1 John 4:7-16

EasyEnglish Bible

Love each other because God loved us

⁷ My friends, we should all love each other. It is God who makes us able to love other people. Everyone who loves other people has become a child of God. That person knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love other people does not know God. We know this because God's own nature is love. ⁹ This is how God showed that he loves us: He sent his only Son to come and live in the world. He did that so that we could have true life with God because of his Son. ¹⁰ This shows what love is: It is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. He loved us so much that he sent his Son to save us from sin. He sent Jesus to die as a sacrifice, to take the punishment for our sins.

¹¹ My friends, this shows how much God has loved us. So we should also love one another.

¹² Nobody has ever seen God. But, if we love each other, it shows that God lives in us. As a result, we can love people completely, in the same way that God loves us. ¹³ God has given us his Holy Spirit to live in us. Because of this, we know that we live together with God. And we know that he lives with us. ¹⁴ God the Father sent his Son to come into the world. God sent him to save the people of the world from their sins. We apostles have seen that this is true. So now we are telling people about it.

¹⁵ If anyone says clearly that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in that person. And that person lives together with God. ¹⁶ So we know the kind of love that God has for us. We believe that God has put that love in us. God's nature is love. So, if someone continues to love other people, he is living together with God. And God lives in him.