God Created Us to Be Happy & Joyful through Loving Relationships (Proverbs 10:12)

God Created Us to Be Happy & Joyful through Loving Relationships (Proverbs 10:12)

Love God - “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matthew 22:37) “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come before His presence with a song!” (Psalm 100:1-2) “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) See also Psalms 103, 118:24 & 122:1. 

Love Your Parents - “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land.” (Fifth Commandment, Exodus 20:12 & Ephesians 6:2-3) “Children’s children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children is their father.” .. “My son, if your heart is wise, my heart will rejoice! .. Listen to your father who begot you, and do not despise your mother when she is old. .. He who begets a wise child will delight in him.” (Proverbs 17:6, 23:15, 22 & 24)

Love Your Wife - “It is not good for the man to be alone, so I will make a helper comparable to him.” (Genesis 2:18) “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (2:24) “Let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. .. She is your companion and your wife by covenant. .. [Marriage is] the Lord’s Holy Institution, which He loves. .. The Lord God hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence.” (From Malachi 2:11-16) “Rejoice with the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love.” (Proverbs 5:18-19) “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. .. Husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” (Ephesians 5:25 & 28) See also the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19:6-16.

Love Your Brother - “Esau ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. .. [Jacob said to Esau,] I have seen your face as through I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me.” (Genesis 33:4 & 10) (See Psalm 133 about the unity of elder brother Aaron with younger brother Moses.) “You shall not hate your brother in your heart.” (Leviticus 19:17) “Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger of the judgment.” (Matthew 5:21-26) 

Love Your Friends - “The sweetness of a man’s friend gives delight by wise counsel. .. A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” (Proverbs 27:9 & 17:17) David & Jonathan (See 1 Samuel 20) “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan! You have been very pleasant to me. Your love for me was wonderful, surpassing the love of women.” (2 Samuel1:26) 

Love Your Neighbor - “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18) (Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27) See also the Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37.

Love Your Community - God established the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles in Numbers 28 & 29, so that the Children of Israel could celebrate and rejoice together in the presence of the Lord. Feast of Purim (Esther 9:18-32)

Love Your Nation - “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. .. The king establishes the land by justice.” (Proverbs 29:2 & 4) “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” (Psalm 33:12) “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Matt 5:14)