The top Bible verses about love offer views of love that is contrary to our culture. We use love as a term of affection, not as a term that challenges our affections. When the Bible says to love our enemies or love our neighbors, God is challenging us to stretch out our affections into categories we would otherwise want to run away from. When the Bible says to love the Lord, our God, He is asking us to come in close and surrender all of our earthly loves. When our community asks us to love our neighbors, which it would never do, it’s really only asking us to tolerate them and not cause trouble for law enforcement or anyone else.<\/p>\n
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But God’s love is wrapped and wrapped again in his story with humanity. It’s not a love that dips down occasionally; It’s a love that is a driving force in nature all around us. And we are intimately part of the story. We are made in his image and are cared for more than the birds or flowers or anything else. We are loved beyond measure and worth.<\/p>\n
Here are some top verses that point to the story of God’s love and how we ought to love him and each other. The top Bible verses about love, broken into 5 different categories:<\/p>\n
<\/a> <\/p>\n “If we have got the true love of God shed abroad in our hearts, we will show it in our lives. We will not have to go up and down the earth proclaiming it. We will show it in everything we say or do.” – Dwight L. Moody<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “A new commandment\u00a0I give to you,\u00a0that you love one another:\u00a0just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” –\u00a0<\/span><\/span>John 13:34-35<\/em><\/p>\n Jesus unsettles us again by introducing a new command, that we should love one another as he loves us. Why? Because it’s a witness for the surpassing love of Jesus and the way it has shaped and changed us. The pagans who run around and use one another for their own gain, that’s not the picture of the church. Jesus died and says we need to take up our cross and follow him. We do it together and love one another on the journey. In it, the world sees a love that is beyond comprehension, a love that is contagious.<\/p>\n “Whoever\u00a0loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.” – 1 John 2:20<\/em><\/p>\n It’s often said that your family truly knows your strengths and weaknesses. How we treat those who are immediately around us will demonstrate our commitment to the Gospel. In many ways, it’s much easier to be kind to someone you just met and may not meet again. Those who are constant in your life know the thorns, as Paul calls his weakness. Let us love one another and be patient.<\/p>\n “The aim of our charge is\u00a0love\u00a0that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” – 1 Timothy 1:5\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Like an archer whose aim is always on the bulls-eye, our life needs to have one target: love. It’s not love from a rock song or love that seeks any gain. It’s love that stems from a pure heart and a good conscience, knowing that we can only love because Jesus first loved us and made himself the pointer to the kingdom of God. If we love in artificial ways, we know it. We are seeking claim on someone, or we’re wanting something in return \u2013 a trade-off that benefits us maybe more than whomever we’re loving at the moment.<\/p>\n “Enjoy life with the wife whom you\u00a0love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.” – Ecclesiastes 9:9<\/em><\/p>\n Solomon offers great advice about the affections we should keep. He made many mistakes in his life and Ecclesiastes is, in part, a listing of all of his regrets. We should learn from him and pray continually that our lives will reflect God’s hope for us. The man of so many women simply says, “Enjoy life with the wife whom you\u00a0love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.” It’s advice laced with a healthy dose of reality. It’s not easy, but love your spouse and keep at it. Many things are vain and useless in life, but that’s not one. Be faithful and stay committed. We know our marriage relationship is a testimony to Jesus’ relationship with his church.<\/p>\n “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should\u00a0love\u00a0one another.” – 1 John 3:11<\/em><\/p>\n God’s love didn’t come into the world and exit it. He didn’t simply pop in for a visit. God’s love toward humanity is wrapped again and again in a narrative, a story from the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Gethsemane<\/span>, and well beyond. It’s a message that we’ve heard “from the beginning” that we should love because Jesus taught us to love, because in his steadfast love, he moved Abraham to start a story of covenant through Isaac and so on. When we doubt if we are loved, let’s reflect on Scripture and prayerfully be reassured that we are indeed loved with the steadfast love of Almighty God.