1 John 4:19

THE MESSAGE

We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
We love because he first loved us.

King James Version (1611)
We loue him: because hee first loued vs.

King James Version
We love him, because he first loved us.

English Standard Version
We love because he first loved us.

New American Standard Bible
We love, because He first loved us.

New Century Version
We love because God first loved us.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
We love, because He first loved us.

Berean Standard Bible
We love because He first loved us.

Contemporary English Version
We love because God loved us first.

Complete Jewish Bible
We ourselves love now because he loved us first.

Darby Translation
*We* love because *he* has first loved us.

Easy-to-Read Version
We love because God first loved us.

Geneva Bible (1587)
We loue him, because he loued vs first.

George Lamsa Translation
We love God because he first loved us.

Good News Translation
We love because God first loved us.

Lexham English Bible
We love, because he first loved us.

Literal Translation
We love Him because He first loved us.

Amplified Bible
We love, because He first loved us.

American Standard Version
We love, because he first loved us.

Bible in Basic English
We have the power of loving, because he first had love for us.

Hebrew Names Version
We love Him, because he first loved us.

International Standard Version
We lovelove him; still other mss. read love God">[fn] because he first loved us.

Etheridge Translation
We then will love Aloha, because he hath first loved us.

Murdock Translation
Let us, therefore, love God; because he hath first loved us.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
We loue hym, for he loued vs first.

English Revised Version
We love, because he first loved us.

World English Bible
We love Him, because he first loved us.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.

Weymouth's New Testament
We love because God first loved us.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Therfor loue we God, for he louede vs bifore.

Update Bible Version
We love, because he first loved us.

Webster's Bible Translation
We love him, because he first loved us.

New English Translation
We love because he loved us first.

New King James Version
We love Him [fn] because He first loved us.

New Living Translation
We love each other because he loved us first.

New Life Bible
We love Him because He loved us first.

New Revised Standard
We love because he first loved us.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
We, love, because, he, first loved us: -

Douay-Rheims Bible
Let us therefore love God: because God first hath loved us.

Revised Standard Version
We love, because he first loved us.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
We love him for he loved vs fyrst.

Young's Literal Translation
we -- we love him, because He -- He first loved us;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Let vs loue him, for he loued vs first.

Mace New Testament (1729)
let us love him; since he first loved us.

Simplified Cowboy Version
We love because God loved us first and best.

Contextual Overview

¹⁷God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love. ¹⁹ We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. ²⁰If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

1 John 4:10, Luke 7:47, John 3:16, John 15:16, 2 Corinthians 5:14, 2 Corinthians 5:15, Galatians 5:22, Ephesians 2:3-5, Titus 3:3-5

Reciprocal: Exodus 20:6 - love me Deuteronomy 7:8 - because Deuteronomy 10:12 - love Deuteronomy 33:3 - he loved Judges 5:31 - them that 1 Kings 3:3 - loved Psalms 18:1 - I will Psalms 26:3 - For Psalms 97:10 - Ye that Psalms 116:1 - love Proverbs 8:17 - I love Jeremiah 31:3 - I have Matthew 22:40 - General John 1:43 - and findeth John 13:1 - having John 14:15 - General John 16:27 - because John 17:23 - and hast John 21:15 - lovest Romans 5:5 - because Romans 8:28 - them Romans 8:37 - him Romans 8:39 - love Romans 10:20 - I was made 1 Corinthians 2:9 - them 1 Corinthians 8:3 - love 1 Corinthians 16:22 - love Colossians 3:12 - beloved 2 Thessalonians 2:13 - beloved 2 Thessalonians 3:5 - into James 1:12 - them James 2:13 - and 1 Peter 1:8 - ye love

Cross-References

Genesis 2:18
God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion." So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn't find a suitable companion.

Genesis 4:6
God spoke to Cain: "Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won't you be accepted? And if you don't do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it's out to get you, you've got to master it."

Matthew 19:8
Jesus said, "Moses provided for divorce as a concession to your hard heartedness, but it is not part of God's original plan. I'm holding you to the original plan, and holding you liable for adultery if you divorce your faithful wife and then marry someone else. I make an exception in cases where the spouse has committed adultery."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

We love him, because he first loved us. Lest love to God, and so to one another, should be thought to be of ourselves, and too much be ascribed unto it, the apostle observes, that God's love to us is prior to our love to him; his love is from everlasting, as well as to everlasting; for he loves his people as he does his Son, and he loved him before the foundation of the world; his choosing them in Christ as early, and blessing them then with all spiritual blessings, the covenant of grace made with Christ from all eternity, the gift of grace to them in him before the world began, and the promise of eternal life to them so soon, show the antiquity and priority of his love: his love shown in the mission and gift of his Son was before theirs, and when they had none to him; and his love in regeneration and conversion is previous to theirs, and is the cause of it; his grace in regeneration brings faith and love with it, and produces them in the heart; and his love shed abroad there is the moving cause of it, or what draws it first into act and exercise; and the larger the discoveries and applications of the love of God be, the more does love to him increase and abound; and nothing more animates and inflames our love to God, than the consideration of the earliness of his love to us, of its being before ours; which shows that it is free, sovereign, distinguishing, and unmerited. Some read the words as an exhortation, "let us love him"; and others as in the subjunctive mood, "we should love him", because, &c. some copies read, "we love God", and so the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, and the Alexandrian copy, read, "because God first loved us": and so some others.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

We love him, because he first loved us - This passage is susceptible of two explanations; either.

(1)That the fact that he first loved us is the “ground” or “reason” why we love him, or.

(2)That as a matter of fact we have been brought to love him in consequence of the love which he has manifested toward us, though the real ground of our love may be the excellency of his own character.

If the former be the meaning, and if that were the only ground of love, then it would be mere selfishness, (compare Matthew 5:46-47); and it cannot be believed that John meant to teach that that is the “only” reason of our love to God. It is true, indeed, that that is a proper ground of love, or that we are bound to love God in proportion to the benefits which we have received from his Hand; but still genuine love to God is something which cannot be explained by the mere fact that we have received favors from Him. The true, the original ground of love to God, is the “excellence of His own character,” apart from the question whether we are to be benefited or not. There is that in the divine nature which a holy being will love, apart from the benefits which he is to receive, and from any thought even of his own destiny. It seems to me, therefore, that John must have meant here, in accordance with the second interpretation suggested above, that the fact that we love God is to be traced to the means which he has used to bring us to himself, but without saying that this is the sole or even the main reason why we love him. It was His love manifested to us by sending His Son to redeem us which will explain the fact that we now love Him; but still the real ground or reason why we love Him is the infinite excellence of His own character. It should be added here, that many suppose that the Greek words rendered “we love” (ἡμεῖς ἀγαπῶμεν hēmeis agapōmen are not in the indicative, but in the subjunctive; and that this is an exhortation - “let us love him, because he first loved us.” So the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Vulgate read it; and so it is understood by Benson, Grotius, and Bloomfield. The main idea would not be essentially different; and it is a proper ground of exhortation to love God because He has loved us, though the highest ground is, because His character is infinitely worthy of love.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 19. We love him because he first loved us. — This is the foundation of our love to God. 1. We love him because we find he has loved us. 2. We love him from a sense of obligation and gratitude. 3. We love him from the influence of his own love; from his love shed abroad in our hearts, our love to him proceeds. It is the seed whence our love springs. The verse might be rendered, Let us therefore love him, because he first loved us: thus the Syriac and Vulgate.