We walk by faith, not by sight. § We love Him because He first loved us. § And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. § In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. § To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” § Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Daily Light on the Daily Path or Daily Light is a Christian daily devotional scripture reading published by Bagster & Sons about 1875. It has been reprinted continually since then. It consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes—two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. It appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself.

Morning Daily Light

 Whom having not seen you love. 

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. § The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. § To you who believe, He is precious. § We love Him because He first loved us. § The love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. You yourselves are taught by God to love one another. § This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. § Above all things have fervent love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.” § Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

 The fruit of the Spirit is love. 

<blockquote>
We love Him, because He first loved us" (<a id="verse_1632880255883831" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/1-John/4/19">1 John 4:19</a>).
</blockquote>We first come to know something of the Lord Jesus' love by what He did for us; but that is only the basis for coming to know His love in what He is to us. The first is known at the Cross, the latter is entered into through personal fellowship with the risen Lord."There are three steps in appreciation of His love for us. First, I learn that He loves me so much that He saved me. He is our treasure My Beloved is mine' (S.S. 6:3). The second step of affection is the consciousness that He loves me so much that He has a right to me. He would have me for Himself. I am my Beloved's' (S.S. 6:3)."The third step is the consciousness that He loves me so much that He wants my company His desire is toward me' (S.S. 7:10). Love's delight is found in the company of its object. May we know in a deeper way, and in a fuller measure, the sweetness of personal intimacy with the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me' (<a id="verse_1632880255179536" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/Galatians/2/20">Gal. 2:20</a>)."Much ministry is lost upon us as to any practical result, because we are not prepared to be detached from things here, so as to be simply here for Christ. And the preparation for this is to come personally under the influence of the blessed attractiveness of the Lord Jesus. When we sit under His shadow with great delight, everything else becomes so small, and loses its hold upon our hearts." -C.A.C."But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (<a id="verse_1632880255723293" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/2-Corinthians/3/18">2 Cor. 3:18</a>).

A 365 day devotional that will help you in your Christian growth and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.  This devotional is a collection of quotes from some of the best authors in the realm of Christian growth that has been organized by Miles J Stanford.  This devotional study is divided into 12 sections each containing 31 daily portions.

None but the Hungry Heart

 The Greatest 

The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you. § We love Him because He first loved us. § You … He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. § God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” § Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. § His Son, … who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

 He will quiet you with His love. 

He died for all. § Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. He … lives to make intercession for them. § I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. § Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am. § Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. We love Him because He first loved us. § The love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

Evening Daily Light

 See how He loved. 

God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. § He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? § The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. We love Him because He first loved us. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.

 We have known and believed the love that God has for us. 

And it will be that when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious. We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. § For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. § We have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. § Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 The king held out  … the golden scepter …Then Esther went near and touched the top of the scepter. 

