My relatively new practice of meditating on God’s promises when I can’t sleep led me the other night to wonder what all the Bible has to say about God’s love for us. The only verse I could recall in my half-awake state was John 3:16, but I knew there were many more.
The next morning, I went to Biblegateway.com and typed “love” into their search engine. The following are the many verses I found that describe God’s love for us. My prayer is that as you read through them you will see God’s heart and the amazing love He has for you, His beloved.
Old Testament Verses of God’s Love
In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. (Exodus 15:13)
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. (Exodus 34:6)
The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. (Numbers 14:18a)
In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now. (Number 14:19)
But showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Deuteronomy 5:10)
But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. (Deuteronomy 7:8-9)
However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. (Deuteronomy 23:5)
Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders. (Deuteronomy 33:12b)
Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below — you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. (1 Kings 8:23)
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (1 Chronicles 16:34)
Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth — you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way. (2 Chronicles 6:14)
Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments. (Nehemiah 1:5)
But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them. (Nehemiah 9:17b)
Remember me for this also, my God, and show mercy to me according to your great love. (Nehemiah 13:22b)
Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love. (Psalm 6:4)
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. (Psalm 13:5)
Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes. (Psalm 17:7)
He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing love to his anointed, to David and to his descendants forever. (Psalm 18:50)
For the king trusts in the Lord; through the unfailing love of the Most High he will not be shaken. (Psalm 21:7)
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:6)
Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. (Psalm 25:6)
Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good. (Psalm 25:7)
I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness. (Psalm 26:3)
I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. (Psalm 31:7)
Let your face shine on your servant; save me in your unfailing love. (Psalm 31:16)
Praise be to the Lord, for he showed me the wonders of his love when I was in a city under siege. (Psalm 31:21)
Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him. (Psalm 32:10)
The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love. (Psalm 33:5)
But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, (Psalm 33:18)
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you. (Psalm 33:22)
Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. (Psalm 36:5)
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 36:7)
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 36:7)
For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. Wrongdoers will be completely destroyed; the offspring of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 37:28)
By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42:8)
It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. (Psalm 44:3)
Rise up and help us; rescue us because of your unfailing love. (Psalm 44:26)
Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. (Psalm 48:9)
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. (Psalm 51:1)
But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever. (Psalm 52:8)
He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me— God sends forth his love and his faithfulness. (Psalm 57:3)
For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. (Psalm 57:10)
But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble. (Psalm 59:16)
May he be enthroned in God’s presence forever; appoint your love and faithfulness to protect him. (Psalm 61:7)
Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. (Psalm 63:3)
Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! (Psalm 66:20)
But I pray to you, Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. (Psalm 69:13)
Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me. (Psalm 69:16)
Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation. (Psalm 85:7)
You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. (Psalm 86:5)
For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead. (Psalm 86:13)
But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. (Psalm 86:15)
I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.
I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you have established your faithfulness in heaven itself. (Psalm 89:1-2)
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. (Psalm 89:14)
My faithful love will be with him, and through my name his horn will be exalted. (Psalm 89:24)
I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail. (Psalm 89:28)
I will not take my love from him, nor will I ever betray my faithfulness. (Psalm 89:33)
Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. (Psalm 90:14)
It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night. (Psalm 92:1-2)
When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.” (Psalm 94:18)
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:5)
I will sing of your love and justice; to you, Lord, I will sing praise. (Psalm 101:1)
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:1-5)
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (Psalm 103:8)
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him. (Psalm 103:11)
But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children. (Psalm 103:17)
Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 106:1)
For their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented. (Psalm 106:45)
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 107:1)
Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind. (Psalm 107:8, 15, 21, 31)
For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. (Psalm 108:4)
Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered. (Psalm 108:6)
But you, Sovereign Lord, help me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. (Psalm 109:21)
Help me, Lord my God; save me according to your unfailing love. (Psalm 109:26)
Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. (Psalm 115:1)
For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord. (Psalm 117:2)
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 118:1, 29)
May your unfailing love come to me, Lord, your salvation, according to your promise. (Psalm 119:41)
The earth is filled with your love, Lord; teach me your decrees. (Psalm 119:64)
May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant. (Psalm 119:76)
In your unfailing love preserve my life, that I may obey the statutes of your mouth. (Psalm 119:88)
Deal with your servant according to your love and teach me your decrees. (Psalm 119:124)
Hear my voice in accordance with your love; preserve my life, Lord, according to your laws. (Psalm 119:149)
In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves. (Psalm 127:2)
Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. (Psalm 130:7)
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. (Psalm 136)
I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your unfailing love and your faithfulness, for you have so exalted your solemn decree that it surpasses your fame. (Psalm 138:2)
The Lord will vindicate me; your love, Lord, endures forever — do not abandon the works of your hands. (Psalm 138:8)
The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. (Psalm 145:8)
The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. (Psalm 147:11)
Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back. (Isaiah 38:17)
Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life. (Isaiah 43:4)
Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. (Isaiah 54:10)
In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. (Isaiah 63:9)
The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3)
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. (Lamentations 3:32)
I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments. (Daniel 9:4)
I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. (Hosea 2:19)
The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” (Hosea 3:1)
I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. (Hosea 14:4)
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:13)
Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God’s love for them. (Jonah 2:8)
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)
New Testament Verses about God’s Love
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. (John 13:1)
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13:34)
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. (John 14:21)
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” (John 14:23)
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:9-13)
Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:23b)
The Father himself loves you. (John 16:27a)
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5)
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35, 37)
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-29)
As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one‘ who is not my loved one.” (Romans 9:25)
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. (2 Corinthians 5:14)
Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. (2 Corinthians 13:11)
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14)
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love. (Galatians 5:22a)
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. (Ephesians 1:4-5)
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4-5)
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17b-19)
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2)
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5:25)
Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 6:23)
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. (Philippians 2:1-2)
For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you. (1 Thessalonians 1:4)
May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)
May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance. (2 Thessalonians 3:5)
The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. (1 Timothy 1:14)
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)
The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? (Hebrews 12:6-7)
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7)
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1)
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. (1 John 3:16)
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. 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. (1 John 4:7-12)
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. (1 John 4:16)
We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance. (Jude 1:1-2)
But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (Jude 1:20-21)
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father — to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. (Revelation 1:5b-6)
All Scripture quoted from the New International Version (NIV).
