10 Bible Stories for Children About Love

If you look the word love up in the dictionary, you will see that it is both a verb and a noun. Yes, love for someone can be found in how we feel. Yet, love actually goes much deeper than the world’s view of love. It’s not fleeting. It can be seen (and should be seen) by our actions. If you look into Christianity, God has a great deal to say about love. If you want to teach your child how it’s so much more than just a romantic feeling, take a look at these 10 Bible stories about love.  

Love is not just the romantic, bubbly feeling you get at the beginning of a relationship. In fact, true love goes so much deeper than infatuation. It builds upon each interaction over time, often years. Real love can be found in more than just romantic relationships as well. When we truly love someone, whether it’s a family member, close friend, or even a stranger on the street, we show it by how we treat them.  
 
In the Bible you can see a number of Bible stories about love. From how God sends his son to die on the cross, to amazing displays of forgiveness, and sacrifices that seem extremely difficult.

Before we dive into Bible stories for children that show love, let’s take a look at several Bible verses that talk about love. In these Bible verses we can see God’s true heart. How he desires for us to treat one another, even the people we don’t necessarily like. It’s easy to love those we like, it’s more difficult to show love to those that rub us the wrong way.  

• “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them." (Luke 6:32)  
• "Love is patient, kind, not jealous, and does not brag or be arrogant". (1 Corinthians 13:4) 
• "But now faith, hope, and love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13)  
• "By this, all men will know that you are My disciples if you have a love for one another.” Luke 6:32)  
• "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." (Matthew 5:44)  
• "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13)  
• "Above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins." (1 Peter 4:8)  
• "Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love." (1 John 4:8) 
• "Let all that you do be done in love." (1 Corinthians 16:14)  

These verses create a beautiful picture of what God says about love in the Bible. Love is patient, it is enduring, and God wants us to show it to everyone. Not just those we get along with. However, it’s not easy to show love to everyone.  It takes time and intention to love people the way God instructs. Within each one of these Bible stories are incredible examples of love that we can all learn from, children and adults alike. 

John 3:16 is perhaps one of the most well-known Bible verses and also one of the biggest examples of a Bible story about love. It states, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  
 
John 3:16 sums up exactly what the Gospel message is of the Christian faith. God loves everyone that he created. However, when sin entered the world, it left a chasm between him and humankind. His love for the world though was unstoppable, when Jesus was born, it was for one reason. To bring salvation to everyone.  
 
Throughout the ministry of Jesus, you can see love displayed in all his actions. Even when he flipped the tables at the temple, it was for his love of God.  
 
If asked, it’s likely that everyone would respond the same way. Would you sacrifice your child for someone else? Most likely, the answer is no. In the Christian faith, Jesus’ crucifixion is the ultimate display of love.  

In the Old Testament, Jacob tricks his brother Esau into giving up his birth right. Then he deceives his father in order to receive his father’s blessing (which was supposed to go to the first-born son.) Right after the deception, Jacob runs away to his mother’s uncle Laben’s land.  
 
In Haran, Jacob falls in love with Rachel, Laben’s youngest daughter. He began to work for Laben, who in return asked Jacob what he wanted as payment. Jacob asked for Rachel’s hand in marriage in exchange for seven years of work. After seven years of work, their marriage night finally came. However, instead of Rachel, Laben brought Leah to Jacob since Leah was the oldest daughter. 
 
Jacob was furious, he didn’t want to marry Leah. However, since she was the oldest, tradition meant she was to marry first. Laben said Rachel could marry Jacob, but he needed to work another seven years, for a total of 14. Instead of getting upset and leaving, Jacob’s love for Rachel kept him with Laben for another seven years.  

When Jacob returned to his homeland and met Esau for the first time in years, he was rightfully worried.  
 
Afterall, Jacob had stolen so much from his older brother. Right before he knew he would meet Esau, he divided his children between Rachel, Leah, and the servants. He had the servants in front, then Leah, then Rachel in the back.  
 
Then Jacob braced himself for the meeting with his brother by going to the very front. Instead of becoming angry and berating Jacob for all he did, Esau ran to his little brother, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. Then, together, they cried.  
 
Esau showed a beautiful display of forgiveness and love for his younger brother, even though he had, in every sense, the right to be angry. He let it go and instead let love be the prevailing emotion.   

Joseph was the only son (until Benjamin was born) of Jacob and Rachel. He was Jacob’s favorite out of his 12 sons, because Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah. However, this favoritism definitely got under the skin of the other brothers.  
 
They were jealous of Joseph and decided that it was time to get rid of him. Therefore, the brothers created a plan to first kill Joseph but then decided to sell him into slavery instead. They then faked his death and convinced Jacob and Rachel that Joseph was long gone.  
 
During his time as a servant, Joseph became a favorite of the man in charge. However, the man’s wife took a liking to Joseph a little too well and tried to seduce him. When this didn’t work, the woman accused Joseph of assault, which landed him in prison. 

