Passage
1 John 4.16
Book: 1 John · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT
Immediate context (±2 verses)
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ASV
14. And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God.
16. And we know and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him.
- Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as he is, even so are we in this world. 18. There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:14-18, ASV)
WEB
14. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world. 15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.
16. We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.
- In this love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so are we in this world. 18. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:14-18, WEB)
KJV
14. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
- Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. our love: Gr. love with us 18. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:14-18, KJV)
YLT
14. And we, we have seen and do testify, that the Father hath sent the Son, Saviour of the world; 15. whoever may confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God in him doth remain, and he in God;
16. and we, we have known and believed the love, that God hath in us; God is love, and he who is remaining in the love, in God he doth remain, and God in him.
- In this made perfect hath been the love with us, that boldness we may have in the day of the judgment, because even as He is, we, we also are in this world; 18. fear is not in the love, but the perfect love doth cast out the fear, because the fear hath punishment, and he who is fearing hath not been made perfect in the love; (1 John 4:14-18, YLT)
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Setting
- Speaker: The letter is formally anonymous. Early and unanimous tradition assigns it to John the apostle (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.16.5 and 3.16.8, c. AD 180), and its vocabulary and style are closely shared with the Fourth Gospel.
- Audience: Churches in Roman Asia, addressed after a secession: "they went out from us, but they were not really of us" (1 John 2:19). The departing teachers denied that Jesus is the Christ (2:22) and that He has come in the flesh (4:2).
- Location: Traditionally Ephesus, the center of the Johannine circle in Asia Minor.
- Time period: c. AD 85-95, late in the apostolic period. The stated purpose is assurance: "these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13).
Theological reading
"We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."
"God is love." Ho theos agapē estin, said twice in the chapter (verse 8 and here). It is a statement about God's nature, not merely His disposition, and it is one of only three such is-statements about God in the Johannine literature: God is spirit (John 4:24), God is light (1 John 1:5), God is love.
What the grammar does not permit. The clause is not convertible: it says God is love, not that love is God. John has already fixed the content of the word by pointing at the cross (verses 9-10), so the sentence cannot be used to make whatever a reader means by love into a deity. The letter's own definition of love is a sending and a propitiation.
Why it matters for the Trinity. If God is love in His eternal nature, and love requires a beloved, then a solitary single-person God would have had no object of love before creation, and would either have needed the world in order to be what He is or would not have been love until He made it. The Trinitarian answer is that the Father has eternally loved the Son in the Spirit. This is the core of the love-overflow argument; see Trinity Love-Overflow Argument.
"Abides." Menō is the Johannine word for remaining or dwelling, used over twenty times in this short letter. Assurance in 1 John is not a single verdict but a sustained mutual indwelling.
See G0026 - agape.
Key words
Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.
- G0026 - agape, agape, Strong's G0026
- G1097 - ginosko, ginosko, Strong's G1097
- G4100 - pisteuo, pisteuo, Strong's G4100
- G2316 - theos, theos, Strong's G2316
Quoted in
Arguments and defeaters:
Concepts:
People:
Lexicon:
Passages:
Why these four translations
ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.
The four:
- ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
- WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
- KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
- YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.
See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.