Bible Verses About Love

In many ways, the Bible is a love story.  It’s a story about God’s everlasting love for us and how our love for Him is the key to living a fulfilled and complete life on this earth; and how to continue that life into eternity.  That’s an amazing story and if you’ve never read the Bible from cover-to-cover, I suggest you set aside some time to do just that as soon as possible.  For now, let’s take a close look at some of the most revealing Bible verses about love.  When asked about the most important commandments, Jesus said there are two things that when put together, fulfill the whole law.  First we must love God and second we should love our neighbor.  He was really quoting from the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 6:5 (NASB)

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” 

Leviticus 19:18 (NASB)

“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” 

As we study more Bible verses about love, we discover that love starts with God.  God first loved us and we connect to that love by loving God in return.  As a result of our love for God, we will then love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  This is a chain reaction akin to an electrical circuit that gets plugged into the main grid and spreads out to cities and towns down the line.  The main source of love is God and we can tap into that awesome power and share it with others.  This is important, because the Bible tells us that those who lack love are in trouble.

Psalm 145:20 (NASB)

“The LORD keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.” 

God is a loving father and will make attempts to push people in the right direction before he seeks to destroy them.  Elsewhere, in the New Testament, Jesus tells us to love our enemies.  This indicates that God is ready to love the wicked if they respond to His discipline and turn from their wicked ways.

Proverbs 3:12 (NASB)

 “For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” 

Tough love was not invented recently; God perfected this method of training a long time ago.  I dare say we all need a little tough love from God on occasion.  I know my God is fair and gives the wicked every opportunity to turn away from their wickedness and seek a loving relationship with God.  The Bible tells us that anyone who wants to partake of God’s love has that option if they are sincere in their effort.

Proverbs 8:17 (NASB)

 “I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me.” 

The above Bible verses about love confirm  that God is the source of love and that God loves those who love Him.  But what exactly is love?  How does the Bible describe love?

Song of Solomon 8:7 (NASB)

“Many waters cannot quench love, Nor will rivers overflow it; If a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, It would be utterly despised.” 

Love is of enormous value and immense in size.  Love is not something we should take lightly.  This is very different from the ordinary human love we may have experienced apart from God.  God’s love is pure and undefiled, far more powerful that anything we humans can conjure up.  Consider the most well-known Bible scripture of all:

John 3:16 (NASB)

 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

What an extraordinary act of love that was.  There is no greater love!

John 15:13 (NASB)

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” 

We will never match the love God has for us.  Yet the power of God’s love is available to us if we simply love Him in return as best we can.  Love is the one thing there is no Biblical law against because it does no wrong.

Romans 13:10 (NASB)

“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” 

These Bible Verses About Love Point the Way

Love is truly the most important thing we can take away from the Bible.  If we don’t have love, nothing else is of any importance.  And when we take hold of God’s pure love, we take on a force that endures all things and nurtures everyone in every situation.

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 (NASB)

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ” 

What a beautiful world we would live in if everyone was able to walk with this kind of love each and every day.  We as mere humans will never be able to live a purely loved filled life but the Bible tells us this has to be our goal.

1 Corinthians 16:14 (NASB)

“Let all that you do be done in love.” 

The Bible offers us some practical steps to achieve this goal.

2 Corinthians 13:11 (NASB)

“Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” 

Jesus Christ gave His life on the Cross for us and the Bible offers that as an example of how a husband should love his wife.

Ephesians 5:25 (NASB)

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her” 

The Bible tells us that love brings people together like nothing else.

Colossians 3:14 (NASB)

“Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”

The Bible tells us that sincere love can even protect us from the wrongs we do in our life.

1 Peter 4:8 (NASB)

“Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” 

Even though love is a constant theme in the Bible and Jesus teaches to love unconditionally, we are told that this world we live in is not worthy of our love.  The love of money, power, and personal pleasure found so common in this world is abhorrent to God.

1 John 2:15 (NASB)

“Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 

Love for the things of this world is a sure sign that you are not yet connected to the pure love of God.

Bible Verses About Love Point Us to God

Perhaps one of the most important distinctions the Bible makes about love is that it is not just a feeling  – it is an action.  Love is something you do, not something you feel.  If you are connected to the pure love of God, you will be finding ways to act out on that love every day.

1 John 3:18 (NASB)

“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” 

The Bible has much more to say about love than what I’ve presented in this brief study.  It’s difficult to paint a clear picture of love without a careful reading of the entire Bible.  When you study the Bible from cover-to-cover, you will come to realize a more vivid understanding of this extraordinary force.  If you truly know love, you have been touched by God.

1 John 4:7 (NASB)

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” 

The source of love is God.  All we have to do to tap into that source is reciprocate.

1 John 4:19 (NASB)

“We love, because He first loved us.” 

Indeed the most profound statement made about love in the Bible is the simple understanding that God is love.  Know God and you know love.  Seek God and you will find His pure love.

1 John 4:16 (NASB)

“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 

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