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1 John 4:8
God Is Love
1 John 4:8
He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.
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Why it is worth knowing
- “God is love” is not merely that God loves: love is definitional to his nature
- Failure to love is a sign of not knowing God: love is the evidence of knowing him
- This is not sentimentality: divine love (agape) is sacrificial and costly
- The statement is reversible in implication but not in direction: love flows from knowing God
Where it sits: 1 John 4:7-11
Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.
Hear the passage it sits in, sung word for word, on BibleDo's 1 John page.
Background
This verse appears in the context of John’s extended meditation on love in chapter 4. The statement “God is love” is one of the most profound in Scripture, and one of the most misunderstood. John does not say love is God (love does not define God; God defines love). Rather, love is essential to God’s nature, not a policy he adopted but who he is. The proof is the cross: the greatest demonstration of love is God sending his Son as a propitiation for sin. All human love flows from and reflects this divine reality.