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Text -- 1 John 4:19 (NET)

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Context
4:19 We love because he loved us first.
Parallel   Cross Reference (TSK)   ITL  

Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics

Dictionary Themes and Topics: SACRIFICE, IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, 2 | Righteousness | Love | JOHN, THE EPISTLES OF, PART 1-3 | God | GOD, 3 | Condescension of God | Church | more
Table of Contents

Word/Phrase Notes
Robertson , Vincent , Wesley , JFB , Clarke , Calvin , TSK

Word/Phrase Notes
Barnes , Poole , Gill

Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes , Geneva Bible

Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis , Maclaren , MHCC , Matthew Henry , Barclay , Constable , College , Lapide

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: 1Jo 4:19 - -- He first ( autos prōtos ). Note prōtos (nominative), not prōton , as in Joh 20:4, Joh 20:8. God loved us before we loved him (Joh 3:16). Ou...

He first ( autos prōtos ).

Note prōtos (nominative), not prōton , as in Joh 20:4, Joh 20:8. God loved us before we loved him (Joh 3:16). Our love is in response to his love for us. Agapōmen is indicative (we love), not subjunctive (let us love) of the same form. There is no object expressed here.

Vincent: 1Jo 4:19 - -- We love Him ( ἡμεῖς ἀγαπῶμεν αὐτὸν ) The best texts omit Him . Some render let us love , as 1Jo 4:7. The stat...

We love Him ( ἡμεῖς ἀγαπῶμεν αὐτὸν )

The best texts omit Him . Some render let us love , as 1Jo 4:7. The statement is general, relating to the entire operation of the principle of love. All human love is preceded and generated by the love of God.

Wesley: 1Jo 4:19 - -- This is the sum of all religion, the genuine model of Christianity. None can say more: why should any one say less, or less intelligibly?

This is the sum of all religion, the genuine model of Christianity. None can say more: why should any one say less, or less intelligibly?

JFB: 1Jo 4:19 - -- Omitted in the oldest manuscripts. Translate, We (emphatical: WE on our part) love (in general: love alike Him, and the brethren, and our fellow men),...

Omitted in the oldest manuscripts. Translate, We (emphatical: WE on our part) love (in general: love alike Him, and the brethren, and our fellow men), because He (emphatical: answering to "we"; because it was He who) first loved us in sending His Son (Greek aorist of a definite act at a point of time). He was the first to love us: this thought ought to create in us love casting out fear (1Jo 4:18).

Clarke: 1Jo 4:19 - -- We love him because he first loved us - This is the foundation of our love to God 1.    We love him because we find he has loved us 2...

We love him because he first loved us - This is the foundation of our love to God

1.    We love him because we find he has loved us

2.    We love him from a sense of obligation and gratitude

3.    We love him from the influence of his own love; from his love shed abroad in our hearts, our love to him proceeds. It is the seed whence our love springs

The verse might be rendered, Let us therefore love him, because he first loved us: thus the Syriac and Vulgate.

Calvin: 1Jo 4:19 - -- 19.We love him The verb ἀγαπῶμεν may be either in the indicative or imperative mood; but the former is the more suitable here, for the Apos...

19.We love him The verb ἀγαπῶμεν may be either in the indicative or imperative mood; but the former is the more suitable here, for the Apostle, as I think, repeats the preceding sentence, that as God has anticipated us by his free love, we ought to return to render love to him, for he immediately infers that he ought to be loved in men, or that the love we have for him ought to be manifested towards men. If, however, the imperative mood be preferred, the meaning would be nearly the same, that as God has freely loved us, we also ought now to love him.

TSK: 1Jo 4:19 - -- 1Jo 4:10; Luk 7:47; Joh 3:16, Joh 15:16; 2Co 5:14, 2Co 5:15; Gal 5:22; Eph 2:3-5; Tit 3:3-5

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: 1Jo 4:19 - -- We love him, because he first loved us - This passage is susceptible of two explanations; either. (1)\caps1     t\caps0 hat the...

We love him, because he first loved us - This passage is susceptible of two explanations; either.

(1)\caps1     t\caps0 hat the fact that he first loved us is the "ground"or "reason"why we love him, or.

(2)\caps1     t\caps0 hat as a matter of fact we have been brought to love him in consequence of the love which he has manifested toward us, though the real ground of our love may be the excellency of his own character.

