And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.
Parallel translations
- WEB This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should also love his brother.
- KJV And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
- NKJV And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
- NASB And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.
- NLT And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.
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
Christ himself commanded that whoever loves God must also love his brother. Love for God and love for neighbor are inseparably bound by his command.
Overview
John grounds the duty of mutual love in the explicit command of Jesus, recalling the Lord's summary of the law (Mark 12:30-31; John 13:34). Loving God and loving fellow believers are not two optional virtues but one bound obligation. This closes the chapter by rooting Christian love not merely in logic but in the authority of Christ's word.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Matt 22:37–39Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
- Lev 19:18Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
- 1 Jn 3:11This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
- Gal 5:14The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
- 1 Pet 3:8Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tenderhearted and humble.
- 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.
- John 13:34–35A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also must love one another.
- John 15:12This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
- Rom 12:9–10Love must be sincere. Detest what is evil; cling to what is good.
- 1 Pet 4:8Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
- 1 Jn 3:23And this is His commandment: that we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and we should love one another just as He commanded us.
- 1 Jn 3:14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
- Mark 12:29–33Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
- 1 Jn 4:11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
- Gal 5:6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love.
- Rom 13:9–10The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
- Luke 10:37“The one who showed him mercy,” replied the expert in the law. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
- 1 Jn 3:18Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.
- Matt 5:43You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 4:21 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.