<\/p>\n “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly\u00a0love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” – 1 Peter 3:8<\/em><\/p>\n What is brotherly love? It’s the love that Jesus models, a love that is rooted in self-sacrifice and appreciation, not for gifts or talents or position, but in the truth that our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are on the same path, working out their salvation with fear and trembling. Let us rally for one another and spur each other toward lives of holiness and wholeness.<\/p>\n “You have heard that it was said,\u00a0\u2018You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.\u2019<\/span><\/span>\u00a0But I say to you,\u00a0Love your enemies and\u00a0pray for those who persecute you…” – Matthew 5:43-44<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n You’ve probably heard the adage that if you have no enemies, you likely don’t know love, or at least the depths of love. When we define our enemies\u2013and they can be of all stripes from those who personally annoy us to the one that cuts us off in traffic to the one that openly persecutes us\u2013we put a face on Jesus’ call. That’s the person, those are the people he wants us to love, not passively, but aggressively.<\/p>\n “If anyone says, ‘I\u00a0love\u00a0God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not\u00a0love\u00a0his brother whom he has seen cannot\u00a0love\u00a0God whom he has not seen.” – 1 John 4:20<\/em><\/p>\n The Christian life is not only right thinking, it’s right living. If you think all the right theology and bang around with all the right answers, but you hate people, none of it matters. You’re the chief sinner that uses Christianity to solve all your internal doubts about purpose and eternity, but you never use it as a salve to love your brother and love God in active ways.<\/p>\n “No one has ever seen God; if we\u00a0love\u00a0one another, God abides in us and his\u00a0love\u00a0is perfected in us.” – 1 John 4:12<\/em><\/p>\n In many ways, our love for each other is an open pronouncement of God’s kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven. It’s a protest to all the talk of tolerance, because tolerance is far too easy. Love demands we engage and surrender our selfishness and agendas. It is here, in those moments, that we are more fully made perfect. It’s not sitting on a column as the stoics who tried desperately to find peace and solace. It’s in the middle of the dirt and grime of life that we see God working in and through us, loving that pushes past our understanding.<\/p>\n “Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” –\u00a0Deuteronomy 10:19<\/em><\/p>\n Loving our neighbor is not a new command. As you know, Jesus was quoting Leviticus and Deuteronomy. I like how Deuteronomy puts it: “Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” We were all alienated from God because of our sin, and brought into redemption by God’s reach toward us. It is his grace, not our good looks or works or position, in case we might boast about anything we did to merit favor. That’s what gives cause to loving our neighbor. It’s the story of God’s intervening in time – the longer story of Egypt and Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the shorter story of him tapping us on the shoulder in an invitation to follow him.<\/p>\n “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?<\/span><\/span>\u00a0And if you greet only your brothers,\u00a0what more are you doing than others? Do not even\u00a0the Gentiles do the same?” –\u00a0Matthew 5:46-47<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Jesus puts us on the spot about love and then\u00a0he throws this zinger at the disciples in the next verse: “<\/span><\/span>You therefore must be\u00a0perfect,\u00a0as your heavenly Father is perfect.” When we follow Jesus, we are obligated to love widely and to love without judgement. It makes us vulnerable, but it will form us into the people God is asking us to become.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n “Better is a dinner of herbs where\u00a0love\u00a0is than a fattened ox and hatred with it.” –\u00a0Proverbs 15:17<\/em><\/p>\n Proverbs 15:17 is a great reminder of priorities. If we are pursuing riches or fame or legacy, we might get one or all of these things. It might afford us attention and magnificent feasts that satisfy us in the moment. It doesn’t automatically lead to hate, but Proverbs warns us that it might. Our highest good should be to love God and nothing else. When we do, we won’t care as much about our circumstances since he is pursuing us in and through them. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.” -Augustine<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.<\/span>\u00a0And if I have\u00a0prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith,\u00a0so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.