Bible Verses About Love
The Bible describes love as patient, kind and faithful, and says it comes first from God. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 sets out what real love looks like, John 3:16 shows God's love in sending his Son, and 1 John 4:19 says we are able to love because he loved us first.
Love is the thread that runs through the whole of scripture, from the covenant God makes with his people to the command Jesus gives his friends. These verses are gathered around four questions: what love is, how much God loves you, how to love the people around you, and what love looks like at home.
What love really looks like
Love in the Bible is less a feeling than a way of treating people. It is patient when we are tired and kind when we would rather be right. These verses are worth reading slowly, as a mirror rather than a checklist.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (BSB)
And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13 (BSB)
Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8 (BSB)
And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity.
Colossians 3:14 (BSB)
How much God loves you
Before scripture asks anything of us, it tells us we are loved. God's love does not wait for us to tidy ourselves up first. If you find it hard to believe you are loved, start here.
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (BSB)
But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (BSB)
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 (BSB)
This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:9-10 (BSB)
The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.
Jeremiah 31:3 (BSB)
Loving the people around you
Jesus made love the sign that people belong to him. It shows up in ordinary choices: a kind word, a meal, staying when it would be easier to leave. These verses move love from words into actions.
A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35 (BSB)
Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:7-8 (BSB)
We love because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19 (BSB)
Jesus declared, “‘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.’
Matthew 22:37-39 (BSB)
Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.
1 John 3:18 (BSB)
Love in marriage and family
The people closest to us are often the hardest to love well, simply because they see us at our worst. Scripture speaks of a love that is strong, loyal and willing to give itself away. These verses are often read at weddings, and they are just as good on an ordinary Tuesday.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
Ephesians 5:25 (BSB)
Set me as a seal over your heart, as a seal upon your arm. For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unrelenting as Sheol. Its sparks are fiery flames, the fiercest blaze of all. Mighty waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, his offer would be utterly scorned.
Song of Songs 8:6-7 (BSB)
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. For if one falls down, his companion can lift him up; but pity the one who falls without another to help him up! Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (BSB)
Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all transgressions.
Proverbs 10:12 (BSB)
A prayer
Loving God, thank you that your love came to me before I ever looked for it. Teach me to rest in it, so I stop trying to earn what you have already given. Make my love patient when I am tired and kind when I feel hurt. Help me to love the people in front of me today, not just in words but in what I do. Where love has gone cold in me, warm it again. Amen.
Questions people ask
What is the most famous Bible verse about love?
John 3:16 is probably the best known, because it sums up God's love for the whole world in a single sentence. For human love, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is the passage most people know, and it is read at countless weddings. Together they show love as something God gives first and we then pass on.
Which chapter of the Bible is called the love chapter?
1 Corinthians 13 is often called the love chapter. Paul wrote it to a church that was proud of its spiritual gifts, reminding them that without love those gifts count for nothing. It describes love by what it does and what it refuses to do, and ends by naming love as the greatest of faith, hope and love.
What does agape mean in the Bible?
Agape is one of the Greek words for love used in the New Testament. It usually describes a self-giving love that seeks the good of the other person, whatever it costs. It is the word used for God's love for the world and for the love Christians are called to show one another.
What does the Bible say about loving your neighbour?
When asked for the greatest commandment, Jesus named loving God with everything you have, and then loving your neighbour as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). In the parable of the Good Samaritan he made clear that a neighbour is anyone in need, not only the people we already like.
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Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is in the public domain.