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What does the Bible say about love?
Biblical love is God’s own character toward us and the command to love God and neighbor — fulfilled, not replaced, in Christ.
Scripture context and classic commentary notes below. For a live, retrieval-grounded conversation, Ask Bible.
The two commandments
Jesus names the great commandment: love God with all the heart, and the second like it — love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34–40; Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). On these hang the Law and the Prophets. Love is not a replacement for the commandments; it is their weight.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary · Matthew Henry
Henry on Matthew 22 insists that love of God is first and that neighbor-love is like it, not a rival religion of niceness.
God’s love and the church’s love
“God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16) is defined by the sending of the Son (4:9–10). 1 Corinthians 13 describes love in a divided church: patient, not self-seeking, not delighting in evil. John 13:34–35: a new commandment, as I have loved you. Romantic usage of “love” in modern English is thinner than these texts.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary · JFB
JFB on 1 John 4 treat “God is love” as a statement about God’s nature revealed in the propitiation, not a slogan that God never judges.