<\/span>\u00a0If I give away all I have, and\u00a0if I deliver up my body to be burned,\u00a0but have not love, I gain nothing.” – 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n I Corinthians 13 levels all of us. We lose our footing and our true intentions are exposed as conceited, selfish, and sinful. Whenever I read I Corinthians, I’m convicted on how loud I am. I’m clanging around life wanting my own way, seeking my own comforts. We all want a legacy. I Corinthians reminds us that we should hunt after true love and not those things that prop us up as “good” and “wise” and “sacrificial.” We should love because we should<\/em> and maybe that will begin to develop into because we want to<\/em>.<\/p>\n “Put on then, as\u00a0God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,\u00a0compassionate hearts,\u00a0kindness,\u00a0humility, meekness, and patience,<\/span>\u00a0bearing with one another and,\u00a0if one has a complaint against another,\u00a0forgiving each other;\u00a0as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.<\/span>\u00a0And above all these put on\u00a0love, which\u00a0binds everything together in\u00a0perfect harmony.” –\u00a0Colossians 3:12-14<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Similar to 1 Corinthians 13, Paul tells us what we ought to be showcasing the fruit of what it means to follow Jesus. The root of it all is love. “Above all,” Paul says, “put on love.” It’s our clothing, our speech, our attitude, our outlook, our daily devotion. If we put on anything else, we are like the fateful king who was convinced he was dressed in the best clothes, but instead was dressed in nothing at all.<\/p>\n “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since\u00a0love\u00a0covers a multitude of sins.” –\u00a01 Peter 4:8<\/em><\/p>\n Love covers our sins. We know this by Jesus’ death. We also know this in practice. If you have a longtime friend, you may have experienced this\u00a0covering.\u00a0<\/em>You love them because of the history you have together and the goodwill you share. You just love them in spite of all their weaknesses. You don’t overlook the weakness, but you don’t use it as a basis for judgement. That’s a little of what Peter is talking about. We are all sinners who are working on what it means to love… so love, and Jesus will work in our lives to make dwelling in us and eradicate our sin. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.” – Brennan Manning<\/p><\/blockquote>\n “For God so\u00a0loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” –\u00a0John 3:16<\/em><\/p>\n God’s love is massive! It’s inexpressible. John puts it down in the most quoted of verses as, “God so loved the world.” He loves everything he created back during those six days of work, and everything since, as he creates each day anew. He loves the mountains and the trees, the birds and beasts and fish, the wind and the rain… and he loves us. He wants it all redeemed of the curse that we brought on top of all the radiance of God’s love. And he invites us into that eternal truth.<\/p>\n “By this we know\u00a0love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” – 1 John 3:16<\/em><\/p>\n Jesus comes to show us love. He does it in a way that we can’t mistake his love for us and the hope we’ve been given. He surrendered his life to save us. That’s the model our awesome God provides. And then, in a twist of the story, he invites us into the same place, to give ourselves as living sacrifices.<\/p>\n “The\u00a0Lord<\/span>, the\u00a0Lord<\/span>, a God merciful and\u00a0gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast\u00a0love and faithfulness” – Exodus 34:6<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Exodus 15:13 says, “You have\u00a0led in your steadfast love the people whom\u00a0you have redeemed;\u00a0<\/span>you have\u00a0guided them by your strength to your holy abode.” It’s Moses’s song after God’s deliverance from Egypt. We see Moses’s heart and relationship with God. Moses knows God’s steadfast love firsthand. He’s seen it, personally through his own redemption, and corporately with the exodus of the Israelites. God leads and his steadfast love is with us on the journey. He’ll hear God directly on Mount Sinai when he passes by him and says, “The\u00a0Lord<\/span>, the\u00a0Lord<\/span>, a God merciful and\u00a0gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast\u00a0love and faithfulness” (34:6)<\/span><\/p>\n “See what kind of\u00a0love\u00a0the 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.” –\u00a01 John 3:1<\/em><\/p>\n The love of God is not something he had to demonstrate. He could have enacted judgement. He will certainly do that at the day of reckoning, but he has also given us a way out. He loves us and calls us into his family, to be his children. What a powerful expression of love! He changes our hated title of Sinner and calls us Child.