Mark Ward
God himself is love (1 John 4:8). Love for God is the greatest commandment. Love for others is the second (Matt 22:34–40). Love is the greatest Christian virtue.
Questions about love
But what is love?
That is a rather important question. Similar questions come to mind:
- Is love a choice or a feeling—or both?
- Is my love under the power of my will?
- Is there such a thing as Christian love, a love only Christians can have?
- Can non-Christians really “love”?
- What is “agape love”?
- Should love be unconditional?
Many people do turn to do the dictionary to find out what love is. “Love” is one of the most-searched-for words at Merriam-Webster.com, I read once. There are many worse places to turn than the dictionary to study love, of course—pop music, for example, or the lengthy “Spouses” section on Hollywood stars’ Wikipedia pages. But Christians who want to know love ought to turn, ultimately, to Scripture.
In this post, I offer some Bible “data” for you (which is easy to gather using Logos; just click here). Fifty-eight passages about love are organized according to the subjects and objects of the love in each passage. That is a place to start. At the very least, soak yourself in what the Bible says about love, even if you can’t yet fully wrap your mind and heart around its teaching.
But if you do wish to do this, to wrap your mind around the Bible’s teaching on love, I’d like to offer you some help via the following video, which will show you—very practically—how to do an English Bible word study on “love” in the Logos Bible Study app.
Organizing some of the Bible’s teaching on love
And now: here are fifty-eight Bible verses about love, organized according to
a) the ultimate source of love from within the persons of the Trinity,
b) the kind of love that God has for us,
c) the love he calls us to have for him and
d) for other people, and
e) the ways in which the Bible describes the nature of love itself.
Passages about the love of the persons within the Trinity
The Bible begins with God; the Lord’s Prayer begins with God; the major historic creeds begin with God; many systematic theologies begin with God. Love begins in God. Let us begin with the love of God for God.
1. John 17:24–26
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.
2. Matthew 17:5
A bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
3. John 3:35
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
4. John 5:20
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.
5. Matthew 12:18–20
Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory.
Passages about God’s love for us
6. Exodus 20:5–6
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7. Exodus 34:6–7
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
8. Deuteronomy 4:37–39
And because he loved your fathers and chose their offspring after them and brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is this day, know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
9. Deuteronomy 7:9
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.
10. Deuteronomy 10:18
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
11. Nehemiah 9:17
They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them.
12. Psalm 51:1
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
13. Psalm 89:1–2
I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”
14. Psalm 103:11–13
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
15. Psalm 106:44–45
Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
16. Psalm 136:26
Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.
17. Isaiah 54:10
“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
18. Isaiah 63:9
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
19. Joel 2:12–13
“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”
20. Micah 7:20
You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
21. John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
22. John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
23. John 16:26–27
In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
24. Romans 5:5
Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
25. Romans 5:8
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
26. Romans 8:38–39
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
27. 2 Corinthians 13:11
Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
28. 2 Thessalonians 3:5
May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.
29. Titus 3:4–5
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
30. Hebrews 12:5–6
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
31. 1 John 3:1
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
32. 1 John 4:9–10
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
33. 1 John 4:16
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
34. Jude 1:20–21
But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
35. Revelation 1:4–5
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.
Passages on our love for God
36. Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
37. Deuteronomy 10:12–13
And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?
38. Deuteronomy 11:22–23
For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.
39. Psalm 18:1
I love you, O Lord, my strength.
40. Psalm 91:14
Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.
41. Luke 6:32
If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
42. Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
43. 1 Peter 1:8–9
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Passages about our love for others
44. Matthew 5:44–45
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
45. John 13:34–35
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
46. Romans 12:9–10
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
47. Ephesians 5:1–2
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
48. Colossians 3:12–14
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
49. 1 Thessalonians 4:9
Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another,
50. 1 Peter 3:8
Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.
51. 1 John 3:17
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
52. 1 John 4:7–8
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
53. 1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.
54. 1 John 4:20–21
If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Passages on the nature of love
55. Proverbs 10:12
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.
56. 1 Corinthians 13:4–7
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
57. 1 Corinthians 13:8–12
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
58. 1 John 3:16
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Wrap-up thoughts on love
As I mentioned in the training video at the top of the post, one of the simplest and best ways to study a verb in Scripture is to see what subjects perform that action and which objects receive it. The most important “lovers” in Scripture, the persons whose mutual love is more important than any other, are the three persons of the Trinity. All love ultimately derives from their love.
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Learn more about the theology of God’s love in the D. A. Carson Love of God Collection (3 vols.)—his The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God and Love in Hard Places are particularly excellent; or explore God’s love with these books:
God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God’s Love as the Gift of Himself
Regular price: $13.99
For the Love of God, vol. 1: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Riches of God’s Word
Regular price: $9.99
For the Love of God, vol. 2: A Daily Companion for Discovering the Treasures of God’s Word
Regular price: $13.99
Elyse Fitzpatrick
Wyatt Graham
Peter Krol
Mitch Chase