Matthew 22:15-22 Matthew 22:34-46The Pharisees, on those last days in the temple, were in continual and bitter controversy with Jesus. They sought to trouble Him, to ensnare or entangle Him in His conversation. We may be glad, however, for the questions they asked, because they drew from Him great utterances which are of priceless value to us.First, they took counsel together and prepared a question which they thought would entrap Him whichever way He answered it. They began by praising His sincerity and truthfulness, as if to flatter Him. Then they asked, "Is it lawful to pay taxes unto Caesar, or not?" They thought He could not possibly avoid being ensnared. If He would answer Yes, He would be denounced as lacking in Jewish patriotism. If He should answer No, He would be denounced as disloyal to Rome. But He was not ensnared by their question. He knows men's thoughts. He knew their hypocrisy and falseness, and easily baffled them. His answer lays down a great principle. "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." The use of the coinage of Caesar by the people, was an admission of his rule. But there was something higher than that. God was over all, and no duty to Him must be neglected. They must be good citizens of Rome - but there was a higher citizenship, and they must also be good citizens of heaven.The Sadducees came next with their question about the resurrection. They did not believe in the resurrection nor in the existence of spirits, and they thought their question would completely puzzle Him. "In the resurrection… whose wife shall she be of the seven? For they all were married to her." They thought to make the doctrine of resurrection ridiculous. The answer was wonderfully wise. They were thinking only of the earthly life - but in the immortal life all will be different. In the resurrection there will be no marriage. Christ does not mean that the love which binds husband and wife together and grows into such sacredness and beauty in true marriage, shall perish in death and have no existence in the resurrection life. Love never dies - it is immortal. It is only the incidents of birth, death and marriage that have no existence beyond the grave.Then a lawyer had a question to ask Jesus, "testing Him," the record says. "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" The question was a theological one that was discussed much among Jewish teachers, who were proverbially fond of splitting hairs. However, it is an important question for us, too. It is well for us to know which are the first things in life.Jesus answered promptly, "You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart." God comes first. Nothing else in all the universe can be put before Him in true living. The first words of the Bible are, "In the beginning God." God was at the beginning, before anything - a grain of sand, the tiniest flower, the smallest thing - was created. There was nothing before God. There is nothing which God did not create. But He is also at the beginning of everything of good and beauty. The same is true in every true heart. We cannot get a blessing, until we have God first. Not God first in order, merely - but God first in love, in the place of confidence and trust. He must have the chief place - we must love Him with all our being. It is idle to think of any other religious act or effort, until we have begun to love God. This is the beginning of all true religion. Not to love God - is not to have taken the first step in a true and holy life.<div class="center-it mtb10">Then something else follows. "And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love for our neighbor is second, in two ways. It must be second in place and in degree. God must be loved supremely. To love any being or anything more than God - is idolatry. It will not do to preach a religion of humanitarianism and not to have first "You shall love the Lord your God." Love to a man is second also, in the sense that it must spring out of love for God. There must be a first before there can be a second. There can be no love for our neighbor, if there is not first love for God. "We love, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19), We love our neighbor, because God loves us, and we love God and because this love warms our heart toward others. But when we truly love God - we will love our brother also.</div><div class="center-it mtb10">There has been altogether too little stress put by the Christian Church in the past on this commandment of love to our neighbor. A careful study of the teachings of Christ, will show that He Himself insisted continually on love as the very proof and test of Christian life. We cannot get God's forgiveness, until we forgive our fellow men. We are to love our enemies, if we would be the children of our Father. By this shall all men know that we are Christ's disciples, because we love one another (see John 13:35). The epistles, too, are full of teachings concerning the duty of love. Paul's wonderful thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians shows how essential love is, and then shows us the way we must live - if we are indeed Christ's. John also makes it plain to us that if we love God we will love our brother also. The claim that we love God cannot be true - if it appears that we do not love our brother. "If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother - he is a liar; for he who loves not his brother whom he hat seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?"</div>Jesus asked the Pharisees a question, too. "What do you think of Christ?" It was not an easy question to answer. They had very mistaken ideas about their Messiah. Many stumbled at the Messiahship of Jesus, because it was not what they were expecting. Even Christ's own disciples did not understand the matter. The Jews were looking for a king who would reign on David's throne - an earthly monarch, a worldly conqueror. The Pharisees said the Messiah was to be David's son. Jesus then asked them another hard question. "How then does David in Spirit, calls him Lord ?" But they had not thought about the particular Scripture to which Jesus referred. If they had, they would have had different ideas of the character and reign of their Messiah.Jesus then asked them again, "If David then calls Him Lord, how is He his son ?" No wonder that no one was able to answer Him a word after hearing this question. The question was simply unanswerable on any theory that made the Messiah an earthly monarch. It is unanswerable also on any conception of the character of Jesus which considers Him as no more than a man. If David called the Messiah his Lord, the Messiah must be Divine, the Son of God. We may worship Him, therefore, and give Him the supreme place in all our lives.<div class="center-it mtb10">It is thus, indeed, that Christ offers Himself to us in the Scriptures. He claims the supreme individual love of His followers. He who loves father or mother more than Him - is not worthy of Him. He claims the place of absolute Master in the life of every man who would be His. We must obey implicitly, unquestioningly, wholly. We cannot take Christ merely as Savior, trusting in Him as our Redeemer, without at the same time taking Him as Lord, as Master, and obeying Him. What David did in calling the Messiah his Lord, is what everyone who accepts Him must do. Paul put his whole creed in a single sentence when he said of Christ; "Whose I am, and whom I serve" (Acts 27:23). The confession of Thomas should be the confession of everyone who receives Christ and believes in Him, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28).</div>

A unique type of devotional from the writings of James Russell Miller, published between 1908 and 1913.

Devotional Hours Within the Bible

Matthew 22:15-22;Matthew 22:34-46

Three Questions

There is no light in the planet but that which proceedeth from the sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but that which cometh from the Lord Jesus himself. From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God, all our love to God must spring. This must ever be a great and certain truth, that we love him for no other reason than because he first loved us. Our love to him is the fair offspring of his love to us. Cold admiration, when studying the works of God, anyone may have, but the warmth of love can only be kindled in the heart by God's Spirit. How great the wonder that such as we should ever have been brought to love Jesus at all! How marvellous that when we had rebelled against him, he should, by a display of such amazing love, seek to draw us back. No! never should we have had a grain of love towards God unless it had been sown in us by the sweet seed of his love to us. Love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed abroad in the heart: but after it is thus divinely born, it must be divinely nourished. Love is an exotic; it is not a plant which will flourish naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above. Love to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it received no nourishment but that which could be drawn from the rock of our hearts it would soon wither. As love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly bread. It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it be fed by manna from on high. Love must feed on love. The very soul and life of our love to God is his love to us. "I love thee, Lord, but with no love of mine, For I have none to give; I love thee, Lord; but all the love is thine, For by thy love I live. I am as nothing, and rejoice to be Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in thee."

