1 John 4:19

We didn’t love God at first, but he loved us anyway. So now we love God, and we love other Christians.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

We love him, because he first loved us.

In Context

18Yes, we know that we have God’s love in us, so we don’t have to be frightened of God at all. Some people are frightened that God will punish them. Those people don’t properly understand God’s love. God’s amazing love means that we don’t have to be frightened.

20Maybe somebody will say, “I love God.” But that person hates another Christian. Well, that person is lying. Think about it. It’s easier to love somebody if you can see them. But it’s harder to love somebody that you can’t see. Well, we can see other Christians, but we can’t see God. So if somebody doesn’t love other Christians, then we know for sure that they don’t love God.

Read all of 1 John 4

Cross References

Luke 7:47Listen, I know she did a lot of bad things, but I’m telling you, I will say that she is not guilty of all those bad things. I will let it all go, and God will not punish her. That is the reason why she loves me a lot. But if somebody only did a few bad things, and I let it go, they will only love me a little bit.”

John 15:16You didn’t pick me, but I picked you. And I am sending you out to do my work. I want you to be like branches that grow the sort of fruit that stays good for ever. Then you can ask God for anything that I say is good, and he will give it to you.

Galatians 5:22But if God’s spirit controls people, he gets them to do good things. You know that a good fruit tree always gets good fruit on it. Well, like that, a person with God’s spirit does good things. If you let God’s spirit lead you, he will get you to love God and to love other people. And you will be happy. And you will feel good and quiet inside yourself so that you will not fight with other people. God’s spirit inside you will help you be good to people and not get angry, even if they give you trouble. And he will get you to be friendly to other people, and he will get you to do good things. He will make you the sort of person that other people can trust.

Titus 3:3You know, we were like that before we believed in Jesus. We did silly things too. We didn’t do what God told us to do. People tricked us, and we believed things that were not true. And we wanted to do all sorts of bad things. We couldn’t stop ourselves. If anybody had a lot of things, we wanted those things for ourselves, and we were angry with those people. We hated people, and people hated us.

Matthew Henry on 1 John 4:18-21

The Divine Love. ( a. d. 80.) 17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this… Read the whole commentary →

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Study 1 John 4:19