This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
Parallel translations
- WEB For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;
- KJV For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
- NKJV For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,
- NASB For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we are to love one another;
- NLT This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The message heard from the beginning is that we should love one another. Mutual love is central to the gospel.
Overview
John returns to the foundational command: love one another. This is not new but part of the original Christian message. Love for fellow believers is a defining mark of the family of God. The verse introduces the contrast with Cain, illustrating love's opposite in hatred and murder.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- John 15:12This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
- 2 Jn 1:5And now I urge you, dear lady—not as a new commandment to you, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.
- 1 Jn 4:7Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
- John 13:34–35A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.
- 1 Pet 3:8Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tenderhearted and humble.
- 1 Jn 4:21And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.
- Eph 5:2and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.
- 1 Pet 4:8Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
- 1 Th 4:9Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
- 1 Jn 1:5And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
- Gal 6:2Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
- 1 Jn 2:7–8Beloved, I am not writing to you a new commandment, but an old one, which you have had from the beginning. This commandment is the message you have heard.
- 1 Pet 1:22Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart.
- 1 Tim 1:5The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Jesus is the Word of life made manifest, the propitiation for our sins, the Son in whom is eternal life — 'that you may know that you have eternal life.'
How 1 John 3:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.