While in prison, Joseph would interpret dreams. After several years, he gained favor with the King after helping the King interpret his own dreams. Joseph became the King’s right-hand man and helped save the land from a horrible drought.  
 
During this drought his father and brothers were starving. This meant they had to go to Egypt and get food. They had no idea that Joseph was the one in charge of the food. Joseph recognized his brothers right away.  
 
Joseph had every right to be upset with them. What his brothers did was absolutely awful. However, he eventually revealed to them who he was, and extended forgiveness with love.  

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin when Jesus was conceived. She was chosen by God to bring him into this world, and Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. At this time, Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph. 
 
When Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, he was upset. I mean, after all, a miraculous conception doesn’t just happen. Logically, he felt like the best option was to divorce her quietly so that he didn’t bring shame upon her.  
 
However, Joseph was visited one night by an angel, who told him exactly what happened, he chose to believe it. Joseph went on to marry Mary and raise Jesus as his own.  

Ruth was the daughter in law of Naomi. She also had a sister-in- law. For a time, the family was happy. Until tragedy struck. Naomi first lost her husband. Then the two younger women lost their husbands. They found themselves widowed and alone. Women at this time relied on family or husbands to take care of them. 
 
This meant that Naomi decided it was best to head back to her homeland. She instructed her daughter in laws to go back to their mothers though. Maybe God will bless them with another husband since they were both still pretty young. One daughter in law took Naomi up on this advice and went back to her mother. 
 
However, Ruth refused to leave Naomi. She told her that where you go, I’ll go. However, Ruth didn’t have to take care of her mother-in-law. She did anyway. They both went back to Naomi’s homeland. Here, Ruth went to collect barley from those who were picking it in order to get a little bit of food for her and Naomi. 
 
It was during this time that she met Boaz, who owned the land. Ruth went on to marry Boaz, securing for herself and Naomi both social and financial security.  

In the book of Hosea, we meet a minor prophet, Hosea. His minstry took place right before the Israelites were exiled to Babylon. Hosea’s life was used by God to display the love God has for his people.  
 
God told Hosea to marry a woman named Gomer. Well, his actual words were, “Go marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife, this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”  
 
So, God was speaking through Hosea. He had made a commitment to the children of Israel, however the Israelites kept turning their backs on God, creating false idols, and more.  
 
Hosea marries Gomer, and she leaves him and commits adultery over and over again. God tells Hosea to go buy Gomer back, to bring her back, and to extend forgiveness for the sin she committed against him. 
 
These actions were to mirror God’s love for the Israelites. How he would send his son Jesus, forgive them, and welcome them back home.

In these stories, we see displays of God’s love for humanity, romantic love, and love for family. David and Jonathan’s story is a wonderful example of platonic love and friendship.  
 
David was the little shepherd boy who killed Goliath. He went on to become Saul’s right-hand man. However, Saul realized that God was going to take the throne from him and give it to David. Therefore, he made it his mission to kill David.  
 
Jonathan was Saul’s son. By every right of tradition, the thrown should be his, not David’s. However, David became Jonathan’s best friend. The Bible says that Jonathan loved David like he loved himself, and David felt the same.  
 
Jonathan not only gave up his right to the throne to David, but he also risked his life to save David. Although his own Dad hated David, he didn’t let those feelings that were not his color his love for his friend.  
 
Later on, we see that David’s love for Jonathan was still present years later when he gave all that was Saul’s to Jonathan’s son.  

In the New Testament, Jesus tells a parable of a prodigal son. In this parable, there is a man who has two sons. One did what was right: listened to his father, took care of what he needed to take care of, and loved his dad. The other son was itching to get away, so he demanded that his dad give him his inheritance and ran off. During his time away, the son blew through all of his inheritance. Eventually, he found himself lying with the pigs and eating the same slop as them.  
 
He realized at that time that the servants in his father’s house ate better than him. So, he made up his mind to return to his dad, beg forgiveness, and ask to be a servant.  
 
When the father saw his son returning, he was overjoyed. The father told his servants to put together a feast. He then ran to his son and welcomed him with a big hug. He could have lectured his son, banished him, or even refused to forgive him. However, the dad didn’t. He loved his son so much that he extended grace and forgiveness. 
 
This parable was used by Jesus to teach the love of God and how he welcomes anyone home. It also shows how important forgiveness and grace is to give to others, even those who make mistakes we may not understand.  

Love is a complex concept. It goes much deeper than the butterflies and romantic feelings we have when we are attracted to someone. Love is also a verb and is shown by our actions. In these Bible stories about love, we see it displayed in many different ways. 
 
There’s Hosea, a prophet who marries a promiscuous woman. After committing adultery, he still forgives her and welcomes her home. Then there’s Ruth, who decides to stay with her mother-in-law because she loved and respected her, and Joseph, who forgave his brother despite what they did to him. 
 
Throughout the Bible you can see story after story of amazing and beautiful love on display that cover all areas of life. From family and friends to how much God loves his children.