1 John 4:7-21

God Is Love

7 ¹Beloved, let us ²love one another, for love is from God; and ³everyone who loves is ⁴born of God and ⁵knows God.

8 The one who does not love does not know God, for ⁶God is love.

9 By this the love of God was manifested ⁷in us, that ⁸God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

10 In this is love, ⁹not that we loved God, but that ¹⁰He loved us and sent His Son to be ¹¹the propitiation for our sins.

11 ¹²Beloved, if God so loved us, ¹³we also ought to love one another.

12 ¹⁴No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His ¹⁵love is perfected in us.

13 ¹⁶By 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 ¹⁷testify that the Father has ¹⁸sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 ¹⁹Whoever * confesses that ²⁰Jesus is the Son of God, God ²¹abides in him, and he in God.

16 ²²We have come to know and have believed the love which God has ²³for us. ²⁴God is love, and the one who ²⁵abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

17 By this, ²⁶love is perfected with us, so that we may have ²⁷confidence in ²⁸the day of judgment; because ²⁹as He is, so also are we in this world.

18 There is no fear in love; but ³⁰perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not ³¹perfected in love.

19 ³²We love, because He first loved us.

20 ³³If someone says, "I love God," and ³⁴hates his brother, he is a ³⁵liar; for ³⁶the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, ³⁷cannot * love God whom he has not seen.

21 And ³⁸this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God ³⁹should love his brother also.

Cross References

• 1. 1 John 2:7
• 2. 1 John 3:11
• 3. 1 John 5:1
• 4. 1 John 2:29
• 5. 1 Corinthians 8:3; 1 John 2:3
• 6. 1 John 4:7, 16
• 7. John 9:3; 1 John 4:16
• 8. John 3:16; 1 John 4:10; 1 John 5:11
• 9. Romans 5:8, 10; 1 John 4:19
• 10. John 3:16; 1 John 4:9; 1 John 5:11
• 11. 1 John 2:2
• 12. 1 John 2:7
• 13. 1 John 4:7
• 14. John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 4:20
• 15. 1 John 2:5; 1 John 4:17
• 16. Romans 8:9; 1 John 3:24
• 17. John 15:27; 1 John 1:2
• 18. John 3:17; John 4:42; 1 John 2:2
• 19. 1 John 2:23
• 20. Romans 10:9; 1 John 3:23; 1 John 4:2; 1 John 5:1, 5
• 21. 1 John 2:24; 1 John 3:24
• 22. John 6:69
• 23. John 9:3; 1 John 4:9
• 24. 1 John 4:7, 8
• 25. 1 John 4:12
• 26. 1 John 2:5; 1 John 4:12
• 27. 1 John 2:28
• 28. Matthew 10:15
• 29. John 17:22; 1 John 2:6; 1 John 3:1, 7, 16
• 30. Romans 8:15
• 31. 1 John 4:12
• 32. 1 John 4:10
• 33. 1 John 1:6, 8, 10; 1 John 2:4
• 34. 1 John 2:9, 11
• 35. 1 John 1:6
• 36. 1 John 3:17
• 37. 1 Peter 1:8; 1 John 4:12
• 38. Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 5:43; Matthew 22:37f; John 13:34
• 39. 1 John 3:11

Footnotes

• [a] Or "begotten"
• [b] Or "in our case"
• [c] Or "unique," only one of His kind
• [d] Lit "in"
• [e] Lit "has"