Bible verses about love
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is the Bible's fullest description of love, and it defines it almost entirely by behaviour: patient, kind, not envious, not easily provoked. 1 John 4:19 gives the order — we love him because he first loved us — and John 3:16 gives the measure.
12 verses about love
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (KJV) →16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16 (KJV) →7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
1 John 4:7-8 (KJV) →19 We love him, because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19 (KJV) →8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 (KJV) →34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
John 13:34-35 (KJV) →8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
1 Peter 4:8 (KJV) →6 Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. 7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.
Song Of Solomon 8:6-7 (KJV) →38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 (KJV) →18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:18 (KJV) →14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
Colossians 3:14 (KJV) →37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Matthew 22:37-39 (KJV) →
1 Corinthians 13 is not a wedding poem
It is read at weddings constantly, but Paul wrote it to a congregation that was arguing about status and spiritual gifts. The chapter before it is about factions; the chapter after is about disorder in worship. Placed there, the description of love is corrective rather than romantic — it is a list of the things the Corinthians were not doing. That context makes it more useful, not less. Almost every item in verses 4 through 7 is a behaviour rather than a feeling, which means it can be practised on a day when the feeling is absent.
The order of love
1 John 4:19 sets a sequence: we love him because he first loved us. Romans 5:8 makes the same point with the timing spelled out — while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In both cases love is described as something initiated rather than earned, which is what distinguishes the biblical account from a transaction. This is also why 1 John 4:8 can say God is love rather than that God has love. It is presented as a description of character, not a policy.
Love as something done
1 John 3:18 is blunt: let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. John 13:34-35 makes practised love the identifying mark of Jesus's followers — by this shall all men know. Colossians 3:14 calls it the bond of perfectness, the thing that holds the other virtues together. Read together, the New Testament's account of love is far more concerned with what you do on an ordinary Tuesday than with intensity of feeling.
Scripture quoted from the King James Version, which is in the public domain. Esther reads the ESV, NIV and NLT in the app.