Bible Verses About Love
—A List for Reference

Selected Scriptures on Love

• "Now the purpose of our instruction is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith" (1Timothy 1:5).
• "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1Corinthians 13:13 NKJV).

God’s Love for Man

• "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16 NKJV).
• "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1John 4:10 NKJV).
• "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love" (John 15:9 NKJV).
• "So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." (1John 4:16 ESV).
• "The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: 'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you' " (Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV).

Our Love for God

• "Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind' " (Matthew 22:27 NKJV).
• "We love him, because he first loved us" (1John 4:19 KJV).
• "Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him' " (John 14:23 NKJV).
• "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (John 14:21 NKJV).
• "You who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked" (Psalm 7:10 NKJV).
• "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love" (1John 4:18 NKJV).
• "He said to him the third time, 'Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?' Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, 'Do you love Me?' And he said to Him, 'Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed My sheep' " (John 21:17 NKJV).
• "And walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma" (Ephesians 5:2 NKJV).
• "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments" (1John 5:2 NKJV).

Love for One Another

• "Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another" (Romans 12:10 NKJV).
• "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" (1John 4:11 KJV).
• "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God" (1John 4:7 NKJV).
• "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another" (John 13:34 LSB).
• "So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself" (Ephesians 5:28 NKJV).
• "Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, 'See how He loved him!' 37 But some of them asked, 'Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?' " (John 11:35-37 BSB).
• "And Jonathan caused David to swear again, because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul" (1Samuel 20:17 KJV).
• "But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you," (Like 6:27 NKJV).
• "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends." (John 15:13 NKJV).
• " Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. 6 Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" (1Corinthians 13:4-7 NKJV).

Love of the World

• "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1John 2:15 NKJV).
• "For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God" (2Timothy 3:2-4 NKJV).
• "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24 KJV).
• "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2 KJV).