Written by “God is love” is one of the best-known and most uplifting messages in the Bible. Verses about God’s love occur in many forms throughout the Old and New Testaments, as noted below, and was a favorite phrase of John, as shown in passages such as 1 John 4:16:
“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.”
Ancient Greeks Words for ‘Love’
The ancient Greeks had several words, all translated “love” in English, which creates some confusion for modern audiences. Erotic love was eros, and brotherly/sisterly love philia. The word most used for “love” in the New Testament is agape (pronounced uh-gop-ay). Although agape pre-existed in the Greek language, the early Christians took it a step further to give it special meaning.
According to Christianity.com, “To the Greeks, proper agape meant a general empathy or lovingkindness for all people. Though in the Bible, Christians are indeed expected to care for all in the name of Christ, Christianity took this a step further. Biblical writers used God as the standard for true agape. Agape love, in the Bible, is love that comes from God. God’s love isn’t sentimental; it’s part of His character. God loves from an outpouring of who He is. As 1 John 4:8 states, ‘God is love [agapos],’ meaning He is the source of agape love. His love is undeserved, gracious, and sacrificial.
“We are to love God and others with agape love. Agape is a choice, a deliberate striving for another’s highest good, and is demonstrated through action. God set the standard for agape love in sending Jesus to die for us while we were still sinners.”*
“God is love” does not mean that is all God is
When John wrote, “God is love,” he did not mean that God is “nothing but” love. He meant that agape love is a vital part of God’s essential character. Because of His eternal nature, God is always loving. His love is unconditional, meaning there is nothing we can do to earn it or deserve it. God loves us all because of who God is, not because of who we are or how we behave.
God’s ultimate demonstration of His love was to become a human in the form of Jesus. Again it was John who wrote in his epistle 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have everlasting life.” God promises eternal life to all who believe in his son Jesus, because Jesus is God incarnate, in the flesh, in the world with us.
Or as Paul wrote in Romans 5:8, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Famous Bible verses about God’s love
Here are some other well-known Bible verses about God’s amazing love, taken from the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible:**
- “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19
- “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7
- “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” 1 John 3:1
- “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
- “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Psalm 86:15
- “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.” Deuteronomy 7:9
- “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10
- “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
- “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18 ESV
- “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
- “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:37-39
- “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:4-8
“The Greatest of these is Love”
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“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 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.
“Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13 (New International Version)
- “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Ephesians 5:25
- “The Lord appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” Jeremiah 31:3
- “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” John 13:34
- “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Romans 13:8
- “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? …” Matthew 5:43-48
- “And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” Matthew 22:37-39
- “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15: 9-12
- “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10
- “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
- “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:12
- “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:2-5
- “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” 1 John 4:20
- “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” Romans 12:10
- “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35
- “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23
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*Paragraph by Alyssa Roat, Christianity.com.
**Most scripture verses are taken from the Open Bible