Bible Verses For Love
Love shapes nearly everything Scripture teaches. These verses trace how God loves us, and how we are called to love in return.
Love sits at the very center of Scripture — how God loves us, and how we are called to love one another. Below is a collection of verified King James Version verses about love, from the well-known to the easily overlooked.
Bible Verses For Love
Every verse below is drawn from a verified King James Version text.
Having yet therefore one son, his wellbeloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.
Mark 12:6
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Luke 6:35
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
John 13:34
And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved.
Psalms 119:47
Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
2 Peter 3:17
But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
Luke 6:27
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Deuteronomy 6:5
But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
1 Thessalonians 4:9
Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
John 11:36
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
2 Peter 3:8
But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Ephesians 4:15
Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
Psalms 119:140
With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
Ephesians 4:2
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Ephesians 5:25
And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?
Luke 7:42
If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
James 2:8
But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Luke 11:42
Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Deuteronomy 7:9
For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
2 Peter 1:17
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Romans 13:10
Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
Psalms 119:165
From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:16
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2 Peter 3:1
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
2 Peter 3:14
And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.
Luke 9:35
Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.
Luke 11:43
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
Titus 2:4
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
1 John 5:1
And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Mark 12:31
And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
2 Peter 1:7
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1 Peter 4:12
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
Hebrews 6:9
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
1 John 5:3
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:15
All that are with me salute thee. Greet them that love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen.
Titus 3:15
For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Romans 13:9
And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8
For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.
Psalms 37:28
Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
John 13:1
My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.
Psalms 119:48
And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2 Peter 3:15
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
Luke 7:47
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Hebrews 10:24
Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
John 13:23
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:8
O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
Psalms 119:97
And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.
Mark 9:7
For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
1 Peter 3:10
O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.
Psalms 31:23
But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 7:8
Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
John 11:3
My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.
Psalms 119:167
He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
Psalms 33:5
I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.
Psalms 119:163
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
Ephesians 5:2
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Ephesians 5:33
Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
James 2:5
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1 John 5:2
And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces,
Mark 12:38
For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
Proverbs 3:12
The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
Psalms 145:20
Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
Romans 12:9
But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
Titus 3:4
Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
Mark 10:21
For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
Luke 7:5
For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.
Luke 6:32
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
Hebrews 6:10
Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.
Psalms 119:132
But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1 John 2:5
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Ephesians 5:28
By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
John 13:35
He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
1 John 2:10
I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
Psalms 119:113
Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.
Psalms 119:127
Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
1 Peter 1:8
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
1 Peter 1:22
And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Mark 12:33
Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.
Isaiah 43:4
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Romans 12:19
To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
2 Timothy 1:2
Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
1 Timothy 4:12
That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.
Titus 2:2
What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?
Psalms 34:12
Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
Psalms 40:16
Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness.
Psalms 119:159
For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
John 5:20
The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:
Psalms 146:8
Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
John 20:2
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
Psalms 91:14
But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you.
John 5:42
Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
Romans 12:10
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
Mark 12:30
The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
Deuteronomy 7:7
Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 1:13
Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8
Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies.
Psalms 119:119
Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
John 11:5
And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
Deuteronomy 7:13
Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
1 Peter 3:8
All verses are quoted from the King James Version (KJV), a public-domain translation.
Understanding Love Through Scripture
Biblical love, agape, is described far more often as an action than a feeling. 1 Corinthians 13 does not open by defining love emotionally; it defines it behaviorally — patient, kind, not easily provoked, bearing and enduring. This is a love that can be commanded, which an emotion alone could never be.
That distinction matters practically. It means love, in the biblical sense, does not require warm feelings to be present in order to be real. It can be chosen and practiced even on days it is not felt.
What the Bible Teaches About Love
1 John 4:19 gives love its origin: “We love him, because he first loved us.” Human love, in this framework, is less something we generate from scratch and more something we reflect back, having first received it. This reframes love less as an achievement and more as a response.
Jesus’ own summary of the entire law, in Matthew 22, reduces it to two commands: love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. Nearly everything else in Scripture’s ethical instruction sits underneath those two.
Love Described in 1 Corinthians 13
Paul’s description of love is worth reading slowly rather than quoting from memory, because the specifics matter: patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not easily angered, keeping no record of wrongs. Each phrase names a very ordinary way love actually fails in daily life — impatience, envy, keeping score — which makes the passage far more practical than its popularity at weddings might suggest.
