We love him, because he first loved us.
Parallel translations
- KJV We love him, because he first loved us.
- BSB We love because He first loved us.
- NKJV We love Him because He first loved us.
- NASB We love, because He first loved us.
- NLT We love each other because he loved us first.
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 love because God first loved us. All Christian love is a response to God's prior, initiating grace.
Overview
This brief verse summarizes the chapter's logic: our capacity to love God and others originates entirely in his having loved us first in Christ. Divine love is the cause and pattern of all genuine human love. The grammar emphasizes God's initiative, guarding against any notion that we earn his favor; we are simply responding to grace already given.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 1 Jn 4:10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
- John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- John 15:16You didn’t choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
- Titus 3:3–5For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
- 2 Cor 5:14–15For the love of Christ constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died.
- Luke 7:47Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”
- Eph 2:3–5among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
- Gal 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 4:19 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.