LOVE GOD.
LOVE EVERYONE.
Love wins. There are no failings in love; every winning choice is rooted in love. These are the two most important commands. God showed me I was the win. He showed me I was to win in love. So for you to have a winning day, to be a winner, do everything out of love. To win, you will do everything from the unconditional.
The love that only responds when someone is already kind, useful, or lovable is conditional. It is the ordinary human pattern — the kind Jesus said even “sinners” practice. It requires no special grace and earns no distinctive credit.
Agape is different. It is the love God Himself shows: love that is not based on the worthiness, response, or behavior of others. It is given “in spite of,” not “because of.” That is why Jesus points to the Father who “is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” Luke 6:35 and then commands the same: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, lend without expecting return.
The New Covenant of Grace operates the same way Agape does. Salvation is not earned by performance, reciprocity, or meeting a list of conditions. It is given by God on the basis of faith — believing in the One who saves you.
Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
God is not asking us to manufacture a feeling. He is asking us all to participate in the kind of love He Himself is and gives— unconditional, active, and not dependent on the other person’s performance. That is the clarity. Everything else is a lesser, conditional imitation and false light. True Love is to the true Light and this Light and Love is Forever.
Matthew 5:38-48
Eye for Eye
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Love for Enemies
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Everyone
Neighbor, as Jesus defined it, is not limited to the person next door or someone already like you. It is anyone who comes within reach of your care or presence. The Parable of the Good Samaritan makes this plain: the one who showed mercy became the neighbor. Distance, ethnicity, status, or prior hostility do not remove the obligation.
Jesus also commanded and demonstrated love toward enemies — those who cursed, mistreated, opposed, and even crucified Him. He prayed for their forgiveness while they were killing Him. He healed the servant of the high priest who had come to arrest Him. He wept over the city that rejected Him. The pattern is consistent: love is extended, not withheld.
Judgment and the execution of wrath belong to God. Scripture is clear that the wages of sin is death and that vengeance is the Lord’s Romans 6:23; Romans 12:19. Jesus Himself did not take personal revenge or carry out final punishment during His earthly ministry. He left that to the Father.
If a person spends their energy judging others, that energy is no longer available for the two commandments Jesus called the greatest:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
When “neighbor” is understood as everyone who comes within reach, the second commandment becomes a call to active love rather than selective affection or condemnation. That does not mean approving of sin or abandoning truth. It means refusing to take God’s place as judge so that love remains possible.
This is the trajectory of Jesus’ teaching and example.
Luke 6:32-35
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Colossians 1:17
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
1 John 1:7
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
John 1
The Word Became Flesh
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 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.