<\/p>\n “Now, therefore, our God,\u00a0the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love, let not all the hardship seem little to you that has come upon us, upon our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, our fathers, and all your people…” –\u00a0Nehemiah 9:32<\/em><\/p>\n God as Rescuer is the central part of this epic story he is still writing today. As you know, by the time we get to Ezra and Nehemiah, we see God working through Cyrus the Great and\u00a0Zerubbabel to help Israel rebuild Jerusalem. It’s an act of reconciliation with the remnant of people who remained faithful in Babylon. Their return is evidence that God doesn’t forget and is always weaving redemption and steadfast love into the story… into our story. And as the people confess their sins, the priests acknowledge, “the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love,” even when their lives are corrupt and in opposition to his plan.<\/p>\n Turn, O\u00a0Lord<\/span>, deliver my life;\u00a0<\/span>save me for the sake of your steadfast love. – Psalm 6:4<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Over and over again, like a song that affects us so deeply we keep it looped on Spotify, the Psalms replay God’s steadfast love. Amid all the tumult of our hearts and the world around us, both then and now, we see God’s steady, outstretched arm, as Psalm 136:12 says, that continues to invade our selfish lives. He wants us to take hold and be changed. He doesn’t change his position, but we are always all over the map, wandering everywhere, like the 40 year path the Israelites took through the wilderness. Let us cry out with the Psalmist, “Turn, O\u00a0Lord<\/span>, deliver my life;\u00a0<\/span>save me for the sake of your steadfast love.” If we do, he will deliver us.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n …we\u00a0rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering\u00a0produces endurance,<\/span>\u00a0and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love\u00a0has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. –\u00a0Romans 5:3-5<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n What a picture! God’s love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. It’s not a drop or a drip, it’s a rush of water like Niagara Falls, being poured into every part of us to reshape us. We often talk about God’s love in a way that seems distant and reserved, in part because our circumstances sometimes disguise how much he is loving us every second of every day. Let us pray for pause enough in our daily activities to acknowledge the love God is pouring out.<\/p>\n I have been\u00a0crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives\u00a0in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,\u00a0who loved me and\u00a0gave himself for me. –\u00a0Galatians 2:20<\/em><\/p>\n I hope none of us get over the death and resurrection of Jesus. There are many who dismiss the story of Jesus because it’s too familiar, or too simple, or too\u00a0something.\u00a0<\/em>Let us be like Paul who couldn’t stop talking about Jesus Christ crucified. He knew it was the crux of everything. Galatians 2:20 is one of many examples from Paul’s letters. He says, “I have been\u00a0crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives\u00a0in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God,\u00a0who loved me and\u00a0gave himself for me.”<\/p>\n Who shall separate us from the\u00a0love\u00a0of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? –\u00a0Romans 8:35<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWhat does the Bible really say about love? You might be surprised with these top Bible verses about love. Check them out! <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\nRelationships<\/h2>\n
Our church family: They will know us by our love<\/h3>\n
\nOur friends and family: Loving those close to us<\/h3>\n
\nThose we come in contact with: Our aim is love<\/h3>\n
\nYour wife: Enjoy life and love her<\/h3>\n
\nLove one another<\/h3>\n
\nLove with tenderness and humility<\/h3>\n
\nYour enemy: Love extends to them<\/h3>\n
\nYou can’t love and hate at the same time<\/h3>\n
\nOur love for one another helps us see God<\/h3>\n
\nStrangers: Love them because God loves you<\/h3>\n
\nEveryone: Love them widely<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nBe ready to sacrifice<\/h3>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLove That Stands Out<\/h2>\n
<\/h3>\n
What is the greatest?<\/h3>\n
\nPut on love<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nKeep loving one another<\/h3>\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThe Love of God<\/h2>\n
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God so loved…<\/h3>\n
\nBy this we know love<\/h3>\n
\nHis love is steadfast<\/h3>\n
\nSee what kind of love!<\/h3>\n
\nGod keeps his promise to love<\/h3>\n
\nHe will save us<\/h3>\n
\nGod’s love is poured into our hearts<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nHe gave himself for us<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\nNothing can separate us<\/strong><\/h3>\n