God Is Love (1 John 4:7-16)

1 John 4:7-16 · Berean Standard Bible

"Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." John grounds all human love in God's own nature: we are able to love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:7-16 is the clearest statement in Scripture that love comes from God, and that truly knowing God will always show up as love for other people.

7Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.

10And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.

13By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit.

14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

15If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

16And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Read the wider context: 1 John 4.

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