1 John 4:12-21

12 ¹No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His ²love is perfected in us.

13 ³By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

14 We have seen and ⁴testify that the Father has ⁵sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 ⁶Whoever * confesses that ⁷Jesus is the Son of God, God ⁸abides in him, and he in God.

16 ⁹We have come to know and have believed the love which God has ¹⁰for us. ¹¹God is love, and the one who ¹²abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

17 By this, ¹³love is perfected with us, so that we may have ¹⁴confidence in ¹⁵the day of judgment; because ¹⁶as He is, so also are we in this world.

18 There is no fear in love; but ¹⁷perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not ¹⁸perfected in love.

19 ¹⁹We love, because He first loved us.

20 ²⁰If someone says, "I love God," and ²¹hates his brother, he is a ²²liar; for ²³the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, ²⁴cannot * love God whom he has not seen.

21 And ²⁵this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God ²⁶should love his brother also.

Cross References

• 1. John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:20
• 2. 1 John 2:5; 1 John 4:17
• 3. Romans 8:9; 1 John 3:24
• 4. John 15:27; 1 John 1:2
• 5. John 3:17; John 4:42; 1 John 2:2
• 6. 1 John 2:23
• 7. Romans 10:9; 1 John 3:23; 1 John 4:2; 1 John 5:1, 5
• 8. 1 John 2:24; 1 John 3:24
• 9. John 6:69
• 10. John 9:3; 1 John 4:9
• 11. 1 John 4:7, 8
• 12. 1 John 4:12
• 13. 1 John 2:5; 1 John 4:12
• 14. 1 John 2:28
• 15. Matthew 10:15
• 16. John 17:22; 1 John 2:6; 1 John 3:1, 7, 16
• 17. Romans 8:15
• 18. 1 John 4:12
• 19. 1 John 4:10
• 20. 1 John 1:6, 8, 10; 1 John 2:4
• 21. 1 John 2:9, 11
• 22. 1 John 1:6
• 23. 1 John 3:17
• 24. 1 Peter 1:8; 1 John 4:12
• 25. Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 5:43; Matthew 22:37f; John 13:34
• 26. 1 John 3:11

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "in"
• [b] Lit "has"