What does love mean in the Bible?

Biblical love is steady, self-giving goodwill. It is not only a warm feeling, though it includes feeling, and not only duty, though it includes commitment. It is a Father who keeps choosing His children’s good. “This is love: not that we loved our Father, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

That order matters. We do not earn love by loving well; we learn to love because we have been loved. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from our Father, and all who love are born of him and know him” (1 John 4:7).

The New Testament uses several Greek words. Agapē (verb agapaō) is the self-giving love of 1 John 4 and 1 Corinthians 13. Phileō is the warm love of friends; Jesus uses that family of words when He calls His disciples friends.

In the Old Testament the everyday word is the verb ahav (noun ahavah), as in “Love your Father with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). But the word that carries our Father’s own love is hesed: loyal, covenant-keeping love that will not let go. The FHB renders it “covenant love,” and our Father uses its sister word when He says, “I have loved you with everlasting love; so I have drawn you to myself with faithful love” (Jeremiah 31:3).

Where many Bibles read “God is love,” Father’s Heart Bible™ reads “our Father is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). Its footnote explains: love is not an attribute he wears but his very identity as Father. The love that gave the Son, John 3:16 says, is the Father’s love: “For our Father so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.”

That love does not stay outside us. “Our Father’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us” (Romans 5:5). And John’s promise is that we can live inside it: “Our Father is love, and whoever remains in love remains in him, and he in them” (1 John 4:16).

Paul’s famous description shows what this love looks like in practice: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It isn’t rude, doesn’t seek its own, isn’t provoked, keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:4–5). “It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails” (13:7–8).

Read it slowly and it becomes a portrait of our Father before it becomes a standard for us. The chapter ends: “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (13:13). You can read 1 Corinthians 13 free.

Jesus made love the mark of His family: “I give you a new command: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34–35). And He showed its measure: “No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

Loving like Him starts with receiving His love, then giving it away in ordinary ways: patience in the kitchen, kindness to a difficult neighbour, keeping no record of wrongs. Children who know they are loved learn to love.