1 Jean 4:8

8 Celui qui n'aime point, n'a point connu Dieu, car Dieu est amour.

1 Jean 4:8 Meaning and Commentary

1 John 4:8

He that loveth not, knoweth not God
If a man loves not the children of God, those that are born of him, he does not know, so as to love God, the Father of them; for to pretend love to God, the begetter of them, whom he sees not, and not love those who are begotten by him, and are visible objects of respect, is a contradiction, and cannot be reconciled: see ( 1 John 4:20 ) . This clause is left out in the Ethiopic version, and is transposed in the Syriac version, which reads the text thus, "for God, is love, and whoever loveth not, knoweth not God". By which reading, the following reason stands in close connection with ( 1 John 4:7 ) .

For God is love;
he loves himself; there is an entire love between the three divine Persons, who are in the strictest, and in the most inconceivable and inexpressible manner affected to each other; their love is natural and essential: God loves all his creatures as such, nor does he hate any of them, as so considered; and he bears an everlasting, unchangeable, and invariable love to his elect in Christ Jesus; of which an instance is given in the following verses, and is a reason why the saints should love one another; that they might be like their heavenly Father, by whom they are begotten, and of whom they are born, and whose children they are; seeing he is love itself, and in his breast is nothing else but love. So the Shekinah is, by the Cabalistic Jews ^F20, called (hbha) , "love".

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 15. 1. & Lex. Cabal. p. 43, 44.

1 Jean 4:8 In-Context

6 Nous, nous sommes de Dieu; celui qui connaît Dieu, nous écoute; celui qui n'est point de Dieu, ne nous écoute point: à cela nous connaissons l'esprit de vérité et l'esprit d'erreur.

7 Bien-aimés, aimons-nous les uns les autres; car la charité vient de Dieu, et quiconque aime, est né de Dieu, et connaît Dieu.

8 Celui qui n'aime point, n'a point connu Dieu, car Dieu est amour.

9 L'amour de Dieu envers nous a paru en ce que Dieu a envoyé son Fils unique dans le monde, afin que nous vivions par lui.

10 En ceci est l'amour, c'est que ce n'est pas nous qui avons aimé Dieu, mais que c'est lui qui nous a aimés et a envoyé son Fils en propitiation pour nos péchés.