Love is one of the themes Scripture returns to again and again. Scripture does not define love by feelings. It defines it by Christ — patient, kind, costly, and unafraid.
People reach for these passages when they're looking up loved, feel loved, god loves me, love others, or some version of "what does the Bible say about love?"
Among the most-cited passages on this theme are 1 John 4:9-11, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, John 15:12-13, Romans 8:38-39, and others below. 1 John 4:9-11 is the passage many readers return to first.
The page also offers a written prayer that names love plainly and asks God for what's needed in this moment. It is not a magic formula — it is a small, faithful starting point.
A short reflection question sits at the bottom of the page: Who in your life most needs you to love them well this week? Sit with it for a minute, or carry it into a journal.
If this isn't quite the right doorway, try a closely related theme: Identity, Forgiveness, Marriage.
Verses
1 John 4:9-11
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
John 15:12-13
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Romans 8:38-39
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 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.
1 John 3:18
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
Ephesians 3:17-19
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
Reflection
Who in your life most needs you to love them well this week?
Related topics
Want to search by feeling instead? Type what's on your heart on the home page.