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Read the Bible

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

1 John 4:12

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Commandments;   Fellowship;   God Continued...;   Love;   Perfection;   Righteousness;   Thompson Chain Reference - Invisibility of God;   Mysteries-Revelations;   Perfection;   Perfection-Imperfection;   Unseen God;   The Topic Concordance - Giving and Gifts;   Holy Spirit;   Love;   Seeing;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Love of God, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Ethics;   Love;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - New Command;   Union with Christ;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Dwell;   Holman Bible Dictionary - John, the Letters of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Brotherly Love;   John, Epistles of;   Sin;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Brethren;   Brotherly Love;   Character;   Communion (2);   Example;   Fellowship (2);   God;   John Epistles of;   Life and Death;   Love;   Mercy;   Perseverance;   Regeneration;   Righteous, Righteousness;   Sacrifice (2);   Sanctify, Sanctification;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - John the Baptist;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Brotherly Kindness;   John, the Epistles of;   Love;   Papyrus;   Text and Manuscripts of the New Testament;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for November 28;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us.
King James Version (1611)
No man hath seene God at any time. If wee loue one another, God dwelleth in vs, and his loue is perfected in vs.
King James Version
No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
English Standard Version
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
New American Standard Bible
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.
New Century Version
No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
Contemporary English Version
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is truly in our hearts.
Complete Jewish Bible
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains united with us, and our love for him has been brought to its goal in us.
Darby Translation
No one has seen God at any time: if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Easy-to-Read Version
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us. If we love each other, God's love has reached its goal—it is made perfect in us.
Geneva Bible (1587)
No man hath seene God at any time. If we loue one another, God dwelleth in vs, and his loue is perfect in vs.
George Lamsa Translation
No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us;
Good News Translation
No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us.
Lexham English Bible
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Literal Translation
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love having been perfected is in us.
Amplified Bible
No one has seen God at any time. But if we love one another [with unselfish concern], God abides in us, and His love [the love that is His essence abides in us and] is completed and perfected in us.
American Standard Version
No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us:
Bible in Basic English
No man has ever seen God: if we have love for one another, God is in us and his love is made complete in us:
Hebrew Names Version
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
International Standard Version
No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16; 1 John 2:5,18; 4:20;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
Aloha no man hath seen but if we love one another, Aloha in us abideth, and his love is fulfilled in us.
Murdock Translation
No one hath ever seen God; but if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
No man hath seene God at any time. If we loue one another, God dwelleth in vs, and his loue is perfect in vs.
English Revised Version
No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us:
World English Bible
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God remains in us, and his love has been perfected in us.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Weymouth's New Testament
No one has ever yet seen God. If we love one another, God continues in union with us, and His love in all its perfection is in our hearts.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
No man say euer God; if we louen togidre, God dwellith in vs, and the charite of hym is perfit in vs.
Update Bible Version
No man has seen God at any time: if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us:
Webster's Bible Translation
No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
New English Translation
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us.
New King James Version
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
New Living Translation
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
New Life Bible
No person has ever seen God at any time. If we love each other, God lives in us. His love is made perfect in us.
New Revised Standard
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Upon God, hath no one, at any time, gazed: If we love one another, God, in us, abideth, and, his love, hath been perfected within us.
Douay-Rheims Bible
No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abideth in us: and his charity is perfected in us.
Revised Standard Version
No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
No man hath sene god at enytyme. Yf we love one another god dwelleth in vs and his love is parfect in vs.
Young's Literal Translation
God no one hath ever seen; if we may love one another, God in us doth remain, and His love is having been perfected in us;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
No man hath sene God at eny tyme. Yf we loue one another, God dwelleth in vs, and his loue is perfecte in vs.
Mace New Testament (1729)
no man hath ever seen God. if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and our love for him is then sincere.
Simplified Cowboy Version
Ain't no one ever laid eyes on God, but when we love others, he rides with us and we ride with him. His love makes us complete and authentic.

Contextual Overview

7Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God's love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.13By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

seen: 1 John 4:20, Genesis 32:30, Exodus 33:20, Numbers 12:8, John 1:18, 1 Timothy 1:17, 1 Timothy 6:16, Hebrews 11:27

love one: 1 John 4:6, 1 John 3:24

and his: 1 John 4:17, 1 John 4:18, 1 John 2:5, 1 Corinthians 13:13

Reciprocal: Exodus 24:10 - saw Psalms 31:2 - an house John 3:21 - that his John 5:37 - Ye have John 6:46 - any John 6:56 - dwelleth John 14:17 - but John 14:20 - ye in John 17:23 - I 1 Corinthians 3:16 - the Spirit 2 Corinthians 6:16 - I will dwell Ephesians 4:6 - and in Philippians 2:1 - if any comfort Colossians 2:2 - being Hebrews 6:1 - let 1 Peter 1:22 - unto 1 John 3:14 - because 1 John 4:7 - every 1 John 4:15 - God dwelleth 1 John 4:16 - God is love

