He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.
Parallel translations
- KJV He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
- BSB Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- NKJV He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
- NASB The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- NLT But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
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.
Cross-references & the web
Theme
- The Love of God"God is love."
Cross-references · 13
- 1 Jn 4:16We 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.
- 1 Jn 4:7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
- Ps 86:15But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
- 2 Cor 13:11Finally, brothers, rejoice. Be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
- Ps 86:5For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive; abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
- Exod 34:6–7Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,
- Eph 2:4But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
- 1 Jn 1:5This is the message which we have heard from him and announce to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
- 1 Jn 3:6Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him and doesn’t know him.
- 1 Jn 2:9He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in the darkness even until now.
- John 8:54–55Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is our God.
- 1 Jn 2:4One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him.
- Heb 12:29for our God is a consuming fire.
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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 4:8 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.