1 John 4:11

Yes, my friends, God properly loves us, so we have to love each other too.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

In Context

10Think about the way that God loved us. He sent his son to take away all the bad things that we did, so that now he can say we are not guilty. That’s real love. We didn’t ever love God that way.

12You know, nobody ever saw God. But if we love each other, that shows that God is joined up with us, and his love is truly in us.

Read all of 1 John 4

Cross References

Matthew 18:32Then the big boss got the work-man to come in, and said to him, ‘You are really bad. You asked me to forget about all my money that you borrowed. It was millions of dollars. And I was good to you. I said that you didn’t have to give it back to me.

John 13:34Listen, you have to love each other, just as much as I loved you. This is a new thing I’m telling you, and you have to do it.

Colossians 3:13Don’t get upset with each other. If somebody does something bad to you, don’t do payback to them. Remember that God doesn’t do payback to you, for the bad things that you do. So don’t do payback to other people.

1 John 3:23And this is what God tells us to do. We have to believe in God’s son Jesus Christ, and we have to love each other, just like he told us to do.

Matthew Henry on 1 John 4:8-14

Brotherly Love. ( a. d. 80.) 7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study 1 John 4:11