What Does the Bible Say About Love? A Selection of 28 Verses
What does the Bible say about love? Love is one of the most prominent themes in the Bible. Enjoy a selection of 28 verses about love.
God’s Love For Us
How can we know if God loves us? Quite simply, the most famous verse in the Bible spells it out for us. Read John 3:16 and rejoice in the knowledge that God loves you!
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him
John 3:16 NIV
should not perish but have eternal life.
Now imagine your name in the verse. “For God so loved ____________.
Rest secure in the knowledge that God loves you!
Love and Conflict
The Proverbs are found in the Old Testament and are full of timeless advice. Proverbs 10:12 teaches us that the best way to answer hatred is with love.
Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.
Proverbs 10:12 NIV
Love is Not Optional
We may not feel like loving those around us, but Jesus commands His followers to show love. Love is not an option for Christ’s followers.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
John 15:12 NIV
God is Love
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
I John 4:8 NIV
God’s love is a template for us. If we want to know what true love looks like, we only have to look at God. His love is everlasting, constant, unconditional, sacrificial, unchanging, merciful, gracious and tender. We need to demonstrate a similar kind of love in our lives.
Love and Sins
We all sin, but forgiveness is available to us. Love and forgiveness are connected. God loves us and forgives us. If we truly love each other, our love will forgive “a multitude of sins” committed against us.
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
I Peter 4:8 NIV
Love Your Wives
Too often we hear of men who wish to dominate their wives and lord it over them. Here we are reminded that we are to love our lives sacrificially. Sacrificially! We are to give ourselves up for our wives just as Christ gave Himself up for us.
Men, let us be Christlike in loving our wives.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
Ephesians 5:25 NIV
Let Your Love Be Faithful and Enduring
Love is not a fickle thing that comes and goes with feelings. God’s love is enduring and faithful always. Let us love like God, and not like a Hollywood movie
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.
Proverbs 3:3-4 NIV
Devotion and Honor
Paul teaches us here to love each other with a brotherly affection. We are to love our fellow Christians as if they were our siblings – which they are – in Christ. That love should mean that we put the needs of others, whatever their status, above our own – just as Christ taught us!
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10 NIV
God’s Love Makes Us Complete
How can we see God if He is Spirit? After all, even Moses only saw God from behind. We can see Him in the lives of Christ followers who are living in and experiencing His love. He is seen in Christians who exude God’s presence. This love then spills out to others.
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is
I John 4:12 NIV
made complete in us.
Forgiveness and Love
When we know God loves us and forgives us, we operate in a different realm. We live in a realm of love and forgiveness – a realm where kindness and tenderheartedness operate instead of cruelty and hardheartedness.
Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ
Ephesians 4:32 NIV
has forgiven you.
Song of Solomon
The unusual book titled “Song of Solomon” can seem confusing at first. For example, there is no mention of God’s name in the text. So why is it included in the Scriptures? Is the book, which is a type of wisdom literature written in poetic form, allegorical. Is it intended to be read literally as a love poem? Is it a model of God honoring marriage? Scholars have different opinions. Whichever theory is correct, we can learn about love. In this verse segment a lover, who is dreaming, finds her love. Her delight is palpable – as our delight should be when we find the one we love!
I have found the one whom my soul loves.
Song of Solomon 3:4 NIV
I Am My Beloved
Knowing that Song of Solomon is a love poem makes this verse simple to understand at face value. It is a wonderful thing to be love, and it is a wonderful thing to love.
I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.
Song of Solomon 2:14 NIV
The Embodiment of Love
If God is love, how could we ever hope to understand what love truly is – unless He came to explain it to us. Jesus, God in flesh, is the embodiment of perfect love. Love became flesh and lived among us.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 NIV
The Virtue of Love
Virtues are positive moral qualities. Examples of virtues are honesty, generosity, compassion, steadfastness and courage. In Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae in Asia Minor, now known as Turkey he places love above all virtues.
And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Colossians 3:14 NIV
The Sincerity of Love
Don’t fake love. False love deceives. False love is evil. Be honest and true in your love for others. Demonstrate sincerity. Always focus on doing good. Good comes from God and evil comes from the enemy.
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
Romans 12:19 NIV
How Do You Wish to be Treated?
We all wish to be treated well. Jesus reminds us that we must…
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Luke 6:31 NIV
Encourage Each Other
We must learn to encourage each other to show love and kindness. Our human nature leans towards self-preservation, selfishness and self-serving behaviors. In our sinful state we need reminding to think and act opposite to our natural tendencies. That is why a good Christian community will encourage love and good deeds.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV
Perfect Unity
Perfect unity is the hallmark of a loving couple who are grounded in the Word of God. When we leave our home the new focus should be on building a strong, committed, loving relationship with our spouse. The new bond becomes the strongest.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2:24 NIV
Love is Inextinguishable
Solomon, the wise king of Israel, realized that true love is enduring and undying. For centuries parents have found that they cannot redirect their children’s love for another. To try to do so often produces terrible consequences – like in Shakespeare’s tale of Romeo and Juliet.
Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.
Song of Solomon 8:7 NIV
God’s Love Never Fails
In our weakness, we may doubt God’s love for us, but the Psalmist knew that His love is unfailing. When we are struggling we can trust Him to be true to us.
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you.
Psalm 143:8 NIV
Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.
What is Love Like?
What does the Bible say about love? If you are looking for the definitive biblical definition of love you need look no further than this famous passage from Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church. Often quoted at wedding ceremonies, Paul’s Spirit inspired literary masterpiece clearly states what love is and what it is not.
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.
I Corinthians 13:4-5 NIV
Direct Your Hearts
We can be lured into loving all manner of impure things. However, the Lord wants to direct our hearts into a perfect love that comes from God and finds its example in the life of Christ.
May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.
II Thessalonians 3:5 NIV
The Lavish Love of God
We may think we love well, but our love cannot compare with the lavish love of the Lord. It is astonishing that a people who have turned their back on God can be welcomed into His family and be called His children. But be aware, when we identify ourselves with Him, the world will reject us, just as Christ was rejected.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
I John 3:1 NIV
Love and Hatred Contrasted.
Hatred always brings destruction in its wake. Hatred between siblings can be disastrous. Hatred between neighbours can result in pointless, angry lawsuits. Hatred between leaders can bring outright war. A love that is rooted in God manifests itself in forgiveness, bringing the opposite of hate.
Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.
Proverbs 10:12 NIV
Do You Love the Lord?
Calling on God is the mark of a true follower. The writer of this Psalm recognizes God’s love at work in his life and loves the Lord in turn. A true follower of the Lord will love Him even when the road seems uncertain, the skies are clouded over, and the sun is obscured. A true follower of God will love Him always.
I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.
Psalm 116:1-2 NIV
Love in Abundance
Jude wishes his readers to have love in abundance. He wishes that their lives will be blessed to overflowing with manifestations of God’s love. This in the company of the twins of mercy and peace.
Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
Jude 1:2 NIV
The Love of God
We can rely on many things in life, but nothing is as certain as the love that God has for us. If we are uncertain as to what love is, we only need to look at Jesus and model our attempts at love on Him. His love animates us. His love propels us to love others. His love manifest in our lives is proof of the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
I John 4:16 NIV
Doing Love
Paul says,
Do everything in love.
I Corinthians 16:14 NIV
What else could we do if we belong to Him? Love!
Which are your favourite Bible verses about love? We would love to hear from you. All the above verses come from the NIV version of the Bible. Comment below or contact us at HopeStreamRadio.
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