God Is Love (1JN 4:7-21)

[4:7] Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

[4:8] Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

[4:9] In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.

[4:10] In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

[4:11] Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

[4:12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

[4:13] By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

[4:14] And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

[4:15] Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

[4:16] So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

[4:17] By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.

[4:18] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

[4:19] We love because he first loved us.

[4:20] If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

[4:21] And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.