This timeless classic from Charles Spurgeon will help to both start and end your day with wonderful insight into God's Word.

Charles Spurgeon's Morning & Evening

"We love him because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19

Morning Devotional

For Reading and Meditation:      1 John 4:17-21;5:1-12Although the love of God is clearly laid out in the Old Testament, why did humankind have to wait so long to have the message spelled out in such clear terms as John uses: God is love? People could not see this sufficiently clearly until they had looked into the face of Jesus. In the life of Jesus is the clearest revelation that God is love. So few of us open ourselves to the love of God. We have more fear of Him than we have love for Him. There is, of course, a godly fear (or reverence), but that is not what I mean. If we fail to comprehend how much we are loved by God, then there will be no energy to turn the machinery of our lives in the way they were meant to turn. When I was a young Christian, whenever I doubted the love of God I was told I should go to Calvary. I never quite understood what that meant until one day I complained to God that He couldn't really love me; if He did, He wouldn't let such things happen as were befalling me. He gave me no answer but showed me the Cross. And as I saw His Son dying there for me, the scales fell from my eyes and I found love for Him flowing out of His love for me. I discovered what the verse at the top of this page meant: "We love because he first loved us." Love for God is not the fruit of labor but the response of our hearts to being loved. It is not something we manufacture; it is something we receive.O God my Father, save me from believing that my problem is I don't love You enough, when the real problem is I don't know how much I am loved by You. Let the scales fall from my eyes right now and let me see - really see. In Jesus' Name. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>John 19:16-30</li><li>Ephesians 2:15-16</li><li>Colossians 1:19-22</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What is the result of the Cross?</li><li>Spend some moments in prayer contemplating the Cross.</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

"We love because he first loved us." (v. 19) 

For Reading and Meditation:      1 John 4:7-21There have been two great attempts to find God throughout the ages," said Dr. E. Stanley Jones, "one, philosophy, the other, moralism." The attempts of philosophy to find God are represented by the three great philosophical nations - Greece, India, and China. These three nations have taken men and women about as far as it is possible to philosophical reasoning. Philosophy has strained itself to the utmost and yet it has not been successful in finding God. Lao-tzu, the Chinese philosopher, said the final word about God is Silence, and Shankaracharya, the Indian philosopher, said the final word about God is not that. They both concluded at zero. Moralism, likewise, cannot lead to God. The attempt to find God through the law was the noble effort made by the Jews. Never was such a moral system devised as theirs, nor an end result so disappointing. It produced, for instance, the Pharisee who stood in his pride and said: "God, I thank you that I am not like other men" (Luke 18:11). Jesus pronounced doom on the Pharisee's attempt to find God through moralism when He said: "Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:20). They could not reach the kingdom by even their greatest self-effort alone. Both philosophy and moralism fall short. When our best was not good enough, when our highest attempts could not lead to the kingdom, God came down Himself to lift us. Now no one need say in his or her quest for God: "Not that."O God, Your down-reach is my only hope. My up-reach is feeble and goes little higher than my head. Your down-reach, however, goes to the lowest of the low-it reaches me. I take hold of Your grace and I am lifted - to You. Blessed be Your Name forever. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Romans 5:1-8</li><li>Ephesians 2:4-5</li><li>John 3:16</li><li>2 Timothy 3:5</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What is the result of moralism?</li><li>What is the heart of Christianity?</li></ul></div></div>

"... God ... sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him." (v. 9)

19 We love him, because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19

In 1604, King James I of England authorized that a new translation of the Bible into English be started. It was finished in 1611, just 85 years after the first translation of the New Testament into English appeared (Tyndale, 1526). The Authorized Version, or King James Version, quickly became the standard for English-speaking Protestants. Its flowing language and prose rhythm has had a profound influence on the literature of the past 400 years. The King James Version present on the Bible Gateway matches the 1987 printing. The KJV is public domain in the United States.

OT: Masoretic Text, some LXX and Vulgate influence.
NT: Textus Receptus, similar to the Byzantine text-type; some readings derived from the Vulgate.
Apocrypha: Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate.

1 John 4:19 KJV

1 John 4:19 KJV

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