God’s Love and Ours

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another,^(A) for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God^(B) and knows God.^{(C) 8} Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.^{(D) 9} This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son^(E) into the world that we might live through him.^{(F) 10} This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us^(G) and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.^{(H) 11} Dear friends,^(I) since God so loved us,^(J) we also ought to love one another.^{(K) 12} No one has ever seen God;^(L) but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.^(M)

¹³ This is how we know^(N) that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.^{(O) 14} And we have seen and testify^(P) that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.^{(Q) 15} If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,^(R) God lives in them and they in God.^{(S) 16} And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love.^(T) Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.^{(U) 17} This is how love is made complete^(V) among us so that we will have confidence^(W) on the day of judgment:^(X) In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear,^(Y) because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

¹⁹ We love because he first loved us.^{(Z) 20} Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister^(AA) is a liar.^(AB) For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen,^(AC) cannot love God, whom they have not seen.^{(AD) 21} And he has given us this command:^(AE) Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.^(AF)

¹⁶ For God so loved^(A) the world that he gave^(B) his one and only Son,^(C) that whoever believes^(D) in him shall not perish but have eternal life.^{(E) 17} For God did not send his Son into the world^(F) to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.^{(G) 18} Whoever believes in him is not condemned,^(H) but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.^(I)

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a](A) of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy^(B) and can fathom all mysteries^(C) and all knowledge,^(D) and if I have a faith^(E) that can move mountains,^(F) but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor^(G) and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b](H) but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient,^(I) love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.^{(J) 5} It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,^(K) it is not easily angered,^(L) it keeps no record of wrongs.^{(M) 6} Love does not delight in evil^(N) but rejoices with the truth.^{(O) 7} It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.^(P)

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,^(Q) they will cease; where there are tongues,^(R) they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part^(S) and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes,^(T) what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood^(U) behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;^(V) then we shall see face to face.^(W) Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.^(X)

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.^(Y) But the greatest of these is love.^(Z)