Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Parallel translations
- WEB By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
- KJV By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
- BSB By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
- NKJV By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
- NASB By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.”
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
Jesus says love among His disciples is how everyone will recognize them as His. It makes mutual love the visible badge of true discipleship.
Overview
Christ identifies love within the community as the chief witness to the watching world. Such love commends the gospel and authenticates genuine discipleship. The verse challenges believers to make Christlike love the unmistakable mark of their life together.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 1 Jn 4:20–21If a man says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who doesn’t love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
- 1 Jn 2:10He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him.
- 1 Jn 3:10–14In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever doesn’t do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who doesn’t love his brother.
- John 17:21that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.
- 1 Jn 2:5But whoever keeps his word, God’s love has most certainly been perfected in him. This is how we know that we are in him:
- Acts 4:32–35The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
- Gen 13:7–8There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land at that time.
- Acts 5:12–14By the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. They were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.
How John 13:35 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.