17 Bible verses about love
Passages on God’s love for you, on loving the people around you, on 1 Corinthians 13 and on marriage, each with a few lines on what it asks.
The MySavior teamUpdated · 10 min read
We love because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19 · BSB
And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13 · BSB
The Bible verses about love that people reach for most are 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (“Love is patient, love is kind”), John 3:16, and 1 John 4:16, where John says it in three words: “God is love.” Nearly everything else Scripture says about love grows from that root. God loves first, and our love for Him and for each other is the answer.
That order matters. Read on its own, 1 Corinthians 13 can feel like a report card you keep failing: patient, kind, never rude, no record of wrongs. Read after Romans 5:8, it becomes a portrait of the love you have already been shown, and an invitation to pass it on to the coworker, the teenager, the spouse who left the dishes again.
Below are seventeen passages from the Berean Standard Bible in four small groups: God’s love for you, loving the people around you, 1 Corinthians 13, and love in marriage. Each comes with a few lines on what it meant when it was written and what it might ask of you this week.
Most of the New Testament verses below use the Greek word agapē or its verb. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul describes love almost entirely with verbs, not adjectives: love is something it does before it is something you feel.
God’s love: where it starts
1 John 4:16
And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:16 · BSB
Notice the first half: “we have come to know and believe.” This love is learned over time, by living with it. John does not say God has love in stock or shows it on good days; he says God is love. “Abides” means to stay, to make your home somewhere. You are invited to live in it, not visit.
God’s love: how far it reaches
John 3:16
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.
John 3:16 · BSB
This verse sits in the middle of a night conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a respected teacher who came with questions. The size of the love is measured by the gift, His one and only Son. And its reach is “the world,” which leaves no one outside it, including you on the day you feel most out of place.
God’s love: before you got it right
Romans 5:8
But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 · BSB
Paul’s verb is “proves.” God’s love is not a mood you have to guess from your circumstances; it was shown once, in public, at the cross. And it came while we were still sinners, not after a cleanup. You cannot earn your way into a love that arrived first.
God’s love: when you feel forgotten
From Jeremiah 31:3
I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.
From Jeremiah 31:3 · BSB
Jeremiah carried this promise to a people living through defeat and exile. “Everlasting” looks backward as well as forward: there was no moment this love began and there will be none when it runs out. “Drawn” is a gentle word, the pull of someone leading you home.
God’s love: when you feel like a burden
Zephaniah 3:17
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.”
Zephaniah 3:17 · BSB
Most of Zephaniah is warning, and this verse arrives near the very end like light after a storm. Look at the picture it paints: God is not putting up with His people, He is singing over them. “He will quiet you with His love” is how a parent settles a crying child. Let yourself be the child for a minute.
God’s love: what cannot take it away
Romans 8:38–39
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.
Romans 8:38–39 · BSB
Paul makes his list on purpose, and it covers everything you could be afraid of: dying and living, unseen powers, today and whatever comes next. Nothing on it, and nothing left off it, can pry you loose from the love of God. Paul says he is convinced. Read it slowly and let him convince you too.
Loving others: the greatest commandment
Matthew 22:37–39
Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Matthew 22:37–39 · BSB
An expert in the law tested Jesus with a question, and He answered with two lines from the Law itself, Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. Love for God comes first, and love for your neighbor is “like it,” never a separate subject. Your neighbor is usually the person nearest you, which is exactly what makes it hard.
Loving others: the family likeness
John 13:34–35
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.”
John 13:34–35 · BSB
Jesus gave this command at the Last Supper, soon after He wrapped a towel around His waist and washed His disciples’ feet. The new measure is “As I have loved you,” and He had just shown them what that looks like. Love, more than anything else, is how people are meant to recognize His friends.
Loving others: where the strength comes from
1 John 4:19
We love because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19 (BSB)
Seven words, and the order is the whole point. You are not asked to squeeze love out of an empty tank; you are asked to pass on what you have received. It is short enough to read on your Lock Screen before a hard conversation, and to say under your breath during one.
