What does the Bible say about love? The answer to this question is the true definition of what love is. Most times, what naturally comes to mind when we talk about love is a deep emotional sweetness, a feel-good sensation, and this becomes the backdrop of what is usually defined as love.
This also proves that people love for several different reasons, as long as it is appealing to their emotional pleasure and feel-good sensation.
But as Christians, our definition of love and why we ought to love should be based on what does the Bible say about love; we have a duty ensure to always hold onto the Biblical worldview, especially on matters like this.
Let’s look at the world today; it is evident that so much has been penned down, said, and taught about love by different religious pioneers and leaders, philosophers, teachers, poets, authors, psychologists, musicians, and a long list of many others.
There are numerous playlets and movies about love, books, epics, songs, and narratives, and as a matter of fact, without any reasonable doubt, love is one of the most talked-about topics in the world today, even within different Christian organizations and circles, love is also most talked about.
And to add to this, the world has even set aside a day called Valentine’s day to celebrate love and the feel-good sensation. But we Christians ought to keep our focus on what does the Bible say about love, and far from all of these other worldviews, when we critically survey Jesus’ teachings about love, what did Jesus say about love?
The Bible presented true love as something eternal that transcends time, space, cultural and geographical bounds.
It presented love as the greatest (1Corinthians 13: 13), even greater than faith, and between faith, hope, and love, love is considered to be the most vital of all. It is what makes Christianity, Christianity, and as a matter of truth, love is the backcloth of the fruit of the spirit.
But this kind of love is not earthly; hence, it is entirely different from the type of love discussed in movies and sung by musicians.
It is the God’s kind of love, void of the feel-good sensation and emotional sentiment and pleasure that we get in return when we express love towards someone, but rather it is aimed at building and helping the person it is expressed to become who the person ought to be, and sometimes it takes great sacrifice that causes hurt and pain, to describe it.
It does not react based on sentiment, but it does what is right selflessly. So what does the Bible say about love is that God is love (1 John 4: 8) because such love can only be expressed or enabled by God.
But before we elucidate further on this subject, in a laconic approach, let us discuss what love is, according to different dictionaries and authorities.
What Is Love?
Before we look at what does the Bible say about love to define love based on Biblical standard, let’s succinctly look at the definition of love from some other sources.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines love as a strong affection for another arising from kinship or personal ties. It also defines love as attraction based on romantic desire: affection and tenderness felt by lovers.
Another dictionary defines love. Dictionary.com defines love as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person and also as a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection for a parent, child, or friend.
Then from Encarta Encyclopedia, Dictionary defines love as feeling tender affection for somebody, such as a close relative or somebody. It also defines love as feeling romantic desire and longing for somebody.
When you look closely at all of these definitions, the one thing that repeats itself is the emotional feel-good sentiment attached to it. They all bring it down to how it makes one feel; thus, the love follows suit when that good feeling changes or goes.
But the explanation of what does the Bible say about love is more profound, transcended, comprehensive, and complete. The Bible gave a more thorough description and explanation of love, and it is beyond what human psychology can quickly figure out.
What Does The Bible Say About Love?
When we say what does the Bible say about love, we are talking about what the Bible says about love in general: human love in comparison to Godly love, and not just the God kind of love alone. In the Old Testament, love was the base of God’s relationship with a man (Deuteronomy 6: 5).
And Jesus affirms this in Matthew 22: 36. He said the entire Old Testament law and prophets are hinged on love for God and love for humanity (Deuteronomy 6: 5, Leviticus 19: 18).
And the essential goal of the Old Testament’s teaching is to make men and women become people with a great passionate love for God expressed in how they relate to fellow humans.
In the New Testament, love is discussed in two dimensions, the human kind of love and God’s kind of love. Human love is based on sentiment and emotions, whereas the God kind of love is based on nothing, and it is rather selfless.
This kind of love can only come from God. The Bible even calls this love God (1 John 4: 16) because the type of love vividly explains God’s complete characteristics. Because of this, let us take it further and briefly explain the two types of love according to the Bible.
Types Of Love According To The Bible
Two Greek words describe love, philia, and agape in the New Testament.
Philia
The first Greek word for love we’ll talk about here is the word philia. Philia means to love someone or something because it belongs to you, someone related to you either by blood or friendship.
