1 John 4:7-21

Modern English Version

God Is Love

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ In this way the love of God was revealed to us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another. ¹² No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us.

¹³ We know that we live in Him, and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. ¹⁷ In this way God’s love is perfected in us, so that we may have boldness on the Day of Judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears is not perfect in love.

¹⁹ We love Him because He first loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? ²¹ We have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.