What is your favorite bible verse?

[Anonymous]

John 20:16

Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher").

[Anonymous]

"Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words."

Thessalonians 4:13

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Minister here. I have lots of favorites. But my very favorite is, in my humble opinion, the most important -

John 13:34-35

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Love one another. That's the entirety of the teachings of Jesus in three words. (And of the spiritual leaders of all faiths.). Just love each other - Not only the people who look like you, talk like you, dress like you, love like you, worship like you.... We are called to love every single person on this planet, even those who can be difficult to love.

When you love others, you are loving God.

Not to derail the thread, but this is not accurate. Christ did command us to love one another, and we indeed are to love one another. But that is nowhere near the "entirety" of the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus more fully stated his commandment to love one another in Matthew 22:37-39: "Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." His first teaching is to love God, and from there, you will love all others. In addition to loving others, we are also to love God with all our hearts, souls and minds. Do we do that? No, we do not. Do we love others always? No we do not. So we are all guilty of breaking these commandments. This was, in part, what Jesus was trying to show us, that we are sinful and need a Messiah, who He revealed Himself to be. This is more the entirety of His teaching.

Look! This is the most famous Bible verse of all! Jesus taught that He was the Messiah, come to save mankind from his sins, and that belief in Him is what saves us from Hell. John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Why would perishing be brought up if it weren't a surety without Him? (Though there is scholarly disagreement on whether this verse is an actual quote or a statement from John, it in either case is an accurate summation of Jesus's dialogue with the Jewish leader Nicodemus in John 3:1-15. You can look it up.)

Jesus also taught that believing in Him is the "work" that God require of us. John 6:28-29: "They asked (Jesus), 'What must we be doing to do the works God requires?' And Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: To believe in the one He has sent,' that is, Jesus.

Jesus further taught that being born again was a necessity to spend eternity with God, in John 3:3: "Very truly I say to you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again." Being born again is believing in Christ as your Savior, not just loving others.

And Jesus taught again that we all sin and are in danger of spiritual death without Him in John 8:24: "And (Jesus) said unto them, 'You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins: for if you do not believe that I Am, you shall die in your sins." I Am is a name that God reveals for Himself in the Old Testament. We must not only believe in Jesus as a good teacher who exhorted us to love one another, but that is God himself.

These are lots of good Bible verses to have as favorites. And they all add up to more than ENTIRELY teaching us to love one another. Jesus revealed Himself of the Savior of mankind, in whom we can put our trust to save us from our sins, whose righteousness exceeds ours and in whom we can rely to forgive us when we all inevitably DON'T love God or others, as not a single one of us does always, in spite of God's commandments.

Last, Jesus also taught us that He is the revelation of the character of God, and that He is a kind and gracious God, not a tyrannical taskmaster. Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Christ's love and sacrifice for us, and His reality as the God of creation, is so awesome. It's a shame to miss out on the wonder of this by believing that He only -- not that this is a minor thing, but it is not the only thing -- came to tell us to love each other.

OP, thank you for this thoughtful and well reasoned post

It is troubling to me that a minister would imply that the Christian faith and Christian teachings are identical to all other faiths, as if one's choice of faith is no different than their choice of ice cream flavor. Its simply not accurate, and it is not disrespectful of other faiths to say so.

Yes, there are many similarities. But, yes, there are critically important differences.