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InterlinearVerse GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOB JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG JOEL MIC ISA ZEP HAB JER LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBA DAN EZE EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL LAO GES LES ESG DNG 2 PS TOB JDT WIS SIR BAR LJE PAZ SUS BEL MAN 1 MAC 2 MAC 3 MAC 4 MAC YHN (JHN) MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
1 Yhn 4 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V14 V15 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21
◄ ← 1 YHN (1 JHN) 4:16 ↓ → ► ║ ©
OET (OET-LV) And we have_known and have_believed the love that god is_having the in us.
The god is love, and the one remaining in the love, is_remaining in the god, and the god is_remaining in him.
OET (OET-RV) We have known and experienced the love that God has in us.
¶ God is love, and anyone who lives in love, lives in God, and God lives in them.
Read 4:7–5:12 carefully.
Section Theme: In this section John gives two reasons why we should love one another:
4:7–12 | God has shown us what true love is by sending his Son to die for us. |
4:13–21 | God has loved us so much that we have a duty to love others. |
At the end of the section, in 5:1–12, he shows how it is believing in Jesus that enables us to both love and obey God.
Read 4:13–16 in both BSB and GNT. Compare the two versions.
Paragraph Theme: These verses concentrate on one theme from 4:12, namely the fact that God lives in us and we live in him. John states three facts that prove that this is true:
4:13 | We have the Holy Spirit. |
4:14–15 | We believe in Jesus as the Son of God. |
4:16 | Our lives are full of love. |
abides in God, and God in him.
he is united with God, and God is united with him.
There are different ways of understanding how this verse fits with the verses before and after it:
The whole verse is probably the third part of the section 4:13–16. (See the note on 4:13–16, Theme.) It should therefore be linked to the previous verse by a conjunction like “And/Also,” or by no conjunction at all. There is then a paragraph break after this verse.
Some think that the first sentence of this verse is a summary of 4:13–15, and that a new paragraph starts with the sentence “God is love.” In that case the verse should start with a phrase like “(And) so.” (NIV, GNT, NEB)
And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us.
Also we(incl) know well that God loves us, and we trust him to love us all the time.
we: (Pronoun System) If your language distinguishes between exclusive and inclusive “we,” you should mark the pronoun in this and the following verses as inclusive. It means “we apostles and you believers,” and contrasts with the exclusive “we” of 4:14.
the love that God has for us: (Meaning) This may be translated “God’s love for us” or “God loves us.” (See JB and Display.) It refers to all God’s love, both his past love in sending Christ as our Savior, and his present love expressed by the Holy Spirit in us.
God is love;
And because in everything he does God is always loving people,
God is love: (Meaning) See the note on 4:8b. The meaning is the same here.
whoever abides in love
we know that if a person keeps on loving God and other people
whoever abides…: (Logical Relationship) This is a result of the previous statement. It can be linked by a conjunction like “So,” or the two statements can be restructured as one sentence. See the Display.
abides in love: (Collocation) In your language it may sound unnatural to say that a person abides in an abstract quality like love. If so, this should be treated as a metaphor, and the basic meaning could be translated, as in the Display.
love: (Lexical Problem) In your language you may need to use a verb here and to make clear the object of the person’s love. Since John is talking about love in general, it would be best to translate, “loves other people and God.”
Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / exclusive
ἡμεῖς & ἡμῖν
we & us
Here and in the rest of the letter, John speaks of himself and the believers to whom he is writing, so the words we and us will be inclusive. If your language marks that distinction, use the inclusive form in your translation.
Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom
τὴν ἀγάπην ἣν ἔχει ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἡμῖν
(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἡμεῖς ἐγνώκαμεν καί πεπιστεύκαμεν τήν ἀγάπην ἥν ἔχει ὁ Θεός ἐν ἡμῖν Ὁ Θεός ἀγάπη ἐστίν καί ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ μένει καί ὁ Θεός ἐν αὐτῷ μένει)
The phrase translated in us here is the same as the phrase translated “among us” in [4:9](../04/09.md). Here it could mean: (1) God’s love directed to us. Alternate translation: [the love that God has for us] (2) God’s love directed to others through us. Alternate translation: [the love that God has put into us] It may also be that John used a very general phrase in order to include both meanings.
Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
ὁ Θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν
¬the the_‹one› ¬the (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἡμεῖς ἐγνώκαμεν καί πεπιστεύκαμεν τήν ἀγάπην ἥν ἔχει ὁ Θεός ἐν ἡμῖν Ὁ Θεός ἀγάπη ἐστίν καί ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ μένει καί ὁ Θεός ἐν αὐτῷ μένει)
This is a metaphor that describes what God is like in his character. See how you translated it in [4:8](../04/08.md). Alternate translation: [God is entirely loving]
Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ
¬the the_‹one› remaining in ¬the love
See the discussion of the term “remain” in Part 3 of the Introduction to 1 John. As in [2:24](../02/24.md), in this instance the word seems to refer to maintaining a pattern of behavior. Alternate translation: [a person who continues to love others]
Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor
ἐν τῷ Θεῷ μένει, καὶ ὁ Θεὸς ἐν αὐτῷ μένει
in in in ¬the God ˓is˒_remaining in (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Καί ἡμεῖς ἐγνώκαμεν καί πεπιστεύκαμεν τήν ἀγάπην ἥν ἔχει ὁ Θεός ἐν ἡμῖν Ὁ Θεός ἀγάπη ἐστίν καί ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ μένει καί ὁ Θεός ἐν αὐτῷ μένει)
See the discussion of the term “remain” in Part 3 of the Introduction to 1 John. In this instance, it seems to mean the same thing as in [2:6](../02/06.md) and in [4:15](../04/15.md). See how you translated it there. Alternate translation: [continues to have a close relationship with God, and God continues to have a close relationship with him]
4:7-21 John explains the source of a Christian’s love and its outworking.
OET (OET-LV) And we have_known and have_believed the love that god is_having the in us.
The god is love, and the one remaining in the love, is_remaining in the god, and the god is_remaining in him.
OET (OET-RV) We have known and experienced the love that God has in us.
¶ God is love, and anyone who lives in love, lives in God, and God lives in them.
Note: The OET-RV is still only a first draft, and so far only a few words have been (mostly automatically) matched to the Hebrew or Greek words that they’re translated from.
Acknowledgements: The SR Greek text, lemmas, morphology, and VLT gloss are all thanks to the CNTR.