Lectionary Calendar
Friday, May 2nd, 2025
the Second Week after Easter
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Bahasa Indonesia Sehari-hari

1 Yohanes 4:19

Kita mengasihi, karena Allah lebih dahulu mengasihi kita.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Condescension of God;   God Continued...;   Love;   Righteousness;   Thompson Chain Reference - Love;   Love-Hatred;   The Topic Concordance - Love;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Love of God, the;   Love to God;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Love;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Holy, Holiness;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Love of God;   Love to God;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Atonement;   John, the Epistles of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - John, the Letters of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Brotherly Love;   John, Epistles of;   Love, Lover, Lovely, Beloved;   Sin;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Atonement (2);   Boldness;   Brotherly Love;   Example;   Fellowship (2);   Grace;   Hatred;   John Epistles of;   Love;   Love (2);   Odes of Solomon;   Predestination;   Sacrifice (2);   Sanctify, Sanctification;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - John the Baptist;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - John, the Epistles of;   Love;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for July 5;   Every Day Light - Devotion for November 28;  

Parallel Translations

Alkitab Terjemahan Baru
Kita mengasihi, karena Allah lebih dahulu mengasihi kita.
Alkitab Terjemahan Lama
Maka kita menaruh kasih, oleh sebab Ia mula-mula mengasihi kita.

Contextual Overview

17 Herein is the loue perfect in vs, that we shoulde haue boldnesse in the day of iudgement: For as he is, euen so are we in this worlde. 18 There is no feare in loue, but perfect loue casteth out feare: for feare hath paynefulnesse. He that feareth, is not perfect in loue. 19 We loue hym, for he loued vs first. 20 If a man say, I loue God, & yet hate his brother, he is a lyer: For how can he yt loueth not his brother whom he hath seene, loue God who he hath not seene? 21 And this commaundement haue we of hym: that he which loueth God, shoulde loue his brother also.

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
And the Lord God sayde: It is not good yt the man should be alone, I wyll make hym an helpe lyke vnto hym.
Genesis 2:24
For this cause shall man leaue his father and his mother, and shalbe ioyned with his wyfe: and they shall become one fleshe.
Genesis 4:4
Habel also brought of the firstlynges of his sheepe, & of the fatte thereof: and the Lorde had respect vnto Habel, and to his oblation.
Genesis 4:6
And the Lorde saide vnto Cain: why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenaunce abated?
Matthew 19:8
He sayde vnto them: Moyses, because of the hardnes of your heartes, suffred you to put away your wyues: But from the begynnyng it was not so.

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.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile