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Read the Bible

New King James Version

1 John 4:8

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Blindness;   Commandments;   Fellowship;   God;   God Continued...;   Righteousness;   Thompson Chain Reference - John, Beloved Disciple;   The Topic Concordance - God;   Knowledge;   Love;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - God;   Ignorance of God;   Love of God, the;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Knowledge;   Love;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - God;   Love;   Testimony;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Goodness of God;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Love;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Atonement;   Hate, Hatred;   John, the Letters of;   Love;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Anger (Wrath) of God;   John, Epistles of;   John, Theology of;   Sin;   Spiritual Gifts;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Communion (2);   Example;   Father, Fatherhood;   Fellowship (2);   God;   Gospel (2);   John Epistles of;   Love;   Love (2);   Perfection (Human);   Punishment (2);   Righteous, Righteousness;   Sanctify, Sanctification;   Sin (2);   Socialism;   Unity;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - God;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - John the Baptist;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Brotherly Kindness;   Johannine Theology, the;   John, the Epistles of;   Light;   Love;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for March 31;   Every Day Light - Devotion for November 28;   Today's Word from Skip Moen - Devotion for August 31;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
King James Version (1611)
Hee that loueth not, knoweth not God: for God is loue.
King James Version
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
English Standard Version
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
New American Standard Bible
The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
New Century Version
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Berean Standard Bible
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Contemporary English Version
God is love, and anyone who doesn't love others has never known him.
Complete Jewish Bible
Those who do not love, do not know God; because God is love.
Darby Translation
He that loves not has not known God; for God is love.
Easy-to-Read Version
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Hee that loueth not, knoweth not God: for God is loue.
George Lamsa Translation
He who does not love, does not know God; for God is love.
Good News Translation
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
Lexham English Bible
The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Literal Translation
The one who does not love has not known God, because God is love.
Amplified Bible
The one who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love. [He is the originator of love, and it is an enduring attribute of His nature.]
American Standard Version
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Bible in Basic English
He who has no love has no knowledge of God, because God is love.
Hebrew Names Version
He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love.
International Standard Version
The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.1 John 2:4;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
For Aloha is Love; and every one who loveth not, knoweth not Aloha.
Murdock Translation
Because God is love; and whoever loveth not, doth not know God.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
He that loueth not, knoweth not God: for God is loue.
English Revised Version
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
World English Bible
He who doesn't love doesn't know God, for God is love.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.
Weymouth's New Testament
He who is destitute of love has never had any knowledge of God; because God is love.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
He that loueth not, knowith not God; for God is charite.
Update Bible Version
He that doesn't love doesn't know God; for God is love.
Webster's Bible Translation
He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love.
New English Translation
The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
New Living Translation
But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
New Life Bible
Those who do not love do not know God because God is love.
New Revised Standard
Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
He that doth not love, doth not understand God, because, God, is, love.
Douay-Rheims Bible
He that loveth not knoweth not God: for God is charity.
Revised Standard Version
He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
He that loveth not knoweth not God: for God is love.
Young's Literal Translation
he who is not loving did not know God, because God is love.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He that loueth not, knoweth not God: for God is loue.
Mace New Testament (1729)
he that has not social affection, does not know God; for God is love.
Simplified Cowboy Version
Those who don't love don't ride for the brand.

Contextual Overview

7 John 3:16">[xr] Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

knoweth: 1 John 2:4, 1 John 2:9, 1 John 3:6, John 8:54, John 8:55

God is: 1 John 1:5, Exodus 34:6, Exodus 34:7, Psalms 86:5, Psalms 86:15, 2 Corinthians 13:11, Ephesians 2:4, Hebrews 12:29

Reciprocal: Psalms 52:1 - goodness Nahum 1:7 - Lord Zechariah 9:17 - how great is his goodness Matthew 19:17 - there Mark 10:18 - that is Mark 12:31 - Thou John 16:3 - because 1 Corinthians 13:2 - and have 1 Corinthians 16:14 - General Philippians 2:1 - if any comfort James 2:13 - and 1 John 3:10 - neither 1 John 3:14 - because 1 John 4:6 - he that knoweth 1 John 4:7 - love is 1 John 4:10 - Herein 1 John 4:16 - God is love

Cross-References

Genesis 4:3
And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD.
Genesis 4:6
So the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
Genesis 4:9
Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
Genesis 4:10
And He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.
Genesis 4:12
When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth."
Genesis 4:15
And the Lord said to him, "Therefore, [fn] whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.
Genesis 4:24
If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."
Genesis 4:26
26 And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. [fn] Then men began to call on the name of the Lord.
2 Samuel 3:27
Now when Abner had returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him privately, and there stabbed him in the stomach, so that he died for the blood of Asahel his brother.
2 Samuel 14:6
Now your maidservant had two sons; and the two fought with each other in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other and killed him.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He that loveth not, knoweth not God,.... If a man loves not the children of God, those that are born of him, he does not know, so as to love God, the Father of them; for to pretend love to God, the begetter of them, whom he sees not, and not love those who are begotten by him, and are visible objects of respect, is a contradiction, and cannot be reconciled: see 1 John 4:20. This clause is left out in the Ethiopic version, and is transposed in the Syriac version, which reads the text thus, "for God, is love, and whoever loveth not, knoweth not God". By which reading, the following reason stands in close connection with 1 John 4:7.

For God is love; he loves himself; there is an entire love between the three divine Persons, who are in the strictest, and in the most inconceivable and inexpressible manner affected to each other; their love is natural and essential: God loves all his creatures as such, nor does he hate any of them, as so considered; and he bears an everlasting, unchangeable, and invariable love to his elect in Christ Jesus; of which an instance is given in the following verses, and is a reason why the saints should love one another; that they might be like their heavenly Father, by whom they are begotten, and of whom they are born, and whose children they are; seeing he is love itself, and in his breast is nothing else but love. So the Shekinah is, by the Cabalistic Jews t, called אהבה, "love".

t Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 15. 1. & Lex. Cabal. p. 43, 44.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He that loveth not, knoweth not God - Has no true acquaintance with God; has no just views of him, and no right feelings toward him. The reason for this is implied in what is immediately stated, that “God is love,” and of course if they have no love reigning in their hearts, they cannot pretend to be like him.

For God is love - He is not merely benevolent, he is benevolence itself. Compare the notes at 2 Corinthians 13:11. Never was a more important declaration made than this; never was more meaning crowded into a few words than in this short sentence - “God is love.” In the darkness of this world of sin - in all the sorrows that come now upon the race, and that will come upon the wicked hereafter - we have the assurance that a God of infinite benevolence rules over all; and though we may not be able to reconcile all that occurs with this declaration, or see how the things which he has permitted to take place are consistent with it, yet in the exercise of faith on his own declarations we may find consolation in “believing” that it is so, and may look forward to a period when all his universe shall see it to be so. In the midst of all that occurs on the earth of sadness, sin, and sorrow, there are abundant evidences that God is love.

In the original structure of things before sin entered, when all was pronounced “good;” in the things designed to promote happiness, where the only thing contemplated is happiness, and where it would have been as easy to have caused pain; in the preservation of a guilty race, and in granting that race the opportunity of another trial; in the ceaseless provision which God is making in his providence for the wants of unnumbered millions of his creatures; in the arrangements made to alleviate sorrow, and to put an end to it; in the gift of a Saviour more than all, and in the offer of eternal life on terms simple and easy to be complied with - in all these things, which are the mere expressions of love, not one of which would have been found under the government of a malignant being, we see illustrations of the sublime and glorious sentiment before us, that “God is love.” Even in this world of confusion, disorder, and darkness, we have evidence sufficient to prove that he is benevolent, but the full glory and meaning of that truth will be seen only in heaven. Meantime, let us hold on to the truth that he is love. Let us believe that he sincerely desires our good, and that what seems dark to us may be designed for our welfare; and amidst all the sorrows and disappointments of the present life, let us feel that our interests and our destiny are in the hands of the God of love.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 8. He that loveth not — As already described, knoweth not God-has no experimental knowledge of him.

God is love. — An infinite fountain of benevolence and beneficence to every human being. He hates no thing that he has made. He cannot hate, because he is love. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the just and the unjust. He has made no human being for perdition, nor ever rendered it impossible, by any necessitating decree, for any fallen soul to find mercy. He has given the fullest proof of his love to the whole human race by the incarnation of his Son, who tasted death for every man. How can a decree of absolute, unconditional reprobation, of the greater part or any part of the human race, stand in the presence of such a text as this? It has been well observed that, although God is holy, just, righteous, &c., he is never called holiness, justice, &c., in the abstract, as he is here called LOVE. This seems to be the essence of the Divine nature, and all other attributes to be only modifications of this.


 
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