Love is a central theme in the Bible. God’s love for humanity and the love we are called to have for God and others are constantly emphasized throughout Scripture. Here are some key Bible verses about love from both the Old and New Testaments:
Old Testament Verses About Love
Leviticus 19:18 – Love your neighbor as yourself
“You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
This verse commands us to love others just as much as we love ourselves. Loving others summarizes the ethic taught in the Old Testament law.
Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love God with all your heart, soul, and might
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
This verse establishes loving God wholeheartedly as the greatest commandment in the law. Our love for God should inspire complete devotion.
Deuteronomy 7:9 – God keeps His loving covenant
“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.”
This verse emphasizes God’s faithfulness to His covenant promises. His faithful love endures forever.
Deuteronomy 10:18-19 – God loves the sojourner
“He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”
God loves and cares for those vulnerable and in need. We are called to model His love for foreigners, orphans, and widows.
Psalm 136 – God’s lovingkindness endures forever
All 26 verses in Psalm 136 end with the phrase: “for his steadfast love endures forever.” This psalm celebrates God’s eternal, faithful love for His people and all He has done for them.
New Testament Verses About Love
Matthew 22:37-39 – Love God and neighbor
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 to emphasize loving God and others are the two greatest commandments that fulfill the whole law.
John 3:16 – God’s love through Christ
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
This popular verse encapsulates the gospel. God showed His infinite love by sending His only Son for the salvation of the world.
John 13:34-35 – Love one another
“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.”
Jesus commands His followers to love each other as He loved us. Our love shows we are His disciples.
John 15:12-13 – Lay down your life for friends
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
The greatest love is sacrificial. Christ’s example calls us to sacrificially love and serve others.
Romans 5:8 – God shows His love for us
“…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
God didn’t wait for us to deserve His love. He gave His Son to die for us even when we were unworthy sinners.
Romans 8:38-39 – Nothing can separate us from God’s love
“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.”
Absolutely nothing can separate believers from God’s eternal love because of Christ’s redemption.
Romans 13:8-10 – Love fulfills the law
“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Loving others fulfills the essence of God’s commands, for love does no harm to our neighbor.
1 Corinthians 13:1-8, 13 – Love is greater than gifts
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
1 Corinthians 13 describes the primacy and superiority of love compared to spiritual gifts. Love is greater and lasts forever.
1 Corinthians 16:14 – Do everything in love
“Let all that you do be done in love.”
This exhortation sums up how love should be our motivation in everything. Acting in love fulfills God’s will.
Galatians 5:22 – Love as a fruit of the Spirit
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…”
Love is the first characteristic listed as a fruit or evidence of the Holy Spirit working in believers’ lives.
Ephesians 3:17-19 – Comprehending Christ’s love
“…that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Paul prays that the Ephesians would grasp the full dimensions of Christ’s perfect love, which surpasses human understanding.
Ephesians 5:25 – Husbands, love your wives
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…”
Husbands are commanded to sacrificially love their wives just as Christ loved the church in His sacrifice.
Philippians 2:2 – Be united in love
“Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”
Unity in the church flows from sharing the same sacrificial, Christ-like love for one another.
Colossians 3:14 – Love binds virtues together
“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Love holds all godly virtues together in unity and is greater than any individual virtue.
1 Thessalonians 4:9-10 – Love one another more and more
“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…But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more…”
The Thessalonians already demonstrated Christ-like love, but Paul urges them to continue growing in loving others.
Hebrews 6:10 – God will not forget love shown
“For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.”
God remembers and rewards those who love and serve others in Christ’s name. Our love and service matter.
1 Peter 4:8 – Love covers sins
“Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.”
Sincere, earnest love for others overlooks and forgives wrongs. Christ-like love is forgiving.
1 John 3:1 – See the Father’s love
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”
Christians are dearly loved children of God. Contemplate the Father’s marvelous love.
1 John 4:7-12 – Love one another
“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… if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
Our love for others comes from God dwelling in us. Keeping His commands means actively loving one another.
1 John 4:16-17 – God is love
“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.”
The essence of God’s nature is perfectly displayed in His love. Abiding in love connects us to God.
Jude 1:21 – Keep yourselves in God’s love
“…keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”
Actively remaining in God’s love brings assurance of eternal life through Christ’s mercy.
These verses provide a sampling of the Bible’s many revelations about love. God is the source of love. His greatest commands call for wholehearted love directed first toward Him, then toward others. Christ perfectly modeled sacrificial love by giving His life for us. As children of God, we are completely enveloped by His love and empowered to love others through the Spirit. By obeying God’s commands to love, we remain in fellowship with Him and fulfill His purposes.