So this kind of love is born out of familiarity. It can also mean loving someone because the person makes you feel good, so this is a human kind of love.
Agape
Agape love is called God’s love. It is sacrificial and always looks out for others, so it is not self-seeking. It is humble and selfless, not emotionally attached.
The difference between both is that one is self-seeking, while the other is selfless, looking out for others. This is the kind of love that is illustrated in scriptures, and even the God-man Jesus Christ gave His life to illustrate such kind of life.
What Does The Bible Say About Love – Everything You Need To Know?
1. Love is from God
1 John4:7 – 8 (NIV) Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. One of the most popular phrases is that God is love. But through this text, we have seen that God is love because love is from God.
John made such a statement to emphasize the kind of love He was talking about. That it is any worldly kind of love that is sentimental, but instead, it is agape sacrificial love. So true love, the sacrificial love, can only come from God. No human can make it happen.
2. There Is No Fear In Love (1 John 4: 18)
1 John 4: 18 (NIV) There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
Fear is associated with bad expectations or punishment for doing what is wrong. Here the Bible is saying when we express the love of God in our hearts to fellow believers.
We shouldn’t be afraid of God’s judgment or punishment anymore because having the ability to express love means you are already part of God’s plan, and no punishment or judgment will come on you for expressing God’s love to fellow humans.
Galatians 5: 22 says there is no law that is against love. When doing what is right for someone by expressing love, we should do it confidently.
3. Love Is Patient
One of the greatest virtues anyone can have is patience. The Bible says love is patient (1Corinthians 13: 4) by this, it means that love can endure, love can suffer long, and love has forbearance. Therefore, one of the hallmarks of true love is to be patient by being slow to anger and forbear when inter-relating with people.
Several scriptures like Exodus 34: 6, Numbers 14: 18, Nehemiah 9: 17, Psalm 86: 15, and Psalm 103: 8, to mention but a few, clearly stated that God is patient and slow to anger.
This means that patience is a Godly virtue and can only be given by God alone that is why true love only comes from God. So what does the Bible say about love is that true love is patient; it forbears when relating with people.
4. Love Is Kind
Kindness is closely related to the patient, and it is also a great virtue of love. Although the Bible says love is kind (1 Corinthians 13: 4, Galatians 5: 22), love is mild and pleasant and not harsh.
It means that love shows compassion to everyone, irrespective of how you relate to it. There is no harsh response, no retaliation, but love is always kind.
Like a patient that forbears, kindness follows sooth by being compassionate and mild in response. Instead of retaliating or being harsh when attacked, it forebears and carefully gives a mild reaction. It is one of the greatest virtues of true love highlighted in the scriptures.
5. Love Does Not Envy
According to the Bible, one of the virtues of love is that love does not envy. The Greek word used here for envy, which means to burn in zeal, implies being heated and boiling inside with hatred and jealousy.
Without being told, we can see that such an attitude that talks about burning inside and heated with anger have to do with emotional sentiment. And true love, which is the love of God, is void of any emotions, biases, or self.
So when the Bible says love does not envy, it means true love doesn’t attach emotional sentiment that gives birth to envy or jealousy and wish to be like someone else, but it remains itself at all times.
6. Love Does Not Boast
The Greek word used in 1 Corinthians 13: 4 when it says love does not boast means to display oneself employing rhetoric, so to boast means to brag and to lay so much emphasis on one’s accomplishment,
and doing such most times means putting yourself ahead of others, and this in a way displays a sort of emotional excitement, and in true love, there is no sense of self or emotions attached to it.
So true love doesn’t look at self. It instead focuses on helping others to get to where they ought to be than bragging and laying much emphasis on itself as an accomplishment. So true love doesn’t even see itself or look at itself as accomplishing anything because it does not focus on itself.
7. Love Is Arrogant Or Rude
Galatians 5: 22 stated humility as one of the virtues of love, and 1Corinthians 13: 4 says being arrogant or rude is opposite to what love is.
To be arrogant means to feel or show self-importance, which is the opposite of what it means to be humble. Being arrogant is always a display of self and being careless about the next person and always only putting self first.
That is why arrogant people are always rude, because both work hand in hand, which is not the characteristic of love according to the Bible.
