God’s Word Translation
1 John 4:11
11Dear friends, if this is the way God loved us, we must also love each other.
1 John 4:11 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
- New International Version (NIV)Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Context of 1 John 4:11
9God has shown us his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. 10This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the payment for our sins. Dear friends, if this is the way God loved us, we must also love each other. 12No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13We know that we live in him and he lives in us because he has given us his Spirit.
Read all of 1 John 41 John 4:11 word by word
Ἀγαπητοί, εἰ οὕτως ὁ θεὸς ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς, καὶ ἡμεῖς ὀφείλομεν ἀλλήλους ἀγαπᾶν·Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for 1 John 4:11
- 1 John 3:16We understand what love is when we realize that Christ gave his life for us. That means we must give our lives for other believers.
- Matthew 18:32“Then his master sent for him and said to him, ‘You evil servant! I canceled your entire debt, because you begged me.
- Luke 10:37The expert said, “The one who was kind enough to help him.” Jesus told him, “Go and imitate his example!”
- John 13:34“I’m giving you a new commandment: Love each other in the same way that I have loved you.
- John 15:12Love each other as I have loved you. This is what I’m commanding you to do.
- 2 Corinthians 8:8I’m not commanding you, but I’m testing how genuine your love is by pointing out the dedication of others.
- Ephesians 4:31Get rid of your bitterness, hot tempers, anger, loud quarreling, cursing, and hatred.
- Ephesians 5:1Imitate God, since you are the children he loves.
- Colossians 3:13Put up with each other, and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
Commentaries on 1 John 4:11
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 11If God so loved us - Without any reason or consideration on our part, and without any desert in us; we ought also, in like manner, to love one another, and not suspend our love to a fellow-creature, either on his moral worth or his love to us. We should love one another for God's sake; and then, no unkind carriage of a brother would induce us to withdraw our love from him; for if it have God for its motive and model, it will never fail.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another - (1)Because he is so much exalted above us, and if he has loved those who were so inferior and so unworthy, we ought to love those who are on a level with us; (2)because it is only in this way that we can show that we have his Spirit; and, (3)because it is the nature of love to seek the happiness of all. There are much stronger reasons why we should love one another than there were why God…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. 11-12Those who have received God’s love will also love others who belong to God. When we show love to one another, it becomes clear that we truly love God.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1111. God's love to us is the grand motive for our love to one another (1Jo 3:16). if--as we all admit as a fact. we ... also--as being born of God, and therefore resembling our Father who is love. In proportion as we appreciate God's love to us, we love Him and also the brethren, the children (by regeneration) of the same God, the representatives of the unseen God.Read the comment
Topics related to 1 John 4:11
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
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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