Cross-References

Genesis 4:3
So in the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruit of the soil as an offering to the LORD,
Genesis 4:4
while Abel brought the best portions of the firstborn of his flock. And the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
Genesis 4:14
Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me."
Genesis 4:17
And Cain had relations with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. Then Cain built a city and named it after his son Enoch.
Genesis 4:18
Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methusael, and Methusael was the father of Lamech.
Genesis 4:23
Then Lamech said to his wives: "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my speech. For I have slain a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me.
Genesis 4:24
If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
Leviticus 26:20
and your strength will be spent in vain. For your land will not yield its produce, and the trees of the land will not bear their fruit.
Leviticus 26:36
As for those of you who survive, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, so that even the sound of a windblown leaf will put them to flight. And they will flee as one flees the sword, and fall when no one pursues them.
Psalms 109:10
May his children wander as beggars, seeking sustenance far from their ruined homes.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

No man hath seen God at any time,.... The same is said by the Evangelist John, John 1:18; but here it is observed with a different view, and upon another account; there it signifies that no man has seen and looked into the counsels and designs of God, and been able to make a discovery and declaration of his mind and will, his love and grace, and which is there ascribed to the Son of God,

John 1:18- :; but here the sense is, that whereas God is invisible in his nature, and incomprehensible in his being and perfections, so that there is no coming to him, and seeing of him, and conversing with him in a familiar way, and so not of loving him as he is in himself, and ought to be loved, as one friend sees, converses with, and loves another, and finds his love increased by sight and conversation; then we ought to love the saints and people of God, who are visible, may be seen, come at, and conversed with, see 1 John 4:20; for this clause stands among the arguments and reasons for brotherly love:

if we love one another God dwelleth in us; not as he does in his Son, by union of nature; nor as in heaven, by the displays of his glory; nor as in the whole world, by his omnipresence and power; but by his Spirit, and the communications of his love, and by his gracious presence and communion, which he indulges the saints with; for such who love one another, as they appear to have the Spirit of God, of which that grace is a fruit, so they are by the Spirit built up a fit habitation for God, and by which Spirit he dwells in them; and such may expect the presence of God, for they who live in peace, the God of love and peace shall be with them:

and his love is perfected in us; not that love of God, with which he loves his people; for that admits of no degrees, and is not more or less in itself, or in his heart; but is always invariably and unchangeably the same, and is full, complete, and perfect in his own breast, as it was from all eternity; and does not pass by degrees, or gradually rise from a love of benevolence to a love of complacency and delight, or increase as our love does to him and to one another, on which it has no dependence: nor is this love perfected in the saints in this life; that is to say, they have not perfect knowledge and enjoyment of it; nor have they all the effects of it bestowed upon them, and applied unto them; the perfection of it, in this sense, will be in heaven: but the love with which God is loved is here designed; and it is called his, because he is both the object and the author of it; and this is no effect as to degrees; yea, sometimes, instead of abounding and increasing, it goes back, it is left, and waxes cold; and it will not have its completion till the saints come to heaven, and then it will be in its full perfection and glory, when faith and hope shall be no more: but the sense is, that this grace of love is sincere and hearty, and without dissimulation; it is unfeigned love; and it is in deed and in truth, and not in word and in tongue only; and this appears to be so, by the love which is shown to the brethren, the children of God; so that love to God in the saints is perfected by love to the brethren, just in such sense as faith is made perfect by works, James 2:22, that is, is made to appear to be genuine, right, and true.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

No man hath seen God at any time - See the notes at John 1:18, where the same declaration occurs. The statement seems to be made here in order to introduce a remark to show in what way we may know that we have any true knowledge of God. The idea is, “He has never indeed been seen by mortal eyes. We are not, then, to expect to become acquainted with what he is in that way. But there is a method by which we may be assured that we have a true knowledge of him, and that is, by evidence that we love another, and by the presence of his Spirit in our hearts. We cannot become acquainted with him by sight, but we may by love.”

If we love one another, God dwelleth in us - Though we cannot see him, yet there is a way by which we may be assured that he is near us, and that he even dwells in us. That way is by the exercise of love. Compare the notes at John 14:23-24.

And his love is perfected in us - Is carried out to completion. That is, our love for each other is the proper exponent of love to him reigning in our hearts. The idea here is not that we are absolutely perfect, or even that our love is perfect, whatever may be true on those points, but that this love to others is the proper carrying out of our love toward him; that is, without this our love to him would not have accomplished what it was adapted and designed to do. Unless it produced this effect, it would be defective or incomplete. Compare 1 John 4:17. The general sense is this: “We claim to have the love of God in our hearts, or that we are influenced and controlled by love. But however high and exalted that may seem to be as exercised toward God, it would be defective; it would not exert a fair influence over us, unless it led us to love our Christian brethren. It would be like the love which we might profess to have for a father, if it did not lead us to love our brothers and sisters. True love will diffuse itself over all who come within its range, and will thus become complete and entire.” This passage, therefore, cannot be adduced to demonstrate the doctrine of sinless perfection, or to prove that Christians are ever absolutely perfect in this life. It proves only that love to God is not complete, or fully developed, unless it leads those who profess to have it to love each other. See the notes at Job 1:1. On the meaning of the Greek word here used, (τελειόω teleioō,) see the notes at Philippians 3:12. Compare the notes at Hebrews 2:10.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 12. No man hath seen God at any time. — The very words, with the change of εωρακε for τεθεαται, of this apostle in his gospel, John 1:18. We may feel him, though we cannot see him; and if we love one another he dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us-it has then its full accomplishment, having moulded us according to its own nature.


 
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