Sunday, November 8
9:41
We love because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19 · BSBTurn this verse into your Lock Screen wallpaperWrite it over a photograph in MySavior’s wallpaper maker and save it to Photos at the size of your iPhone’s screen.
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Loving others: how far it goes
John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13 · BSB
Jesus said this on the night before He died, so it was not a figure of speech. Most of us will never be asked to die for a friend. We are asked for smaller deaths instead: our time, our turn, the last word in an argument. They count.
Loving others: on an ordinary Tuesday
1 John 3:18
Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.
1 John 3:18 · BSB
John is tender (“Little children”) and direct at once. Love that stays in words is not finished yet. Think of one person who needs it in action this week, a meal, a ride, an unhurried hour, and give it before you talk yourself out of it.
Loving others: when someone has hurt you
1 Peter 4:8
Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8 · BSB
Peter is echoing Proverbs 10:12. “Covers” does not mean pretending nothing happened, and it never means staying somewhere unsafe. It means refusing to keep a file on people, and not bringing last year’s failure into this year’s argument.
1 Corinthians 13: the portrait
1 Corinthians 13:4–7
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.
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 · BSB
Paul wrote this to a gifted, quarrelsome church in Corinth that was competing over spiritual gifts. It is read at countless weddings, but it began as a loving rebuke to a divided congregation. Try reading it again with “Jesus” in place of “love.” Then, more honestly, with your own name.
1 Corinthians 13: what lasts
1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:13 · BSB
A few lines earlier Paul says that prophecy and knowledge will pass away, while “Love never fails.” Faith and hope carry us until we see God face to face; love simply goes on. That is why it is the greatest, and why whatever you build with love is the part of your life that lasts.
Love in marriage: the vow
From Song of Solomon 8:6–7
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
From Song of Solomon 8:6–7 · BSB
The Song of Songs is a love poem between a bride and her beloved, and it does not blush. Near the end, one lover asks to be worn like a seal, the mark of identity a person kept close. Married love here is fierce and faithful, stronger than floods, and beyond the reach of all the wealth of a house.
Love in marriage: the third strand
Ecclesiastes 4:12
And though one may be overpowered, two can resist. Moreover, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:12 · BSB
The Teacher is talking about companionship in general: two can lift each other up, keep each other warm, stand back to back. The last line made it a favorite at weddings. Many Christian couples take the third strand to be God, who holds two people together when their own grip slips.
Love in marriage: what holds a home together
Colossians 3:14
And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity.
Colossians 3:14 · BSB
Paul has just told the church to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, and to forgive, which any shared kitchen demands. Love goes on over all of it like a coat. A few verses later he turns to husbands and wives.
A small practice for this week
Pick one phrase from 1 Corinthians 13:4–7, say “love is kind,” and one person you live or work with. Each morning, read the phrase once. Before evening, look for a single place to do it for that person: a message, a chore done without comment, the compliment you were saving. At night, say 1 John 4:19 as a thank-you, not a test. If it helps, put the phrase on your Lock Screen so it meets you every time you pick up your phone. After seven days, notice whose love was carrying whom.
Keep love in view all day
Bible verse and prayer widgets you design yourself, on topics such as Faithful Love and Holy Nearness, and a Lock Screen wallpaper with the verse you want to remember.
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Questions
What does the Bible say about love?
That it starts with God. “God is love” (1 John 4:16), and He showed it by giving His Son (John 3:16, Romans 5:8). Because He loved first, we are called to love Him with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37–39), in action and not only in words (1 John 3:18).
What is the most famous Bible verse about love?
1 Corinthians 13:4–7, which begins “Love is patient, love is kind,” is the passage most often read at weddings. For God’s love, the classic verse is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.”
What is a short Bible verse about love?
1 John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us,” is only seven words long. 1 Corinthians 16:14 is shorter still: “Do everything in love.”
Which Bible verses about love are good for a wedding?
1 Corinthians 13:4–8, Song of Solomon 8:6–7, Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 and Colossians 3:12–14 are common choices. Ruth 1:16–17 is another favorite; Ruth spoke those words to her mother-in-law, Naomi, but many couples choose them as a promise of faithfulness.
Which Bible translation is quoted here?
Every verse in this article is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
