. 13:5.

Jesus Christ scathingly denounced the hypocritical religious leaders of the Jews who liked to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the broadways to be visible to men, and who loved the prominent places at evening meals and the front seats in the synagogues. He pointed out that they had already received in full their reward, that which they loved and desired, namely, honor and glory from men; therefore no reward at all was due them from God. (Matt. 6:5; 23:2, 5-7; Luke 11:43) The record reads: “Many even of the rulers actually put faith in [Jesus], but because of the Pharisees they would not confess him, in order not to be expelled from the synagogue; for they loved the glory of men more than even the glory of God.”—John 12:42, 43; 5:44.

Christ, in speaking to his disciples about his death, emphasized that those who wished to be his ministers would have to follow him. He said: “He that is fond of [phi·lonʹ] his soul destroys it, but he that hates his soul in this world will safeguard it for everlasting life.” (John 12:23-25) One who preferred to protect his life now rather than to be willing to lay down his life as a follower of Christ would lose out on everlasting life, but he that considered life in this world as secondary, and who loved Jehovah and Christ and their righteousness above everything else would receive everlasting life.

God hates liars, for they have no love of the truth. He declared to the apostle John in vision: “Outside [the holy city, New Jerusalem] are the dogs and those who practice spiritism and the fornicators and the murderers and the idolaters and everyone liking [phi·lonʹ] and carrying on a lie.”—Rev. 22:15; 2 Thess. 2:10-12.

ONE’S LOVE CAN COOL OFF

Jesus Christ, in telling his disciples of the things ahead, indicated that the love (a·gaʹpe) of many who professed belief in God would cool off. (Matt. 24:3, 12) The apostle Paul said that, as a feature of the critical times to come, men would become “lovers of money.” (2 Tim. 3:1, 2) It is evident, therefore, that one can lose sight of right principles and that the proper love he once had can fade away. This emphasizes the importance of constant exercise and development of love by meditation on God’s Word and by molding one’s life according to His principles.—Eph. 4:15, 22-24.

LOVE FEASTS

[Gr., a·gaʹpai (pl. of a·gaʹpe, love)].

The Bible does not describe these love feasts nor does it indicate how often they were held. (Jude 12) They were not commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ or his apostles, and it is apparent that they are not to be considered mandatory or permanent. Some say they were occasions when materially prosperous Christians held banquets to which their poor fellow believers were invited. Together the fatherless, the widows, the rich and the less fortunate shared a bountiful table in a spirit of brotherhood. The Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 12, page 333, says: “The love feast was more than a symbol in the early church. It was a hearty meal whose cost was partly defrayed by the church. It demonstrated the family spirit of equality and