December 21, 2025 
The Light of Love  
Ephesians 3:17 b-19 (NIV) 
 
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. 
 
Types of Biblical Love: 
Phileo: Friendship love 
Eros: Passionate love 
Agape: Unconditional love; self-sacrificial love 
Storge: Family love; love for a parent or sibling; unforced and natural 
 
1 John 4:8 (NIV) 
 
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 
 
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a (NIV) 
 
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 
 
Proverbs 3:3-4 (NIV) 
 
Let love and faithfulness never leave you; 
bind them around your neck, 
write them on the tablet of your heart. 
Then you will win favor and a good name 
in the sight of God and man. 
 
1 Corinthians 13:13 (NIV) 
 
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 
 
Matthew 1:18-21 (NIV) 
 
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about : His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 
 
Matthew 1:18-21 (NIV) 
 
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 
 
Love Revealed 
 
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 
Matthew 1:20 (NIV) 
 
Luke 4:18 (NKJV) 
 
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, 
Because He has anointed Me 
To preach the gospel to the poor; 
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, 
To proclaim liberty to the captives 
And recovery of sight to the blind, 
To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 
 
Love Demonstrated 
 
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus... 
Matthew 1:21 a (NIV) 
 
Romans 5:8 (NKJV) 
 
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 
 
Romans 7:21-25 (NIV) 
 
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 
 
Romans 7:21-25 (NIV) 
 
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. 
 
Love Saves 
 
...he will save his people from their sins.” 
Matthew 1:21 b (NIV) 
 
John 3:16 (KJV) 
 
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.