John_love

The main theme throughout John's letters is the idea of "loving one another" or "love your brother." This is such an important theme due to the command Jesus left with the people when He was on the earth: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself." Matt 22:37-39 NIV John is reminding people of the importance of loving one another as brothers in Christ for it is through this love that we are known as followers of Jesus: "Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:35 NLT The whole idea of being a follower or Jesus is love and loving and being loved.

Verses on loving your brother:

"Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is sitll in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble"
1 John 2:9-10 NRSV

"This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother."
1 John 3:10 NRSV

"This is the message we heard from the beginning; we shoudl love one another."
1 John 3:11 NRSV

"...If anyone says "I love God" yet hates his brother he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. "
1 John 4:19-23 NRSV

"And now dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. "
2 John 1:5-6 NRSV