For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,
Parallel translations
- WEB For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
- KJV For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
- NKJV For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
- NASB For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
- NLT Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.
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
Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commands are not burdensome. True love for God expresses itself in glad obedience.
Overview
John defines love for God concretely as obedience, echoing Jesus' words in John 14:15. Far from being oppressive, God's commands are 'not grievous' because the one born of God is given a new heart and the Spirit's help to obey. What the law demands becomes a delight, not a burden, for those empowered by grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 24
- John 14:15If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
- John 15:10If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.
- Deut 7:9Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant of loving devotion for a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments.
- John 14:21–24Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”
- 1 Jn 2:3By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.
- 2 Jn 1:6And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love.
- Mic 6:8He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
- John 15:14You are My friends if you do what I command you.
- Rom 7:22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.
- Matt 11:28–30Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
- Deut 10:12–13And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
- Dan 9:4And I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed, “O, Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of loving devotion to those who love Him and keep His commandments,
- Rom 7:12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
- Ps 119:47–48I delight in Your commandments because I love them.
- Heb 8:10For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people.
- Matt 12:46–50While Jesus was still speaking to the crowds, His mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to Him.
- Ps 19:7–11The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple.
- Ps 119:127–128Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, even the purest gold.
- Exod 20:6but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
- Deut 5:10but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
- Ps 119:45And I will walk in freedom, for I have sought Your precepts.
- Ps 119:103–104How sweet are Your words to my taste—sweeter than honey in my mouth!
- Prov 3:17All her ways are pleasant, and all her paths are peaceful.
- Ps 119:140Your promise is completely pure; therefore Your servant loves it.
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 5:3 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.