What does the Bible say about love?

"God is love" may be the most quoted statement in the Bible. It is also the most domesticated. Biblical love is not sentimentality, not romance, not tolerance. It is the costly, self-giving commitment of God toward creatures who have done nothing to deserve it — and the call for those creatures to love each other in the same way.

This guide explores the Bible’s radical vision of love, from the covenant love of the Old Testament to the sacrificial love of the cross, and shows why it remains the most revolutionary idea in human history.

The Hebrew word hesed — often translated "lovingkindness" or "steadfast love" — is one of the most important words in the Old Testament. It describes God’s covenant loyalty: his determination to be faithful to his people even when they are unfaithful to him. Hosea’s marriage to an unfaithful wife is the most vivid illustration.

The Old Testament also commands love between humans: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." This is not a suggestion about feelings but a command about action. To love your neighbour means to treat them justly, to help them when they are in need, and to refuse to exploit them even when you could.

Jesus identified love as the greatest commandment: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself. Then he expanded the definition of "neighbour" with the parable of the Good Samaritan to include precisely the people you would rather exclude.

The ultimate expression of Jesus’s teaching on love is the cross. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Jesus did not merely teach about love; he demonstrated it by dying for people who had abandoned, denied, and betrayed him. This is the standard against which all other love is measured.

First Corinthians 13 is the Bible’s most famous description of love: patient, kind, not envious or boastful, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeping no record of wrongs. Paul wrote this not as wedding poetry but as a rebuke to a church that had spectacular spiritual gifts but treated each other badly.

John’s first epistle draws the most radical conclusion: "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Love is not one attribute of God among many; it is the core of his being. And the test of whether someone knows God is not their theology or their spiritual experiences but whether they love other people.