God’s Word Translation
1 John 4:8
8The person who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God 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
6We belong to God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever doesn’t belong to God doesn’t listen to us. That’s how we can tell the Spirit of truth from the spirit of lies. 7Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, because God is love. 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.
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 2:4The person who says, “I know him,” but doesn’t obey his commandments is a liar. The truth isn’t in that person.
- 1 John 3:6Those who live in Christ don’t go on sinning. Those who go on sinning haven’t seen or known Christ.
- John 8:54Jesus said, “If I bring glory to myself, my glory is nothing. My Father is the one who gives me glory, and you say that he is your God.
- 1 John 1:5This is the message we heard from Christ and are reporting to you: God is light, and there isn’t any darkness in him.
- Exodus 34:6Then he passed in front of Moses, calling out, “The Lord, the Lord, a compassionate and merciful God, patient, always faithful and ready to forgive.
- Psalms 86:5You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, full of mercy toward everyone who calls out to you.
- 2 Corinthians 13:11With that, brothers and sisters, I must say goodbye. Make sure that you improve. Accept my encouragement. Share the same attitude and live in peace. The God of love and peace will be with you.
- Ephesians 2:4But God is rich in mercy because of his great love for us.
- Hebrews 12:29After all, our God is a destructive fire.
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
God’s Word Translation — © 1995 God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society
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