1 John 4:21 NIV

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 4:21

And this commandment have we from him ,.... Either "from God", as the Alexandrian copy and the Vulgate Latin version read; and that to love the brethren is a commandment of God, is clear from 1 John 3:23 ; or from Christ, for it is also a command of his, even his new commandment, which he has given, and his people have received from him: that he who loveth God, love his brother also ; see John 13:34 ; which is an argument persuading to attend to the one as well as to the other; for... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:21

This commandment have we - We should love one another, and love our neighbor as ourselves. The love of God and the love of man can never be separated; he who loves God will love his brother; he who loves his brother gives this proof that he loves God, because he loves with a measure of that love which, in its infinitude, dwells in God. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:21

Verse 21 21And this commandment This is a stronger argument, drawn from the authority and doctrine of Christ; for he not only gave a commandment respecting the love of God, but bade us also to love our brethren. We must therefore so begin with God, as that there may be at the same time a transition made to men. 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 4:20-21

Love to man the expression of love to God. Connecting link: The apostle has just declared that the love which pervades believers is owing to God's love to them. He now advances to another and, indeed, to the final step in this paragraph on love, in which he sets forth more powerfully than ever the truth which he has thrice before ( 1 John 3:10 , 1 John 3:17 ; 1 John 4:8 £ ) indicated, that love to God and love to man are inseparably connected together; that if any man declares... read more

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

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 4:21

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:21

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:21

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 John 4:7-21

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 John 4:7-21

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 John 4:20-21

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