1 Corinthians 13 is often referred to as the “love chapter” in the New Testament, and rightfully so. What Paul says about love in that part of his letter is worldview altering. We all ought to come to 1 Corinthians 13 ready and willing to be examined by God through Scripture because what Paul says there is no less than definitional about love.

That being said—and you should have known an exception was going to be made from the title of this article—if we’re going by the numbers there’s one section in the New Testament that really ought to be considered a primary authority on love. And that section is 1 John 4:7-21.

In those 15 verses love (or loved, loves, and loving) is used a total of 27 times. That’s roughly 1.8 times per verse. To put it into a bit of perspective, love, loved, loves, and loving is used a total of 46 times throughout all of 1 John. That means 58.7% of the usages of love, loved, loves, and loving throughout the entire letter is found in 1 John 4:7-21.

To add more perspective to the matter, love (and its different forms) is used 56 times throughout the entire Gospel of John. This means that in 1 John 4:7-21, love makes up 26.4% of its usage in 1 John and the Gospel of John combined.

In comparing 1 John 4:7-21 directly to 1 Corinthians 13 we something pretty interesting. In 1 Corinthians 13, love (and in context, “it”) is used a total of 17 times in just 13 verses. That’s roughly 1.3 times per verse. Compared to that of 1 John 4:7-21’s 1.8 times per verse, we see a difference of only 0.5 usages per verse.

For even more perspective—just because it’s fun—love shows up a total of 316 times in the New Testament and 751 times in the entire Bible. This means that in 1 John 4:7-21 we find 8.5% of its usage in the New Testament and 3.5% in the entire Bible.

By the numbers, 1 John 4:7-21 is definitely the authority on love for John’s writings. Whether it really is the authority over that of 1 Corinthians 13 is up for debate. But, if we’re going by the numbers, 1 John 4:7-21 wins in a close one.