If you can point to core values within Christianity, one of them must be "Love". The theme of love flows through the whole of the Bible, leaving Christians in no doubt that love is an indispensable part of Christian life.

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, His answer was love (Matthew 22:35-40). Firstly, to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and secondly to love those around us. Christians should follow God's commandments and the most important of them is to love.

Jesus is uncompromising in telling us that our first love must be God. If we do as He instructs and love Him with all our heart, soul and mind, we surely have God at the very centre of our life.

Nevertheless, in loving God, we also love those around us, for as we will see, we can show our love to God by loving others, especially other Christians ("Brothers").

Then Jesus said something amazing - "On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets".

You see, if you love God, and all those around you, how can you break the law? ( How can you murder, steal, hurt..... ?). That would mean harming those that you love! That is why Paul the Apostle can write to the Christians in Rome that they should "owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.".

Equally, how can you ignore the words of the God you love, which have been brought to you by the prophets?

And there lies the awesome power of love. If the central motive in our lives is love, then our actions will naturally be good and in line with God's commandments and in line with the prophets. Love is a vital part of Christian life!

That is why Jesus said to the disciples (John 13:31-35):"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you....". Love was so important that Jesus added this new commandment; we as Christians, should look to Jesus' love for us and give that same love to others.

John the Apostle acknowledged in the first of his letters that (1 John 4); "God is love". That means that everything that love is, God is. If you want to see the purest form of love possible, look to God.

That God is love is evident in the Bible because love is often the motive for what He does. This is perfectly illustrated in the ultimate expression of God's love, which is beautifully summed up in John's gospel, where it is written that (John 3:16) "God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Jesus died for those who believe in Him - those that believe that Jesus took their place on the cross; Taking the punishment for our sin, which evokes the just wrath of God, by suffering in our place on the cross. That God, through Jesus, allowed Himself to suffer torture and death for us must be the greatest act of love ever known!

So God is love and therefore is a great source of love for Christians to turn to.

In fact, as Christians, we can turn to God as our "father" for we are his "children", as John wrote (1 John 3:1); "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.". We are embraced into God's family, through Jesus, and into His everlasting love.

Considering God's great love for us, we must respond with love to our heavenly father, God. That love should well up within us with praise and prayer to the one who loves us. Our minds should be focused on God, our hearts should reach out to God and our souls should rest in God, and all this done for the love we have of God.

The wrong response is to continue to love the passing things of the world around us. John made this clear when he stated (1 John 2:15-17)"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions--is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.".

Love of the things of world leads to inevitable death, so why not choose to love God, who loves you, and do His will, so that you will "abide forever"? The Christian choice is to love God.

But the response is not only to love God but also to love those around us.

John wrote (1 John 4:11) "if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.". It is said that you cannot pass on something you don't have. Well, Christians know and experience the love of God and so receiving love, Christians can then send out love to the aching world that surrounds them. Knowing God loves us, we can love those people who God also loves, eveyone!

And we are told to be very practical about that love. Earlier in the same letter, John reminded his readers; (1 John 3:17-18)"...if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.".

Our love has to be more than passively loving from the sidelines. No, Christians are called to physically help their "brothers" (Christians) in need. Christians are called to give of what they have to help others; whether it's their time, money or possessions. Christian giving should not be a result of duty but of love.

Furthermore, the Christian love we show others will be seen by those around us, illustrating to them the loving faith we have in God.

When Jesus gave his disciples the new commandment to love others as he had loved them, he explained that (John 13:35) "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." When acting in Christian love towards others we are showing to the world our faith and our love of God.

Equally, a lack of love shows our lack of faith in God; John simply says "If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen". As a life of love shows our faith, an absence of love shows we are not Christians at all. Love is that important.

Paul the Apostle refers to this himself in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13) where he wrote " If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.".

Paul is stating that he can do the most wonderful things, including giving, but if the motive is not love, these things gain him nothing.

The important thing is what is in your heart and for a Christian that must be love. With love in your heart you will do all these things, and gain eternally.

So that is the challenge to us in our Christian lives. We need to always remember that God loves us, so much that He sacrificed His son, Jesus, to an horrendous death so that He could be reconciled to us again - the ones He loves. And we should take time to respond with love to God with all our might.

And as we do, we should practically love all those around us: our brothers (as we will see in the right hand column) and our enemies. And as we do that we will give a witness to the world of the truth of our faith in Jesus Christ.

What can be more important than that?

