Love is one of the most searched themes in Scripture, and for good reason. We want to know what real love looks like in marriage, friendship, family, and even toward people who are hard to love.

The Bible teaches that love is more than a feeling. It reflects God's own heart. Saint John writes that God is love, and that we love because he first loved us. True love begins with God, is shown most clearly in Jesus, and shapes how we treat others.

These Bible verses and saint quotes about love invite you to pray slowly. Let God's Word form a patient, faithful, selfless love in your heart.

Verses & quotes: Bible Verses About Love

Scripture selections come from the Catholic Bible editions used in Catholic Daily; saint quotes are from the Catholic tradition.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

1 John 4:7-8

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.

John 13:34

I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.

Romans 5:8

But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

1 Corinthians 13:13

So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Galatians 5:22-23

In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

1 John 4:18-19

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.

Isaiah 54:10

Though the mountains fall away and the hills be shaken, My love shall never fall away from you nor my covenant of peace be shaken, says the LORD, who has mercy on you.

Matthew 22:37-39

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

St. Benedict

No one should follow what he considers to be good for himself, but rather what seems good for another. Let them put Christ before all else; and may he lead us all to everlasting life.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

How good and pleasant it is to dwell in the Heart of Jesus! Who is there who does not love a heart so wounded? Who can refuse a return of love to a Heart so loving? Amen.

St. Catherine of Siena

Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind.

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