And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Parallel translations
- WEB We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
- KJV And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
- NKJV And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
- NASB We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
- NLT We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
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
We have come to know and trust God's love for us; since God is love, whoever abides in love abides in God. Faith and love flow from God's own nature.
Overview
John restates 'God is love' (4:8) and ties knowing and believing this love to abiding in God. To 'remain in love' is to live in the sphere of God's love and to extend it to others, which is the natural fruit of true faith. This verse summarizes the chapter: God's love, embraced by faith, draws the believer into ongoing communion with God himself.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Jn 3:24Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us: by the Spirit He has given us.
- Ps 36:7–9How precious is Your loving devotion, O God, that the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings!
- 1 Jn 3:1Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
- 1 Jn 4:8–10Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- Ps 18:1–3For the choirmaster. Of David the servant of the LORD, who sang this song to the LORD on the day the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love You, O LORD, my strength.
- 1 Jn 4:12–13No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.
- 1 Jn 3:16By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
- Ps 31:19How great is Your goodness which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have bestowed before the sons of men on those who take refuge in You!
- 1 Cor 2:9Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
- John 6:69We believe and know that You are the Holy One of God.”
- Isa 64:4From ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
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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 4:16 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
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