If the former be the meaning, and if that were the only ground of love, then it would be mere selfishness, (compare Mat 5:46-47); and it cannot be believed that John meant to teach that that is the "only"reason of our love to God. It is true, indeed, that that is a proper ground of love, or that we are bound to love God in proportion to the benefits which we have received from his Hand; but still genuine love to God is something which cannot be explained by the mere fact that we have received favors from Him. The true, the original ground of love to God, is the "excellence of His own character,"apart from the question whether we are to be benefited or not. There is that in the divine nature which a holy being will love, apart from the benefits which he is to receive, and from any thought even of his own destiny. It seems to me, therefore, that John must have meant here, in accordance with the second interpretation suggested above, that the fact that we love God is to be traced to the means which he has used to bring us to himself, but without saying that this is the sole or even the main reason why we love him. It was His love manifested to us by sending His Son to redeem us which will explain the fact that we now love Him; but still the real ground or reason why we love Him is the infinite excellence of His own character. It should be added here, that many suppose that the Greek words rendered "we love"( ἡμεῖς ἀγαπῶμεν hēmeis agapōmen are not in the indicative, but in the subjunctive; and that this is an exhortation - "let us love him, because he first loved us."So the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Vulgate read it; and so it is understood by Benson, Grotius, and Bloomfield. The main idea would not be essentially different; and it is a proper ground of exhortation to love God because He has loved us, though the highest ground is, because His character is infinitely worthy of love.

Poole: 1Jo 4:19 - -- His is the fountain love, ours but the stream: his love the inducement, the pattern, and the effective cause of ours. He that is first in love, love...

His is the fountain love, ours but the stream: his love the inducement, the pattern, and the effective cause of ours. He that is first in love, loves freely; the other therefore loves under obligation.

Gill: 1Jo 4:19 - -- We love him, because he first loved us. Lest love to God, and so to one another, should be thought to be of ourselves, and too much be ascribed unto i...

We love him, because he first loved us. Lest love to God, and so to one another, should be thought to be of ourselves, and too much be ascribed unto it, the apostle observes, that God's love to us is prior to our love to him; his love is from everlasting, as well as to everlasting; for he loves his people as he does his Son, and he loved him before the foundation of the world; his choosing them in Christ as early, and blessing them then with all spiritual blessings, the covenant of grace made with Christ from all eternity, the gift of grace to them in him before the world began, and the promise of eternal life to them so soon, show the antiquity and priority of his love: his love shown in the mission and gift of his Son was before theirs, and when they had none to him; and his love in regeneration and conversion is previous to theirs, and is the cause of it; his grace in regeneration brings faith and love with it, and produces them in the heart; and his love shed abroad there is the moving cause of it, or what draws it first into act and exercise; and the larger the discoveries and applications of the love of God be, the more does love to him increase and abound; and nothing more animates and inflames our love to God, than the consideration of the earliness of his love to us, of its being before ours; which shows that it is free, sovereign, distinguishing, and unmerited. Some read the words as an exhortation, "let us love him"; and others as in the subjunctive mood, "we should love him", because, &c. some copies read, "we love God", and so the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, and the Alexandrian copy, read, "because God first loved us": and so some others.

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Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 1Jo 4:19 No object is supplied for the verb love (the author with his propensity for obscurity has left it to the readers to supply the object). The obvious ob...

Geneva Bible: 1Jo 4:19 ( 14 ) We love him, because he first loved us. ( 14 ) Lest any man should think that that peace of conscience proceeds from our love as the cause, he...

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Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: 1Jo 4:1-21 - --1 He warns them not to believe all who boast of the Spirit;7 and exhorts to brotherly love.

Maclaren: 1Jo 4:19 - --The Ray And The Reflection "We love Him, because He first loved us.'--1 John 4:19. Very simple words! but they go down into the depths of God, liftin...

MHCC: 1Jo 4:14-21 - --The Father sent the Son, he willed his coming into this world. The apostle attests this. And whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God...

Matthew Henry: 1Jo 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, proce...

Barclay: 1Jo 4:7-21 - --This passage is so closely interwoven that we are better to read it as a whole and then bit by bit to draw out its teaching. First of all, then, le...

Barclay: 1Jo 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 d...

