Topic guide · 12 verses
Love is where the Bible begins to describe who God is, and where it ends when it describes how we should live. These passages trace love from its source in God, through the daily choices that make it real between people, to the steadfast love that nothing can pull apart. They speak to friendship, family, marriage and neighbors alike. Read them as a mirror as much as a comfort, and ask where love is asking something of you today.
“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.”
John says love is defined by what God did when he sent his Son, not by our affection for him. He loved first, and everything else follows from that.
“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.”
Perhaps the most familiar verse in Scripture: God's love for the world moved him to give his only Son so that people might have life. It shows love as costly and generous.
“But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Paul stresses that Christ died for us while we were still sinners, before we had done anything to deserve it. God's love does not wait for us to clean ourselves up.
“The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.””
The prophet imagines God present among his people, delighting in them, quieting them and rejoicing over them with singing. It is a tender picture of a God who enjoys his children.
“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.”
Paul describes love through patient, kind and humble behavior rather than through feelings or grand gestures. It is a checklist worth holding up to our closest relationships.
“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.””
Jesus gives his disciples a new command to love one another as he has loved them, and says that love will be how the world recognizes them. Love is the mark of the community.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.””
Asked for the greatest commandment, Jesus joins love for God with love for your neighbor as yourself. The two belong together and shape all the rest.
“Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”
Peter urges believers to love one another deeply, because love has the power to overlook a multitude of faults. It is a call to be generous with each other's imperfections.
“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.”
Paul lists everything imaginable, including death, life and powers, and concludes that none of it can separate us from God's love in Christ. It is a security that does not depend on our performance.
“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.”
The poet describes love as strong as death, a fire that many waters cannot put out and that cannot be bought. It celebrates committed love between two people.
“so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Paul prays that believers would be rooted in love and grasp its breadth, length, height and depth, even though it surpasses understanding. Knowing Christ's love is meant to fill a person with God's fullness.
“Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.”
John says love should be shown in actions and in truth, not only in words and talk. It is a plain test of whether love is real.
God of love, thank you for loving me first. Teach me to love the people around me with patience, honesty and generosity. Amen.
The complete Bible, free and without ads, in English and Spanish. Plus a faith community to share prayer and encouragement.
