Bible Verses About Love

The King James translators chose charity where later versions say love, and the older word carries something the modern one has lost. Charity was action — what you did for someone, not what you felt about them.

That distinction runs through the whole chapter. Paul defines love almost entirely by behaviour: it suffers long, it is kind, it is not easily provoked, it thinks no evil. Not one clause describes an emotion. You could obey the list while feeling nothing at all, which may be the point.

John's sentence is the shortest and the heaviest: God is love. Not that God loves, which would be a description of behaviour, but that love is what he is. Every other verse on this page depends on that one being true.

The verses

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1 Corinthians 13:4

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

Open → 1 Corinthians 13:5

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

Open → 1 Corinthians 13:13

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Open → 1 John 4:8

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

Open → John 3:16

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.

Open → John 15:13

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Open → Romans 5:8

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Open → 1 John 4:19

We love him, because he first loved us.

Open → John 13:34

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Open → Matthew 22:37

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.

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Open 1 Corinthians 13:4 on FirstVerse to see the whole passage. It is almost always quoted in pieces.

Related subjects

Marriage Forgiveness Friendship Raising Children

Scripture: King James Version, public domain. Last updated August 15, 2026.