Book of Common Prayer

Be Loving One Another, Because The Love Is From God

⁷ Beloved, let us be loving one another. Because the love^[a] is from God! And everyone loving has been born^[b] from God, and knows God. ⁸ The one not loving did not know God, because God is love.

God Made His Love Known To Us By Sending His Son

⁹ By this God’s love was made-known among^[c] us: that God has sent-forth His only-born^[d] Son into the world in order that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love— not that we have loved God, but that He loved us, and sent-forth His Son to be the satisfaction^[e] for our sins.

We Ought To Be Loving As He Loved Us

¹¹ Beloved, if God loved us in-this-manner^[f], we also ought to be loving one another.

Love Makes the Unseen God Visible In Us, Together With Our Confession of Christ

¹² No one has ever seen God; if we are loving^[g] one another, God is abiding in us, and His love^[h] has been perfected^[i] in us. ¹³ By this^[j] we know that we are abiding in Him and He in us: because He has given to us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen, and are testifying that the Father has sent-forth the Son to be Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God is abiding in him and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have come-to-know and have believed the love which God has in us.

Love Demonstrates Our Mutual Relationship With God, And Gives Us Confidence

God is love; and the one abiding in the love is abiding in God, and God is abiding in him. ¹⁷ By this^[k], the love has been perfected with^[l] us in order that we may have confidence on the day of judgment. Because just as that One is^[m], we also are, in this world. ¹⁸ Fear^[n] is not in love— rather, perfect love throws fear out, because fear has punishment. And the one fearing has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹ We are loving because^[o] He first loved us.

Not Loving One Another As He Commanded Proves That We Do Not Love God

²⁰ If someone claims that “I love God” and is hating his brother, he is a liar. For the one not loving his brother whom he has seen cannot be loving God Whom he has not seen. ²¹ And we have this commandment from Him: that the one loving God should be loving his brother also.

³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. ³¹ So the Jews— the ones being with her in the house and consoling her—having seen that Mary stood up quickly and went out, followed her, having supposed that she was going to the tomb in order that she might weep there. ³² Then Mary— when she came where Jesus was, having seen Him— fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died”. ³³ Then Jesus— when He saw her weeping, and the Jews having come with her weeping— was deeply-moved^[a] in His spirit, and troubled^[b] Himself. ³⁴ And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They say to Him, “Lord, come and see”. ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ So the Jews were saying, “Look— how He was loving him!” ³⁷ And^[c] some of them said, “Was not this One— the One having opened the eyes of the blind one— able to cause that this one also should not die?”

Jesus Calls Lazarus Out of The Tomb. Many Believe In Him

³⁸ Then Jesus, again being deeply-moved in Himself, comes to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying upon^[d] it. ³⁹ Jesus says, “Take away the stone”. Martha, the sister of the one having come-to-an-end^[e], says to Him, “Lord, he already stinks, for it is the fourth-day”. ⁴⁰ Jesus says to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted His eyes upward, and said, “Father, I thank You that You heard Me. ⁴² Now I knew that You always hear Me. But I said this for the sake of the crowd having stood around— in order that they may believe that You sent Me forth”. ⁴³ And having said these things, He shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come outside!” ⁴⁴ The one having died came out, having been bound as to the feet and the hands with grave-cloths. And his face had been bound-around with a face-cloth. Jesus says to them, “Unbind him, and allow him to go”.