Bible Verses About Love
No theme runs more deeply through Scripture than love — the love of God for humanity, the love owed by humanity to God, and the love owed by each person to neighbor. The Greek of the New Testament distinguishes several kinds of love, but the word chosen most often for divine and commanded love is agape — a self-giving, willed love that does not depend on feeling. The Douay-Rheims renders this as "charity," following the Latin caritas, which preserves the full weight of its theological meaning.
The Catholic tradition, following Saint Thomas Aquinas, understands charity as a theological virtue infused by God, the form of all the other virtues. The two greatest commandments — love of God and love of neighbor — are not separate obligations but a single movement of the same love. First John is the New Testament's most concentrated meditation on this theme, insisting that love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable.
Note: 1 verse on this page is from the deuterocanonical books — books included in the Catholic Bible but absent from most Protestant translations (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1–2 Maccabees).
11 verses — Douay-Rheims Bible (1899 Challoner revision) — Public domain
Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.1 Corinthians 13:4-7 — Douay-Rheims
The great hymn to charity from Paul's letter to Corinth, written to correct a community divided by pride and rivalry.
For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting.John 3:16 — Douay-Rheims
Jesus speaks to Nicodemus by night, revealing the heart of the Gospel: God's love as total self-gift.
This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.John 15:12-13 — Douay-Rheims
Jesus gives the new commandment at the Last Supper, hours before laying down his own life.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is charity.1 John 4:8 — Douay-Rheims
John's most concentrated theological statement: God is not merely loving but is love itself in his very being.
Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword? ... But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us.Romans 8:35, 37 — Douay-Rheims
Paul establishes that no force in creation can break the bond between Christ and those he loves.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength.Deuteronomy 6:5 — Douay-Rheims
The Shema, the central confession of Israel, cited by Jesus as the first and greatest commandment.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.Mark 12:30-31 — Douay-Rheims
Jesus summarizes the entire Law in two commandments, joining love of God and love of neighbor.
Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell, the lamps thereof are fire and flames. Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it.Song of Solomon 8:6-7 — Douay-Rheims
The Song of Solomon, read by the Church as both a celebration of human love and an allegory of God's love for the soul.
For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made: for thou didst not appoint, or make any thing hating it.Wisdom 11:24Deuterocanonical — Douay-Rheims
The Book of Wisdom affirms God's universal love for all creation — a distinctively Catholic deuterocanonical text.
Fear is not in charity: but perfect charity casteth out fear, because fear hath pain. And he that feareth, is not perfected in charity. Let us therefore love God, because God first loved us.1 John 4:18-19 — Douay-Rheims
John identifies perfect charity as the remedy for fear, grounded in the priority of God's own love for us.
I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee.Jeremiah 31:3 — Douay-Rheims
God's word to Israel through Jeremiah, expressing the eternal and merciful nature of divine love.
Related Topics
Related Catholic Prayers
Source
All verse texts from the Douay-Rheims Bible (1899 Challoner revision), public domain. The Douay-Rheims is the traditional Catholic English Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate.