1 John 4:7-17

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God.

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

9 And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

10 This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

11 Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another.

12 No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us. ¹

13 We are sure that we live in union with God and that he lives in union with us, because he has given us his Spirit.

14 And we have seen and tell others that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 If we declare that Jesus is the Son of God, we live in union with God and God lives in union with us.

16 And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them.

17 Love is made perfect in us in order that we may have courage on the Judgment Day; and we will have it because our life in this world is the same as Christ's.

Cross References

• 1. 4.12John 1.18.