8. Love Is Not A Dictatorship
When we look at God, who is the epitome of love, His eternal attributes include his Supremacy, sovereignty, omnipotence, and omniscience, yet in all of this, He never forces us to follow Him.
Yes, He wants to dictate our lives and paths for us, but He still gave us the free will to choose to follow Him or not. That is the perfect example of love; no wonder the Bible says God is love (1 John 4: 8). So true love, according to the Bible, is that it does force itself on someone, but it gives one a place to have a choice.
9. Love Does Not Dishonor Others; It Always Protects
To dishonor someone means to bring or cause shame and disgrace to the person. So true love will not humiliate or bring shame to you. On the contrary, it will protect and cover you up even when you are wrong, though it equally does not rejoice in evil.
A good example of this is the story of Joseph the Carpenter (in Matthew 1: 18 – 25), who was betrothed to Mary, the mother of Jesus, for marriage. When he discovered that she was pregnant even before the marriage was consummated, he was not the child’s father.
According to Jewish laws, he had the right to shame and dishonors her in public. But because he loved her, he decided to divorce her in secret to not bring shame to her. Later, an angel appeared to him and asked him not to.
10. Love Always Trust, Hope, And Persevere
Love always trust, always hope, and always persevere simply means when you love someone, you will always believe in the best of the person; hence you will always give the person opportunity after opportunity, a chance after chance, and hope that the person and begin to do well.
You won’t easily give up on the person even when the person is always doing wrong. Instead, you will exercise patience, forbearance, and kindness towards the person.
That is what true love is also about, according to the Bible. Let’s look at how God’s love is expressed towards us as an instance. We were yet in sin, but He still trusted and hoped that we would change.
Finally, he so believed so much that He gave up His life for us. Today, we are children of God because of what Christ did for us. What manner of love is such? So when we are asked what does the Bible say about love, we can also answer that it always trust, hope, and persevere.
11. There Is Joy In Love
There is excitement in us when we help someone. Of course, we don’t render help or kindness because we want to get excited.
But because the love of God is shared in our hearts, and we express that love by helping people in different ways or being kind to people, then in that process, we feel excited about doing it, and we have this sense of fulfillment.
That excitement is the joy that comes with love. We are always expressing joy irrespective of the situation and circumstance we find ourselves in. Even when we know it has been caused by someone; we are still happy because we know that we love God, and he loves us too.
What Does The Bible Say About God’s Love?
The Bible presented God’s love as the greatest and most vital in the Christian lifestyle. It talked about God’s love as something that is void of any selfish gain or ambition but is always focused on helping others.
God’s love will always put others ahead and not oneself. That is why it loses every sense of emotional attachment because emotional pleasures or excitement is what makes one be selfish and put or see themself ahead and over others. So God’s love is kind, gentle, forbear, humble, faithful, etc.
What Does The Bible Say About Loving One Another?
John 13: 34 (NIV) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another, and in 1 John 4:7 (NIV) Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Loving one another is a command from Jesus, and it was given to everyone who has accepted Christ as Lord and savior.
And the way to love is not ‘philia’ based on familiarity or one you know or ‘eros’ based on a burning desire or passion, but rather it is agape, the God kind of love that is selfless.
This means doing what is suitable for someone, irrespective of how the person makes you feel. So loving one another is a command and a proof that shows that we have God’s love inside us. It is proof of our Christianity.
What Does The Bible Say About Love Between A Man And A Woman?
In Ephesians 5: 25 (NIV), ‘Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.’ The Bible says that the love between a husband and a wife is agape love, God’s kind of love.
The command clearly stated, ‘love thy wife as Christ loved the church and gave up himself for the church.’ And we should bear in mind that the Church wasn’t doing well before Christ died for the Church, but it was why we were yet in sin; Christ came and died for us (Romans 5: 8). It is Christ’s death that founded the Church.
This implies that the man loving the woman and giving himself up for her is a duty the man is supposed to fulfill irrespective of how she behaves. This is indeed a tough one.
Conclusion: The Bible presented two kinds of love for us, human love and Godly love. The love expected of us as Christians is the love of God, something that is far and deep beyond what this world today calls love.
Only God possesses and has given such a love, which the Bible says is shared in the hearts of believers (Romans 5: 50). Let us as Christians express such love to one another and all of humanity.
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