What Does the Bible Say About Love?

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

— 1 John 4:8 (NIV)

The Bible says God is love, and that he loved the world by giving his one and only Son so that whoever believes has eternal life. It says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all you are, and the commandment like it is to love your neighbor as yourself. It says love in a marriage is measured by the way Christ loved the church, and that love is patient and kind, rejoices with the truth, and refuses envy, boasting, and a record of wrongs. A grouped list of those verses, one line at a time, is Bible verses about love. A free printable, one verse a day for thirty days, is 30 Days of Love Verses. Plain guides to individual verses are Bible verse meanings. This page is the answer.

God's love

Scripture names who God is, then shows what he did. 1 John 4:8 says, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." John writes "God is love." The subject is God. Love is what is said about him, so the sentence does not hand the word over to whatever people feel. 1 John 4:8 meaning stays on that verse.

The next verses show the love in a sending. "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him" (1 John 4:9). John 3:16 tells the same gift in the Gospel: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." The love is the reason for the giving. Eternal life is for the one who believes. John 3:16 meaning stays with that sentence.

Romans 5:8 places the timing. "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The demonstration comes while the person is still a sinner. God's love in Romans 5:8 stays with that demonstration.

The close of the argument is assurance. Romans 8:38-39 says Paul is convinced that nothing in all creation "will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Death, life, angels, rulers, the present, the future, height, depth, and anything still unnamed all fail at the same point. Romans 8:38-39 meaning stays with that claim. Love given before it was earned, and not cut off by anything in creation, is What does the Bible say about unconditional love. The Greek word for that love is What is agape love, and the map of the other love-words is Types of love in the Bible.

Love for God and for a neighbor

Jesus was asked which commandment is the greatest. Matthew 22:37-39 records the answer: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind," and "Love your neighbor as yourself." He calls the first the greatest commandment and the second like it. All the Law and the Prophets hang on those two. What the Bible says about love in Matthew 22 stays with that pair.

The order is God's love first. 1 John 4:19 says, "We love because he first loved us." Love for a neighbor is still a command. It is love that answers love already given. John 13:34 sets the measure inside the church: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another." The standard is the way Jesus has loved his own. Love one another stays with that command.

1 Peter 4:8 puts deep love above the other instructions in that chapter: "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins." 1 Peter 4:8 meaning stays with covering sins. Colossians 3:14 tells the church to put love on over the other virtues, "which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:14 meaning stays with that bond. The same commandments, read across friendship, family, and marriage together, are What does the Bible say about relationships.

Love in marriage

Marriage is one place this love is lived, and Scripture calls it a covenant. Genesis 2:24 says a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Jesus quotes that line and adds, "Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate" (Matthew 19:6). The joining is God's, and Jesus tells people not to pull it apart.

Inside that union, Ephesians 5:25 sets the measure on Christ's self-giving: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Song of Solomon 8:6 is the beloved asking to be worn as a seal: "Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death." The claim is exclusive, close, and public. Song of Solomon 8:6 meaning stays with the seal. Love in marriage: Ephesians 5 stays with the husband's love beside Christ's.

A list of the verses that say what marriage is, is Bible verses about marriage. The direct answer is What does the Bible say about marriage. The covenant study is Love and marriage. Readings for the ceremony are Wedding Bible verses. Readings for years already lived are Anniversary Bible verses.

What love is

1 Corinthians 13 is the chapter people call the love chapter. Paul has been ranking spiritual gifts. He says that without love, speech, prophecy, knowledge, and even a sacrificed body come to nothing. Then he describes love as a way of treating a person.

"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" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).

The chapter ends, "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13). The whole argument is 1 Corinthians 13. A short quiz that pairs common ways love is received with a verse is the Bible love language quiz. The four verses people quote first are 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 meaning. The longer study of that portrait is the 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 deep dive. The close, that the greatest of these is love, is 1 Corinthians 13:13.

What love is not

The same portrait keeps the word specific. Love refuses envy, boasting, pride, contempt, self-seeking, a short fuse, and a ledger of wrongs. It refuses delight in what is evil. It rejoices with the truth. A warmth that will not tell the truth is a different thing from the love Paul describes.

"It always protects" in 1 Corinthians 13:7 is love's endurance: it keeps protecting, trusting, hoping, and persevering. 1 Corinthians 13:7 meaning says the line does not mean hiding harm or staying naive. Abuse is outside what this verse calls love. Letting go of a record of wrongs, as the Lord forgave, is What does the Bible say about forgiveness.

1 John 4:8 says God is love. It does not say that whatever people call love gets to define God. John shows the love he means in the next verses: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). The definition starts with God.

Questions people ask

What does the Bible say about love?

The Bible says God is love, and that he loved the world by giving his one and only Son. It says love the Lord with all you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. It says married love follows Christ's self-giving, and that love is patient and kind and rejoices with the truth. The verses, grouped by theme, are Bible verses about love.

What does the Bible say about God's love?

It says God is love (1 John 4:8), that he loved the world by giving his Son (John 3:16), that he demonstrated that love while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8), and that nothing in creation can separate his people from that love in Christ (Romans 8:38-39). 1 John 4:8 meaning stays on the nature. John 3:16 meaning stays on the gift.

What does the Bible say about loving others?

Jesus names love for a neighbor as the commandment like the greatest one: love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39). He tells his disciples to love one another as he has loved them (John 13:34). John adds the order: "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Matthew 22 stays with the two commandments.

What does the Bible say about love in marriage?

It says the two become one flesh (Genesis 2:24), that what God has joined together, let no one separate (Matthew 19:6), and that husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25). Song of Solomon 8:6 asks to be set as a seal, because love is as strong as death. The direct answer is What does the Bible say about marriage. The marriage list is Bible verses about marriage. Ceremony readings are Wedding Bible verses.

What does the Bible say love is not?

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says love refuses envy, boasting, pride, dishonor, self-seeking, a short temper, and a record of wrongs. It refuses delight in evil and rejoices with the truth. The verse about protecting is endurance, and 1 Corinthians 13:7 says it does not permit hiding harm. 1 John 4:8 says God is love, and the next verses show that love in the Son who was sent.

Where is the love chapter in the Bible?

The love chapter is 1 Corinthians 13. It says gifts without love are nothing, that love is patient and kind, that love never fails, and that the greatest of faith, hope, and love is love. The chapter page is 1 Corinthians 13.

Where is the list of Bible verses about love?

The list, grouped by God's love, love for others, marriage, 1 Corinthians 13, and fear and assurance, is Bible verses about love. This page answers the question. That page lines the verses up.