EasyEnglish Bible 2018
1 John 4:8
8Anyone who does not love other people does not know God. We know this because God's own nature is love.
1 John 4:8 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
- New International Version (NIV)Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- New King James Version (NKJV)He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Context of 1 John 4:8
6But we belong to God. Everyone who knows God believes our message. But anyone who does not belong to God does not believe it. So that is how we know if someone's message comes from God's Spirit or not. God's Spirit brings us a true message, but false spirits tell lies. 7My friends, we should all love each other. It is God who makes us able to love other people. Everyone who loves other people has become a child of God. That person knows God. Anyone who does not love other people does not know God. We know this because God's own nature is love. 9This is how God showed that he loves us: He sent his only Son to come and live in the world. He did that so that we could have true life with God because of his Son. 10This shows what love is: It is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us from sin. He sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice, to take the punishment for our sins.
Read all of 1 John 41 John 4:8 word by word
ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν οὐκ ἔγνω τὸν θεόν, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν.Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for 1 John 4:8
- 1 John 2:4Someone may say, ‘I belong to God.’ But if he does not obey God's commands, that person is telling a lie. He is not living in the way that God's true message teaches us.
- 1 John 3:6Anyone who lives together with Christ does not continue to do wrong things. If anyone continues to do wrong things, that person has not understood who Christ is. He does not know Christ.
- John 8:54Jesus replied, ‘If I myself wanted people to praise me, that would be worth nothing. But it is my Father who wants that. And you say that he is your God.
- 1 John 1:5We are telling you the good news that Jesus Christ told to us. This is the message: God is completely good and clean. He is like light. There is nothing dark about him.
- Exodus 34:6The Lord passed in front of Moses. He said in a loud voice, ‘I am the Lord! The Lord! I am kind to people and I forgive them. I do not quickly become angry. My faithful love for my people continues for ever, and I am always faithful.
- Psalms 86:5Yes, my Lord, you are very kind, and you are ready to forgive people. When anyone calls to you for help, you love them with your faithful love.
- 2 Corinthians 13:11Now I say ‘goodbye’ to you, my Christian friends. Do only what is right. Let my message make you strong. Agree with each other. Live together in peace. I pray that God will be with you. He is the one who loves us and gives us peace in our minds.
- Ephesians 2:4But God is very good and kind! He loved us very much.
- Hebrews 12:29Remember that our God is like a fire. He destroys everything that is not good.
Commentaries on 1 John 4:8
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 8He that loveth not - As already described, knoweth not God - has no experimental knowledge of him. God is love - An infinite fountain of benevolence and beneficence to every human being. He hates no thing that he has made. He cannot hate, because he is love. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the just and the unjust. He has made no human being for perdition, nor ever rendered it impossible, by any necessitating…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 8He that loveth not, knoweth not God - Has no true acquaintance with God; has no just views of him, and no right feelings toward him. The reason for this is implied in what is immediately stated, that “God is love,” and of course if they have no love reigning in their hearts, they cannot pretend to be like him. For God is love - He is not merely benevolent, he is benevolence itself. Compare the notes at 2 Corinthians 13:11. Never was a more important…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 7-13Verses 7-13 The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love. He that does not love the image of God in his people, has no saving knowledge of God. For it is God's nature to be kind, and to give happiness. The law of God is love; and all would have been perfectly happy, had all obeyed it. The provision of the gospel, for the forgiveness of sin, and the salvation of sinners, consistently with God's glory and justice, shows that God is love. Mystery and darkness…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 8God is love: God is the source of all love and shows what true love is. This truth, together with the truth that “God is light”(1:5), forms the foundation for John’s message in this letter.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 88. knoweth not--Greek aorist: not only knoweth not now, but never knew, has not once for all known God. God is love--There is no Greek article to love, but to God; therefore we cannot translate, Love is God. God is fundamentally and essentially LOVE: not merely is loving, for then John's argument would not stand; for the conclusion from the premises then would be this, This man is not loving: God is loving; therefore he knoweth not God IN SO FAR AS God is…Read the comment
Topics related to 1 John 4:8
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on 1 John 4
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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