You’ve heard the Beatles sing about and you watched Rachel and Ross try to figure it out on FRIENDS — that’s right, we’re talk about the big, scary L-word. LOVE. What is love? How do you know you’re in love? Is it really just a feeling you get? There’s a lot of questions surrounding what love is and how it happens. And, as you set out to Google all the answers, you may find yourself, asking: “What did Jesus say about love?”
Jesus loves love. In fact, He is love — but, that’s really just an oversimplified answer to your question. There’s more than a few places in the Bible that discuss love — not only what it is, but how you should act. There’s passages that talk about romantic love, and some that talk about familial love, and others that mention a friendship-type love as well as spiritual love.
Here’s some areas that highlight what Jesus said about love:
Romantic love
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” – 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
Family love
“She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.” – Prov. 31:15-17
Friendship love
“…You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” – Matthew 22:39
“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.” – 1 John 4:7
Spiritual love
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” – John 4:9-12
Turns out, Jesus said quite a bit about love and how we should love others.