Passage

1 John 4.9

Book: 1 John · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

7. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God. 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

9. Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11, ASV)

WEB

7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God. 8. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.

9. By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only 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. 11. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11, WEB)

KJV

7. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 8. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

9. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11, KJV)

YLT

7. Beloved, may we love one another, because the love is of God, and every one who is loving, of God he hath been begotten, and doth know God; 8. he who is not loving did not know God, because God is love.

9. In this was manifested the love of God in us, because His Son, the only begotten, hath God sent to the world, that we may live through him;

in this is the love, not that we loved God, but that He did love us, and did send His Son a propitiation for our sins. 11. Beloved, if thus did God love us, we also ought one another to love; (1 John 4:7-11, 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

"By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him."

Love identified by an act. John's method throughout the chapter is ostensive: he does not analyze love, he points at the sending. The verse is the near-twin of John 3:16 in vocabulary (monogenēs, sent, the world, life) and is one of several places where the letter and the Gospel run in parallel.

"Only begotten." Monogenēs (G3439 - monogenes) is built from monos, only, plus genos, kind, and means unique or one of a kind. It is not derived from gennaō, to beget, and arguments about eternal generation that lean on its etymology are leaning on the wrong root; see G1080 - gennao. What the word does establish is that the Son's relation to the Father is not of the same kind as anyone else's, which is exactly the point in a letter whose readers are repeatedly called children of God.

"Sent into the world." Apestalken, perfect tense, and the sending presupposes the Son's prior existence with the Father, which the prologue has already asserted (1 John 1:2, the eternal life which was with the Father). Sending language of this kind is one of the standard arguments for pre-existence Christology.

"So that we might live through Him." The purpose is life, and zōē in the Johannine literature is not merely continued existence but the life of God shared. The letter's closing summary makes the same point: "He who has the Son has the life" (1 John 5:12).

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.

G3439 - monogenes, monogenes, Strong's G3439
G0026 - agape, agape, Strong's G0026
G2198 - zao, zao, Strong's G2198
G2889 - kosmos, kosmos, Strong's G2889
G5207 - huios, huios, Strong's G5207
G2316 - theos, theos, Strong's G2316

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

100 Verses of Compassion and God's Goodness, via 1 John 4.9-10
Atheism, via 1 John 4.9-10
Biblical Love, via 1 John 4.9-10
OT vs NT God Objection, via 1 John 4.9-10
Trinity Common Objections, via 1 John 4.7-21

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.