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.
Quick answer
Whoever does not love does not truly know God, because God's very nature is love. Genuine knowledge of God always produces love.
Overview
John makes love the test of authentic fellowship with God: since God is love, those who belong to him will reflect that love toward others. 'God is love' describes his essential character, not merely an emotion he has, and it is most fully revealed in the gift of his Son. To lack love is therefore evidence of never having truly known God.
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.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 4:8 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.