Knowing God through Love

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God^(A) and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us^[a] in this way: God sent^(B) his one and only Son^(C) into the world so that we might live^(D) through him. ¹⁰ Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us^(E) and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice^[b](F) for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.^{(G) 12} No one has ever seen God.^(H) If we love one another, God remains in^[c] us and his love is made complete in us.

¹⁹ We love^[a] because he first loved us.^{(A) 20} If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister,^(B) he is a liar.^(C) For the person who does not love his brother or sister^(D) whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.^{[b] 21} And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.