As we've discovered in the left hand section, love is the most important commandment and gift of God to us, and is a visible sign of whether we are Christians or not. So if love is so important, what is the nature of this Christian love? - what are it's characteristics?

This section aims to explore that question with some initial answers from the pages of the Bible;

Jesus extended the focus of who we need to love to those we find it hardest to love - our enemies; (Matthew 5:44) "I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."

Christians are not just called to love God and our "brothers", we should love those who may well hate us. That seems a perfection of love beyond our reach but Jesus calls us to that; "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Jesus calls on us to love everybody, no matter who they are - An unconditional love. For through that love, which is beyond the ethics of non Christians, we show we are followers of a God who also loves so perfectly.

John's first letter in the Bible calls on us to give to our "brothers" in need with a special love. John reminded his readers that "By this we know love, that he (Jesus) laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers". Love is to be sacrifical, more than giving and helping those in need, it could involve even greater sacrifices.

The same point was made by Jesus himself when he told His disciples of a new commandment to love others with a love that is the same as Jesus' love for us (John 13:31-35) - a love that led Jesus to sacrifice Himself to torture and death on a cross for us.

So the love that we are called to is one of sacrifice for God and others. Hopefully, for us, not to death (although many still die today for their love of Christ). But certainly a love of giving to God and others our time, support or resources.

The most famous passage in the Bible about love is chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians, often read out in marriage ceremonies (included in the far left hand column).

At first it confirms the importance of love as God's greatest gift and then moves on to reflect on the many aspects of a life centred on love; patience, kindness, humility, truth, hope, endurance.... As well as on what love is not; envious, rude, selfish, irritable, resentful.... Love influences us to be what we should be and reject those bad parts of our character that we are often too painfully aware of. That is the power of love.

If we love others we will naturally think of their wishes before ours, building us up in humility. If we love others we will not let the mistakes they make affect us but instead show great patience. And so it is true for all the attributes mentioned. Love can be the cornerstone of all the praiseworthy characteristics that we, as Christians, aspire to.

Paul also highlighted the importance of love in our growth as Christians. At the start of his letter to the Philippians he told them "And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.". Love ,along with knowledge and discernment, were the ingredients he knew would build them up in their faith and righteouness.

Also, love is the result of Christian growth. John's letter also notes that (1 John 2:4-5); "Whoever says "'I know him (God) ' but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him." So by following God's word in what we do and think each day we know we are growing in God's love and can be sure we are in a living relationship with God. Love is also the result of following God's ways.

Love is a indispensible part of our growth as Christians in preparation for the return of Christ and our entrance into heaven.

So far the descriptions of love have not mentioned the more passionate side of love - but the Bible does not skirt round this subject at all. The most passionate book in the Bible is The Song of Songs written by King Solomon. In these lines of poetry, we read of the passion of a king for his bride (and visa-versa) as they describe each other; the man tells his bride (Song of Songs 6:5) "Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me" giving us an image of his passion for her.

Many see in these lines a vision of the passionate love Jesus has for us and the passionate love we should have for Jesus. As both the man and woman see perfection in their loved one in the Song of Songs, so we should extol God's perfection and know that through the forgiveness that Christ purchased on the cross for us, we will appear perfect to Him.

As the bride declares,about the one she loves, "his banner over me was love" whilst she rests in his protective shadow, so we can know that the banner of God's love is over us and we are in the shadow of His protection.

The Song of Songs provides us with a marvelous vision of sensual love. In Chapter 7 we read "Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best wine. It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth."

Here is an affirmation of the sensual side of human love within the Bible in the context of marriage. For many times in this book we see references to the virtue of staying away from sensual temptations before marriage (especially in chapter 8 where the bride's sister is mentioned). As the bride says twice "I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases".

The Bible contains gives grave warnings of the way that the passionate and sensual side of love can lead people away from God's ways. Even one of the heroes of the Bible, Samson, was seduced by the "love" of Delilah, who betrayed him to the Philistines (Judges 16) leading to him suffering and to his final death.

So, perfect love is unconditional, sacrificial and eternal, hopefully showing itself in our lives through humility, patience, endurance, kindness, truth and many other positive aspects of our lives. Through that love we can grow as Christians and love God and those around us as we are commanded to do by God.

Human love is also the sensual and passionate and, within God's laws and guidance, this side of love is a joy and blessing. The problems come when we step out of those laws and guidance.

But the most important characteristic of love is that, for Christians, it is essential. We are called to God's love and to show that love to the world.