Explain Bible

What does the Bible say about true love waits?

Bible Topic · WEB

The Bible teaches that true love is patient, pure, self-controlled, and honors God by waiting for sexual intimacy within marriage. First Corinthians 13:4-8 describes love as patient, kind, and unselfish rather than demanding its own way. Song of Solomon 8:4 cautions against awakening love before its proper time, while Hebrews 13:4 calls believers to honor marriage and sexual faithfulness. Christians are therefore to flee youthful passions, as 2 Timothy 2:22 teaches, guard their hearts according to Proverbs 4:23, and remember that their bodies belong to Christ (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). This obedience is not earned righteousness, but grateful holiness empowered by God's grace.

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

  • 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 18 votes

    Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.

  • 2 Timothy 2:22 8 votes

    Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

  • Song of Solomon 8:4 5 votes

    I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up, nor awaken love, until it so desires.

  • James 4:7 5 votes

    Be subject therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

  • Hebrews 13:4 5 votes

    Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the bed be undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

  • 1 Timothy 4:12 4 votes

    Let no man despise your youth; but be an example to those who believe, in word, in your way of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity.

  • 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 4 votes

    Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

  • 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 3 votes

    If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass 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 don’t have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away 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, even as I was also fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.

  • Proverbs 4:23 3 votes

    Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.

  • Colossians 3:5 3 votes

    Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Related topics

Go deeper

Ask Explain Bible AI about true love waits and get a fuller answer from a Reformed theological perspective.

Ask what the Bible says about true love waits