Christian Love

Christian Love

The Ten Commandments

Exodus 20:2-17

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves. Worship no god but me. Do not make for yourselves images of anything in heaven or on earth or in the water under the earth. Do not bow down to any idol or worship it, because I am the Lord your God.

Do not use my name for evil purposes, for I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name.

Observe the Sabbath and keep it holy. You have six days in which to do your work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to me. In six days I, the Lord, made the earth, the sky, the sea, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That is why I, the Lord, blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.

Respect your father and your mother, so that you may live a long time in the land that I am giving you.

Do not commit murder.

Do not commit adultery.

Do not steal.

Do not accuse anyone falsely.

Do not desire another man's house;

Do not desire another man’s wife, his slaves, his cattle, his donkeys, or anything else that he owns.

The Two Most Important Commandments

Jesus said "The most important commandment is this: `Listen, Israel! The Lord our God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second most important commandment is this: `Love your neighbour as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment more important than these two."

Activity 1

Copy out the Ten Commandments and the Two Most Important commandment.
Which of the Ten Commandments are about loving God?
Which of the Ten Commandments are about loving our neighbour?
Write a short story (with drawings if you like) which is about someone who breaks the command to love God.
Write a story (with drawings if you like) which is about someone who breaks the command to love their neighbour.

Saint Paul’s teaching on love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

I may be able to speak the languages

of human beings and even of angels,

but if I have no love,
my speech is no more

than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.

I may have the gift of inspired preaching;

I may have all knowledge and

understand all secrets;

I may have all the faith needed to move mountains

- but if I have no love, I am nothing.

I may give away everything I have,

and even give up my body to be burnt

- but if I have no love, this does me no good.

Love is patient and kind;

it is not jealous or conceited or proud;

love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable;

love does not keep a record of wrongs;

love is not happy with evil,

but is happy with the truth.

Love never gives up;

and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.

Love is eternal.

There are inspired messages,

but they are temporary;

there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues,

but they will cease;

there is knowledge, but it will pass.

For our gifts of knowledge

and of inspired messages are only partial;

but when what is perfect comes,

then what is partial will disappear.

When I was a child, my speech, feelings,

and thinking were all those of a child;

now that I have grown up,

I have no more use for childish ways.

What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror;

then we shall see face to face.

What I know now is only partial;

then it will be complete -

as complete as God's knowledge of me.

Meanwhile these three remain:

faith, hope, and love;

and the greatest of these is love.

Activity 2

Copy out Saint Paul’s teaching on love.
Write five (or more) of your own sayings, which begin ‘Love is …’
Choose some of the ‘Love is …’ sayings (either ones of Saint Paul of your own) and do simple drawings for them.
Write a story (with drawings if you like) to show how someone shows the sort of love that Saint Paul talks about.