Bible Verses for Love: Scripture on the Greatest Commandment and Gift

Love is not primarily an emotion in the Bible — it is a commitment, a choosing, a giving. The Greek New Testament uses four words for love (eros, phileo, storge, agape), and the highest — agape — describes a self-giving, covenant love that is not contingent on reciprocation or worthiness.

This is the love God has for us. And this is the love we are called to extend to God and others.

God's Love for Us

John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." The most famous verse in the Bible — the scope of love (the world), the measure of love (his only Son), and the purpose of love (eternal life).

Romans 5:8: "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The timing makes the love radical: not after we had cleaned ourselves up. While we were still sinners.

Romans 8:38-39: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, 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." The indestructible love — nothing in all creation can separate.

Jeremiah 31:3: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness." Everlasting — before creation, after the end of all things. Unfailing — without breach, without wavering.

1 John 4:8-10: "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."

Zephaniah 3:17: "The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing." God singing over you — the image of divine delight.

The Call to Love

Matthew 22:37-39: "Jesus replied: '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.'" The entire law and prophets summarized.

John 13:34-35: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." The new command — with the standard of Jesus's love as the model.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7: "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." The fullest description of agape — behavioral rather than emotional. Love is what love does.

1 John 4:19: "We love because he first loved us." The theological foundation of our capacity to love: we love in response to being loved. Love flows from love received.

Romans 13:10: "Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." The entire moral law is contained in love — because genuine love for the other produces every virtuous behavior.

Testimonio offers meditations on 1 Corinthians 13, John 3:16, and the love of God — designed to help God's love move from information to formation in your soul. Download the app.