Read this way, the chapter functions less like poetry and more like a diagnostic list: which of these does love currently look like in your closest relationships, and which is still a work in progress?
Loving God and Loving Others
Scripture consistently ties these two loves together rather than treating them separately. 1 John 4 goes so far as to say a person cannot claim to love God while hating a fellow believer — the two loves are meant to be inseparable, each authenticating the other.
Love in Difficult Relationships
Some of Scripture’s clearest teaching on love comes in the context of relationships that are genuinely hard — Romans 12’s instruction to bless those who persecute you, or Ephesians 5’s call to sacrificial love within marriage. Biblical love was never presented as only applying to people who are easy to love.
This is where biblical love is most tested and, honestly, where it matters most. It is relatively easy to be patient and kind toward someone who is easy to love. Scripture’s harder instruction is to extend the same patience toward someone who has genuinely wronged you — not by pretending it did not happen, but by choosing not to let it define how you treat them going forward.
Living Out Love Daily
Practically, 1 Corinthians 13’s list — patient, kind, not self-seeking, not easily angered — works well as a daily checklist rather than an abstract ideal. Reading it before a hard conversation, or after one goes poorly, tends to be more useful than reading it as poetry alone.
The Cost of Real Love
John 15:13 raises the stakes further: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Biblical love, at its fullest, is described as costly — willing to give something up for another person’s good, not merely willing to feel warmly toward them.
Few people are called to a literal, dramatic sacrifice. Most are called to smaller, daily versions of the same instinct — giving up being right, giving up convenience, giving up the last word — for the sake of someone else.
Love That Forgives
1 Peter 4:8 makes a striking claim: “charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” This is not a suggestion to ignore wrongdoing, but a picture of love’s capacity to absorb offense rather than keep tallying it. Colossians 3:13’s instruction to forgive “even as Christ forgave you” sets a standard that is genuinely difficult — forgiving not because the other person has earned it, but because you have already been forgiven on the same terms.
This is often where biblical love asks the most of a person. Loving someone who has not wronged you is comparatively easy. Loving — and forgiving — someone who has is where the instruction actually gets tested.
Love Within Marriage and Close Relationships
Ephesians 5:25’s instruction for husbands to love their wives “as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” sets sacrificial love as the standard for the closest human relationship Scripture addresses directly. 1 Corinthians 13:7’s description of love that “beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things” is frequently read at weddings for good reason — it names exactly what long-term relationships require and rarely receive by accident.
Love as the Evidence of Faith
1 John 3:18 pushes past sentiment directly: “let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” John repeatedly treats love for other believers as visible evidence of genuine faith, not a separate, optional add-on to it. This raises a fair, if uncomfortable, question worth sitting with: if love is the evidence, what would an honest audit of your own relationships actually show?
Love for Enemies
Matthew 5:44’s instruction to “love your enemies, bless them that curse you” is arguably the hardest single command in the Gospels, and Jesus does not soften it with qualifiers. This is not love as warm feeling toward someone actively working against you — it is love as a deliberate choice not to return harm for harm, regardless of what is felt internally.
Romans 12:20’s picture of “heaping coals of fire” through kindness toward an enemy suggests this kind of love can be genuinely disarming, not merely a private spiritual discipline with no outward effect.
Love That Does Not Envy
1 Corinthians 13:4’s specific mention that love “envieth not” is easy to skip past, but envy quietly undermines more relationships than open conflict does. Comparing your relationship, your family, or your circumstances to someone else’s is one of the more common, least discussed obstacles to loving the actual people in front of you well.
A Few More Verses Worth Knowing
Song of Solomon’s poetic line that love is “strong as death” speaks to its intensity; Proverbs 10:12 observes that “love covereth all sins,” a companion thought to 1 Peter 4:8; and 2 Corinthians 5:14’s statement that “the love of Christ constraineth us” describes love as something that actively compels action, not merely a private feeling held quietly.
Love and Truth Together
Ephesians 4:15’s instruction to speak “the truth in love” resists a common false choice — between being kind and being honest, as though only one can be chosen. Biblical love does not require avoiding hard conversations; it requires having them in a way that genuinely seeks the other person’s good, not merely being right or venting frustration.
