New English Translation
1 John 4:11
11Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.
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
9By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him. 10In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another. 12No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of 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 have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.
- Matthew 18:32Then his lord called the first slave and said to him, ‘Evil slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me!
- Luke 10:37The expert in religious law said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” So Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”
- John 13:34“I give you a new commandment – to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
- John 15:12My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you.
- 2 Corinthians 8:8I am not saying this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love by comparison with the eagerness of others.
- Ephesians 4:31You must put away every kind of bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and evil, slanderous talk.
- Ephesians 5:1Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children
- Colossians 3:13bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.
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
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