1 John 4:11 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 John 4:7-13

As the Spirit of truth is known by doctrine (thus spirits are to be tried), it is known by love likewise; and so here follows a strong fervent exhortation to holy Christian love: Beloved, let us love one another, 1 John 4:7. The apostle would unite them in his love, that he might unite them in love to each other: ?Beloved, I beseech you, by the love I bear to you, that you put on unfeigned mutual love.? This exhortation is pressed and urged with variety of argument: as, I. From the high and... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 4:7-21

4:7-21 Beloved, let us love one another, because love has its source in God, and everyone who loves has God as the source of his birth and knows God. He who does not love has not come to know God. In this God's love is displayed within us, that God sent his only Son into the world that through him we might live. In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Brothers, if God so loved us, we too ought to love each other. No... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 4:7-21

In this passage there occurs what is probably the greatest single statement about God in the whole Bible, that God is love. It is amazing how many doors that single statement unlocks and how many questions it answers. (i) It is the explanation of creation. Sometimes we are bound to wonder why God created this world. The disobedience, and the lack of response in men is a continual grief to him. Why should he create a world which was to bring him nothing but trouble? The answer is that... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 4:7-21

Before we leave this passage we must note that it has also great things to say about Jesus Christ. (i) It tells us that Jesus is the bringer of life. God sent him that through him we might have life ( 1 John 4:9 ). There is a world of difference between existence and life. All men have existence but all do not have life. The very eagerness with which men seek pleasure shows that there is something missing in their lives. A famous doctor once said that men would find a cure for cancer more... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 John 4:11

Beloved, if God so loved us ,.... As to send his Son to be a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, and to obtain eternal life for us through his sufferings and death: the apostle uses the same language his Lord and master did, John 3:16 ; we ought also to love one another ; for those who are the objects of God's love ought to be the objects of ours; and if God has loved our fellow Christians and brethren to such a degree, as to send his Son to die for them, we ought to love them too;... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:11

If God so loved us - Without any reason or consideration on our part, and without any desert in us; we ought also, in like manner, to love one another, and not suspend our love to a fellow-creature, either on his moral worth or his love to us. We should love one another for God's sake; and then, no unkind carriage of a brother would induce us to withdraw our love from him; for if it have God for its motive and model, it will never fail. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:11

Verse 11 11Beloved Now the Almighty accommodates to his own purpose what he has just taught us respecting the love of God; for he exhorts us by God’s example to brotherly love; as also Paul sets before us Christ, who offered himself to the Father a sacrifice of pleasant fragrance, that every one of us might labor to benefit his neighbors. (Ephesians 5:2.) And John reminds us, that our love ought not to be mercenary, when he bids us to love our neighbors as God has loved us; for we ought to... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 John 4:7-12

Love. Connecting link: The apostle here seems to begin a new paragraph; yet it is one by no means disconnected from that which precedes. If antichrist plies its seductive arts without, it is for those who are "of God" to cleave closer together; knit by the bonds of a holy love, which is of itself born of him who is love. Topic— Love's fount, channel, stream, and outlet. We have more than once had occasion to remark that both the matter and the style of the Apostle John are peculiarly... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 John 4:7-21

God is Love, and love is the surest test of birth from God. From 1 John 3:11 , 1 John 3:12 St. John renews his exhortations to love, this time at greater length and in closer connexion with the other great subject of this second half of the Epistle, the birth from God. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 John 4:7-21

Threefold recommendation of the duty of loving one another. I. THE DUTY RECOMMENDED , FROM LOVE HAVING ITS ORIGIN IN GOD . The duty enjoined. "Beloved, let us love one another." John has a winning way of urging duty, addressing his readers as objects of his affection, and desiring himself to be stirred up to duty. He has in view the "absolute type of love" (Westcott) in the Christian circle. There are considerations adduced which go beyond brotherly love, which... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 John 4:7-13

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 4:7-21

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 4:7-21

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 John 4:7-21

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 John 4:11

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:11

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:11

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 John 4:7-12

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 John 4:7-21

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 John 4:7-21

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