Love That Outlasts Feeling
Ruth’s commitment to Naomi — “whither thou goest, I will go” — was made during genuine grief and uncertain prospects, not in a moment of warm sentiment. This is a useful corrective for anyone waiting to feel loving before acting lovingly. Scripture repeatedly shows love expressed as a decision carried out even when the accompanying feeling is thin or absent entirely.
Love and Patience With Yourself
1 Corinthians 13’s description of love is usually applied outward, toward other people, but it is worth occasionally turning inward. Love that is “patient” and “not easily provoked” is not extended only to others; Scripture’s broader teaching on grace suggests a similar patience is appropriate toward your own ongoing growth and failures, rather than only toward everyone else’s.
Love in Small, Repeated Actions
Most of biblical love, in practice, is not built from grand gestures. It is built from a long accumulation of small choices — a patient response instead of a sharp one, showing up consistently, remembering a detail that mattered to someone else. 1 Corinthians 13’s list reads, on closer inspection, like a description of a thousand small daily decisions rather than one dramatic act.
Closing Thoughts on Love
Love, across this entire collection, is shown as patient, costly, active, and grounded first in how God has already loved us. It is not primarily a feeling to wait for, but a series of choices available in any relationship, at any moment — including the difficult ones. Whatever relationship brought you to this page, we hope these verses offer both comfort and a clear next step.
Love That Notices
Much of Jesus’ ministry is marked by noticing people others overlooked — a woman in a crowd, a tax collector in a tree, children being shooed away by disciples. Love, in these accounts, often begins simply with paying attention to someone others have stopped seeing. This remains one of the most available, low-cost expressions of love in any ordinary day.
Love in the Ordinary Middle of Life
Most love, across an entire lifetime, is not expressed in dramatic rescues or grand declarations. It shows up in dishes done without being asked, a phone call returned promptly, a hard day noticed without needing to be explained. 1 Corinthians 13’s list reads, on close inspection, like a description of a thousand unremarkable choices rather than a single memorable one.
A Final Word on Love
These one hundred verses describe love as patient, costly, active, and rooted first in how God has already loved us. Whatever relationship brought you here today, we hope you leave with both comfort and a concrete next step — a call to make, a wrong to forgive, a small kindness to offer.
Love That Doesn't Give Up
1 Corinthians 13:8’s declaration that “charity never faileth” closes the chapter with a statement of permanence rarely matched elsewhere in Scripture. Prophecies fail, tongues cease, knowledge passes away — but love, in this picture, simply does not run out. That durability is part of what makes it worth building a life around.
Love That Waits
Not every act of love produces an immediate, visible result. Hosea’s repeated pursuit of an unfaithful spouse, Jacob’s fourteen years of labor for Rachel, the father in Luke 15 watching daily for a son’s return — biblical love is frequently patient across long, uncertain stretches of time, with no guarantee of how or when it will be received.
One Final Word on Love
A Simple Next Step
Love Is Worth the Effort
This collection draws on the King James Version, a public-domain translation available in full at Blue Letter Bible, for anyone who wants to study the wider context of any verse above.
If this speaks to your current situation, you may also want to read Bible Verses About Wisdom or Bible Verses For Change, both of which touch on related ground.
Every verse on this page is drawn from the King James Version, a public-domain translation available in full at Blue Letter Bible for anyone who wants to study the wider context.
For related reading, you may also find Bible Verses About Finding Strength in God and Bible Verses About Mercy helpful.
Some readers also return to Bible Verses About Faith Over Fear or Bible Verses About Dating alongside this page.
If you are exploring related themes, Bible Verses About Healing and Strength and Bible Verses About Perseverance and Strength are worth a look.
If you want to compare these verses across other translations, Bible Gateway offers a free side-by-side reading tool.
Final Thoughts
Across all these verses, love in Scripture is consistently costly, active, and directed outward — rooted in God’s love for us and meant to be lived out toward others, including the people who are hardest to love. Whatever relationship prompted you to search for these verses today, we hope they offer both comfort and direction.
If this resonates, you may also want to read Bible Verses For Encouragement or Bible Verses For Family, both of which touch on similar ground from a different angle.