20 Verses · World English Bible
20 Bible Verses About Love
Love may be the most overused word in the English language. We love our families, our friends, our favorite songs, and a good cup of coffee, and somewhere in all that repetition the word loses its weight. Scripture restores it. When the Bible talks about love, it means something specific and demanding: the wholehearted devotion we owe to God, and the patient, practical care we owe to the people around us. Jesus went so far as to hang the entire law on those two commands. These Bible verses about love gather that teaching in one place, from the ancient command in Leviticus to love your neighbor to Paul’s famous portrait of love in 1 Corinthians 13, the chapter read at a thousand weddings and lived out in a million unglamorous kitchens.
The twenty passages below move through five themes: the greatest commandments, the character of love in 1 Corinthians 13, Jesus’ new command to love one another, what love looks like in action, and the brief but essential reminder that we love because God first loved us. (If you want to linger on God’s love toward us, our companion post on Bible verses about God’s love goes deeper.) As you read, resist the urge to skim. Open each reference in your own translation, and let one verse follow you into the rest of the day. Love in Scripture is never merely admired; it is practiced, one patient, forgiving, inconvenient act at a time, toward God and toward the people he has placed in front of us.
The Greatest Commandments
When a questioner asked Jesus to name the greatest commandment, he did not hesitate: love God with everything you have, and love your neighbor as yourself. He was quoting Moses, which means the call to love is as old as the covenant itself. These verses hold the two commands together, because Scripture never lets us keep one without the other.
“Jesus said to him,“‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’This is the first commandment. The second is like this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no other commandment greater than these.””
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.”
““‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.”
Love Is Patient: 1 Corinthians 13
Paul’s great love chapter was written to a quarrelsome church, not a wedding party, which makes it more useful, not less. Love here is not a feeling to fall into but a set of habits: patience, kindness, truth-telling, endurance. These verses include his sobering claim that without love, even the most impressive spiritual life amounts to nothing at all.
“Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.”
“If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass 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 don’t have love, I am nothing.”
“But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.”
“Let all that you do be done in love.”
A New Command: Love One Another
On the night before the cross, Jesus gave his disciples one command to mark them forever: love one another as I have loved you. The letters of John and Peter pick up the theme and press it into daily church life. These verses remind us that love among believers is not optional; it is the family resemblance the world is meant to notice.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.””
“Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”
“And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins.”
“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good. In love of the brothers be tenderly affectionate to one another; in honor prefer one another,”
Love in Action
Scripture is suspicious of love that never leaves the realm of words. John says it plainly: let us love with actions and in truth. These verses get concrete, calling us to serve one another, to let love bind a community together, to lay down life itself, and to extend love even to enemies, the place where love stops being easy and starts being Christlike.
“My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth.”
“For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.”
“Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.”
““This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.”
Because He First Loved Us
All our loving is a response. We did not generate love on our own and offer it to God; he demonstrated his love first, while we were still sinners, and everything we give away is drawn from that deep well. These closing verses keep the order straight, because love that forgets its source eventually runs dry.
“We love him,because he first loved us.”
“But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
“Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.”
A Prayer About Love
Father, you have loved us with a love we did not earn and cannot exhaust. Teach us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Where our love has grown thin, toward family, toward friends, toward the people who are hard to love, fill us again from your own heart. Make our love patient and kind, slow to anger, quick to forgive, and visible in what we actually do. Amen.
Common Questions
What does the Bible say about love?
Scripture treats love as the center of everything God asks of us. Jesus said all the law and the prophets hang on two commands: love God wholly and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). Paul adds that love is patient, kind, and enduring (1 Corinthians 13:4-7), and John insists that real love shows up in action, not just words. In the Bible, love is a practice first and a feeling second.
What is the most famous Bible verse about love?
For many people it is 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, the passage read at countless weddings, beginning with love is patient, love is kind. John 3:16 is equally beloved for describing God’s love for the world, and John 13:34-35, where Jesus commands his followers to love one another, is close behind. Each one highlights a different side of love: its character, its source, and its practice.
What are the two greatest commandments?
In Matthew 22:37-39 and Mark 12:30-31, Jesus names them: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. He was quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, drawing the whole law into two loves. The order matters, since love for God fuels love for people, but Jesus never allows us to choose one and skip the other.
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