Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
Parallel translations
- WEB Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
- BSB Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
- NKJV Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
- NASB Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
- NLT Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
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 should love one another because love comes from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows him. Genuine love is the fruit of the new birth.
Overview
John returns to the command to love, grounding it in God's own nature as the source of love. Those who truly love show they are born of God and know him. This introduces the great section on God's love, climaxing in 'God is love,' and ties love inseparably to genuine knowledge of God through Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 1 Jn 4:20If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
- 1 Jn 4:8He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
- 1 Pet 1:22Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
- 1 Jn 2:10He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.
- Gal 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
- 1 Th 4:9–10But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
- 2 Tim 1:7For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
- 1 Jn 4:12No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
- 1 Jn 3:10–23In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
- 1 Jn 2:29If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
- Deut 30:6And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
- John 17:3And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
- 2 Cor 4:6For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- Gal 4:9But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
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 4:7 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.