Love Comes from God

7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

9 This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only[fn] Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10 [And] love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son [as the] atoning sacrifice[fn] for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; [but] if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent [His] Son [to be] [the] Savior of the world.

15 If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 In this [way], love has been perfected among us, so that we may have confidence on the day of judgment; for in this world we are just like Him.

18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. The [one who] fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love[fn] because He first loved us.

20 If anyone says, “I love God,” [but] hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this commandment from Him: Whoever loves God must love his brother as well.