1 John 4:7-1 John 5:4 - God's Love Revealed

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, because Love comes from God; and every one who loves has received the new Life from God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love has not learned to know God; for God is Love. ⁹ The love of God was revealed to us by his sending his only Son into the world, that we might find Life through him. ¹⁰ His love is seen in this--not in our having loved God, but in his loving us and sending his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God loved us thus, we, surely, ought to love one another. ¹² No human eyes have ever seen God, yet, if we love one another, God remains in union with us, and his love attains its perfection in us.

¹³ We know that we remain in union with him, and he with us, by this--by his having given us some measure of his Spirit. ¹⁴ Moreover, our eyes have seen--and we are testifying to the fact--that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever acknowledges that Jesus Christ is the Son of God--God remains in union with that man, and he with God. ¹⁶ And, moreover, we have learned to know, and have accepted as a fact, the love which God has for us. God is Love; and he who lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

¹⁷ It is through this that love has attained its perfection in us, so that we may have confidence on the Day of Judgment, because what Christ is that we also are in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. No! Love, when perfect, drives out fear, for fear implies punishment, and the man who feels fear has not attained to perfect love. ¹⁹ We love, because God first loved us.

²⁰ If a man says 'I love God,' and yet hates his Brother, he is a liar; for the man who does not love his Brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. ²¹ Indeed, we have this Command from God-- 'He who loves God must also love his Brother.'

¹ Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ has received the new Life from God; and every one who loves him who gave that Life loves him who has received it. ² By this we know that we love God's Children--when we love God and carry out his commands. ³ For to love God is to lay his commands to heart; and his commands are not burdensome, ⁴ because all that has received the new Life from God conquers the world. And this is the power that has conquered the world--our faith!