1 John 4:19

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 John 4:17-21

The apostle, having thus excited and enforced sacred love from the great pattern and motive of it, the love that is and dwells in God himself, proceeds to recommend it further by other considerations; and he recommends it in both the branches of it, both as love to God, and love to our brother or Christian neighbour. I. As love to God, to the primum amabile?the first and chief of all amiable beings and objects, who has the confluence of all beauty, excellence, and loveliness, in himself, 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 4:19

We love him, because he first loved us. Lest love to God, and so to one another, should be thought to be of ourselves, and too much be ascribed unto it, the apostle observes, that God's love to us is prior to our love to him; his love is from everlasting, as well as to everlasting; for he loves his people as he does his Son, and he loved him before the foundation of the world; his choosing them in Christ as early, and blessing them then with all spiritual blessings, the covenant of grace... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:19

We love him because he first loved us - This is the foundation of our love to God. We love him because we find he has loved us. We love him from a sense of obligation and gratitude. We love him from the influence of his own love; from his love shed abroad in our hearts, our love to him proceeds. It is the seed whence our love springs. The verse might be rendered, Let us therefore love him, because he first loved us: thus the Syriac and Vulgate. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:19

Verse 19 19We love him The verb ἀγαπῶμεν may be either in the indicative or imperative mood; but the former is the more suitable here, for the Apostle, as I think, repeats the preceding sentence, that as God has anticipated us by his free love, we ought to return to render love to him, for he immediately infers that he ought to be loved in men, or that the love we have for him ought to be manifested towards men. If, however, the imperative mood be preferred, the meaning would be nearly the... 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

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 John 4:19

We love. The αὐτόν is spurious, and is not to be understood: the love is again quite general. "We have this principle of love." To take ἀγαπῶμεν as subjunctive in the sense "let us love" is less forcible. St. John states as a fact what ought to be a fact. "We Christians do not fear, but love. Yet this is no credit to us. After God's love in giving his Son for us it would be monstrous not to love." read more

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