Answers about…
Biblical LOVE

What is Christian love?

Contrary to what many believe, love, as described by God’s Word, is a primarily an ACTION (behavior based on personal decision), not a mere feeling or emotion, and certainly NOT a synonym for lust, infatuation or obsession. Love is goodness that one chooses to do on behalf of another, and it ultimately relies on faith and hope in God. True love is humble, righteous, forgiving, patient, generous, kind and willing to endure personal loss and suffering. It is even willing to remain anonymous, and often does among true followers of Christ.

Love is the opposite of self-absorption and selfishness, which are chiefly devoted to one’s own personal pleasure, benefits, welfare and profit. Extreme selfishness is one of the traits of Satan, the devil—the enemy of God and mankind.

Love is commanded of us by our Creator. Jesus Christ said,

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” —John 13:34-35 NASB

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. —1 John 4:11 NASB

Followers of Christ are also to love our neighbors as ourselves ( Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 19:19; Matt. 22:39; Mark 12:31; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8).

For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” — Galatians 5:14 NASB

In 1 Corinthians 13, the apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, beautifully describes the importance and excellency of true love.

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. —1 Corinthians 13 NASB

“Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” —1 John 3:18 NASB

Self-sacrifice unto death

“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” —John 15:13 NASB

Streaming video— 
“Loving Your Enemies as God Does”
John F. MacArthur, Litt.D., D.D., Grace Community Church and The Master’s Seminary
Video by Grace to You
Length: 57 minutes

We should love sinners. We should hate sin. And we shouldn’t divide those two truths into separate categories. Our hatred of sin should manifest itself in a love that warns sinners—compassionately, but no less clearly—of the dire consequences their sin demands. Short of that, how could we ever claim to truly love them? —Cameron Buettel, Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin (Grace to You)


What are the different GREEK WORDS for “love”?


What is LOVE FOR GOD?

“You shall love [ agapaó ]the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind…” —Luke 10:27 NKJV

As fallen human beings in a fallen world, this is very difficult (perhaps impossible), for even the most Godly to fully achieve on Earth. Nonetheless, it should be our ardent goal, as God commands. It can only be achieved through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and full surrender of ourselves to Jesus Christ—becoming willing slaves/servants of our Savior (Romans 1:1). We should look forward with delight to eternal life with God, with our sanctified and glorified minds and bodies, when we will much more fully appreciate and love God and enjoy Him forever.

More about human love

The word “love” in relation to Peter and Jesus in John 21:16-17

This word seems to require explanation only in the case of its use by our Lord in his interview with “Simon, the son of Jonas,” after his resurrection (John 21:16-17). When our Lord says, “Lovest thou me?” he uses the Greek word agapas; and when Simon answers, he uses the Greek word philo, i.e., “I love.” This is the usage in the first and second questions put by our Lord; but in the third our Lord uses Simon's word. The distinction between these two Greek words is thus fitly described by Trench:

“Agapan [agápē] has more of judgment and deliberate choice; philein [philía] has more of attachment and peculiar personal affection. Thus the ‘Lovest thou’ (Greek: agapas) on the lips of the Lord seems to Peter at this moment too cold a word, as though his Lord were keeping him at a distance, or at least not inviting him to draw near, as in the passionate yearning of his heart he desired now to do. Therefore he puts by the word and substitutes his own stronger ‘I love’ (Greek: philo) in its room.

A second time he does the same. And now he has conquered; for when the Lord demands a third time whether he loves him, he does it in the word which alone will satisfy Peter (‘Lovest thou,’ Greek: phileis), which alone claims from him that personal attachment and affection with which indeed he knows that his heart is full.”


What is GOD’S LOVE? and how has it been manfested?

He who does NOT love does not KNOW God, for God is love. —1 John 4:8 NKJV

Answers to frequently-asked-questions about God’s love


Streaming video— 
What is the true nature of God’s love?
John F. MacArthur, Litt.D., D.D., Grace Community Church and The Master’s Seminary
Video by Grace to You
Length: 3 minutes

Is God’s love unconditional?

The Bible says,

“…You hate all workers of iniquity.” —Psalm 5:5 LSB excerpt

“God is a just judge,
And God is angry with the wicked every day.” —Psalm 7:11 NKJV

“and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),” —2 Peter 2:6-8 LSB

“God is not angry merely against the sin abstracted from the sinner, but against the sinner himself. Some persons have labored hard to set up this ridiculous and absurd abstraction, and would fain make it appear that God is angry at sin, yet not at the sinner. He hates the theft, but loves the thief. He abhors adultery, but is pleased with the adulterer. Now this is supreme nonsense. The sin has no moral character apart from the sinner. The act is nothing apart from the actor.

The very thing that God hates and disapproves is not the mere event—the thing done in distinction from the doer; but it is the doer himself. It grieves and displeases Him that a rational moral agent, under His government, should array himself against his own God and Father, against all that is right and just in the universe. This is the thing that offends God. The sinner himself is the direct and the only object of his anger.

So the Bible shows. God is angry with the wicked [Psalm 7:11], not with the abstract sin. If the wicked turn not, God will whet His sword—He has bent His bow and made it ready—not to shoot at the sin, but the sinner—the wicked man who has done the abominable thing. This is the only doctrine of either the Bible or of common sense on this subject.” —minister Charles G. Finney, The Guilt of Sin

Streaming video— 
Is it biblically accurate to say, “God hates the SIN, but loves the SINNER”?
According to God’s Word, His love is NOT “unconditional,” despite what many claim.
Excerpted comments by…
• Dr. R.C. Sproul, Drs., PhD, Ligonier Ministries
• Dr. John MacArthur Jr., Litt.D., D.D., President of The Master’s Seminary
Length: 6 minutes

More information

Streaming video— 
A more full description of God’s everlasting love
An Everlasting Love: The Love of God
John F. MacArthur, Litt.D., D.D., Grace Community Church and The Master’s Seminary
Video by Grace to You
Length: 1 minute

Christians are commanded NOT to love this world

Anyone who loves the world demonstrates that the love of the Father is not in him.

The Apostle John warns true followers of Christ…

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. —1 John 2:15-17

Streaming video— 
“Do Not Love the World”
John F. MacArthur, Litt.D., D.D., Grace Community Church and The Master’s Seminary
Video by Grace to You
Length: 59 minutes

What are Believers told to HATE, as God does?

Hate…

“There are six things which Yahweh hates,
Even seven which are an abomination to Him:
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
And hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked thoughts,
Feet that hasten to run to evil,
A false witness who breathes out lies,
And one who spreads strife among brothers.” —Proverbs 6:16-19 LSB

No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” —Luke 16:13

  1. Dr. John F. MacArthur Jr., “Is Biblical Love a Feeling or an Action?”, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary on 1 Corinthians 13 • MacArthur founded The Master’s Seminary

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Article Version: August 6, 2024