Quotes About God's Love for Sermons and Devotions
Scripture on the scope and character of God's love: beginning before we deserved it and holding regardless of what tries to separate us from it.
God's love in scripture is described less as a feeling and more as an action taken toward people who had not earned it: "while we were yet sinners" is the hinge most of the New Testament's statements on the subject turn on.
One modern quote is included, from C.S. Lewis's The Problem of Pain, because it directly addresses a common misreading (that God's love means God's primary aim is our comfort) with a specific, checkable source.
Quotes about god's love
Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible (public domain). Every non-scripture quote names its specific source so you can verify it before you preach it.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Jesus, in John's gospel — John 3:16 (WEB)
“God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Paul — Romans 5:8 (WEB)
“In this love is with us, that God sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son.”
John — 1 John 4:9-10 (WEB)
“I am persuaded that neither death, nor life... nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Paul — Romans 8:38-39 (WEB)
“I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.”
Yahweh, through Jeremiah — Jeremiah 31:3 (WEB)
“Yahweh your God is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah — Zephaniah 3:17 (WEB)
“Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness.”
C.S. Lewis — The Problem of Pain (1940), Chapter 3 ("Divine Goodness")
Using these quotes in preaching
- 1Romans 5:8's "while we were yet sinners" is the phrase to slow down on: it dates God's love before repentance rather than after it, which is the point most likely to be missed in a quick read.
- 2Zephaniah 3:17 is easy to overlook because it comes from a minor prophet in the middle of a book largely about judgment. Its picture of God singing over his people is one of the tenderest images in the Old Testament and rewards being read in its surprising context.
- 3The Lewis quote is a corrective, best used against a sermon's own drift, not as a decoration. It is arguing specifically against reducing God's love to a wish for our comfort, which he spends the rest of the chapter unpacking.
- 4Romans 8:38-39 is a list; reading it slowly, phrase by phrase, does more than summarizing it, since Paul is deliberately exhausting every category he can think of.
Frequently asked questions
What is the most famous Bible verse about God's love?
John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world...") is by a wide margin the most quoted single verse on the subject, and is often paired with Romans 5:8 for its specificity about timing, God's love acted "while we were yet sinners."
What does Romans 8:38-39 say cannot separate us from God's love?
Paul lists death, life, angels, principalities, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth, and "any other created thing": a deliberately exhaustive list meant to leave no category unaddressed.
Is the C.S. Lewis quote that love is "stern and splendid" genuine?
Yes, it is from The Problem of Pain (1940), where Lewis argues against a reduction of God's love to mere kindness or a wish to see people comfortable, in favor of a love that wants what is actually good for the beloved.
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Quotes about Jesus
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Quotes about Heaven
Scripture and two of the most widely quoted lines on heaven from Augustine and C.S. Lewis, chosen because their sources are exact and checkable.
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