1 John 4:8-18

8 ¹Anyone who does not love does not know God, because ²God is love.

9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that ³God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

10 In this is love, ⁴not that we have loved God ⁵but that he loved us and sent his Son to be ⁶the propitiation for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 ⁷No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and ⁸his love is perfected in us.

13 ⁹By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

14 And ¹⁰we have seen and testify that ¹¹the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of ¹²the world.

15 ¹³Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

16 So ¹⁴we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. ¹⁵God is love, and ¹⁶whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

17 By this ¹⁷is love perfected with us, so that ¹⁸we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because ¹⁹as he is so also are we in this world.

18 There is no fear in love, but ²⁰perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not ²¹been perfected in love.

Cross References

• 1. 4:8 ch. 3:10
• 2. 4:8 ver. 16; 2 Cor. 13:11; [ch. 1:5; John 4:24]
• 3. 4:9 See John 3:16
• 4. 4:10 Rom. 5:8, 10
• 5. 4:10 [See ver. 9 above]
• 6. 4:10 See ch. 2:2
• 7. 4:12 ver. 20; John 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:16
• 8. 4:12 ch. 2:5
• 9. 4:13 ch. 3:24
• 10. 4:14 ch. 1:1, 2
• 11. 4:14 See John 3:17
• 12. 4:14 See ch. 2:2
• 13. 4:15 ch. 5:5; [Rom. 10:9]; See Matt. 14:33
• 14. 4:16 John 6:69
• 15. 4:16 See ver. 8
• 16. 4:16 ver. 12; ch. 3:24
• 17. 4:17 [ch. 2:5]
• 18. 4:17 ch. 2:28; 3:21
• 19. 4:17 [ch. 3:1]
• 20. 4:18 [John 3:18; Rom. 8:15]
• 21. 4:18 [See ver. 17 above]