Barclay: 1Jo 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. ...

Constable: 1Jo 3:1--5:14 - --III. Living as children of God 3:1--5:13 "In the second division of this document (3:1-5:13) John concentrates o...

Constable: 1Jo 3:4--5:14 - --B. Conditions for Living as God's Children 3:4-5:13 Having stated the theme of this section of the epist...

Constable: 1Jo 4:7--5:5 - --4. Practicing love 4:7-5:4 "By inserting this condition, John interrupts the symmetry which exis...

Constable: 1Jo 4:17-20 - --The practice of love 4:17-20 4:17 Our love becomes complete in the sense that we can now have confidence as we anticipate our day of judgment (i.e., t...

College: 1Jo 4:1-21 - --1 JOHN 4 IV. TESTING THE SPIRITS/TRUSTING GOD (4:1-5:12) A. TESTING THE SPIRITS (4:1-6) 1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the s...

Lapide: 1Jo 4:1-21 - --Would someone please check the Psalm number in sentence formatted in blue in the 3rd note of ver. 18. CHAPTER 4 1. Most dearly beloved, &c. By the ...

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Introduction / Outline

Robertson: 1 John (Book Introduction) THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN ABOUT a.d. 85 TO 90 By Way of Introduction Relation to the Fourth Gospel There are few scholars who deny that the Ep...

JFB: 1 John (Book Introduction) AUTHORSHIP.--POLYCARP, the disciple of John [Epistle to the Philippians, 7], quotes 1Jo 4:3. EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.39] says of PAPIAS, a...

JFB: 1 John (Outline) THE WRITER'S AUTHORITY AS AN EYEWITNESS TO THE GOSPEL FACTS, HAVING SEEN, HEARD, AND HANDLED HIM WHO WAS FROM THE BEGINNING: HIS OBJECT IN WRITING: H...

TSK: 1 John 4 (Chapter Introduction) Overview 1Jo 4:1, He warns them not to believe all who boast of the Spirit; 1Jo 4:7, and exhorts to brotherly love.

Poole: 1 John 4 (Chapter Introduction) JOHN CHAPTER 4

MHCC: 1 John (Book Introduction) This epistle is a discourse upon the principles of Christianity, in doctrine and practice. The design appears to be, to refute and guard against erron...

MHCC: 1 John 4 (Chapter Introduction) (1Jo 4:1-6) Believers cautioned against giving heed to every one that pretends to the Spirit. (1Jo 4:7-21) Brotherly love enforced.

Matthew Henry: 1 John (Book Introduction) An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The First Epistle General of John Though the continued tradition of the church attests that this epistl...

Matthew Henry: 1 John 4 (Chapter Introduction) In this chapter the apostle exhorts to try spirits (1Jo 4:1), gives a note to try by (1Jo 4:2, 1Jo 4:3), shows who are of the world and who of God ...

Barclay: 1 John (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST LETTER OF JOHN A Personal Letter And Its Background First John is entitled a letter but it has no opening address nor c...

Barclay: 1 John 4 (Chapter Introduction) The Perils Of The Surging Life Of The Spirit (2Jo_3:24 2Jo_4:1) The Ultimate Heresy (2Jo_4:2-3) The Cleavage Between The World And God (2Jo_4:4-6)...

Constable: 1 John (Book Introduction) Introduction Historical Background This epistle does not contain the name of its write...

Constable: 1 John (Outline) Outline I. Introduction: the purpose of the epistle 1:1-4 II. Living in the light 1:5-2:29 ...

Constable: 1 John 1 John Bibliography Bailey, Mark L., and Thomas L. Constable. The New Testament Explorer. Nashville: Word Publi...

Haydock: 1 John (Book Introduction) THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. JOHN, THE APOSTLE. INTRODUCTION. This epistle was always acknowledged for canonical, and written by St. John, the apo...

Gill: 1 John (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO 1 JOHN The author of this epistle was John, the son of Zebedee, the disciple whom Jesus loved: he was the youngest of the apostles,...

Gill: 1 John 4 (Chapter Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO 1 JOHN 4 In this chapter the apostle cautions against seducing spirits; advises to try them, and gives rules by which they may be k...

College: 1 John (Book Introduction) FOREWORD It has been my pleasure to have been associated with Professor Morris Womack since the middle 1960s when we both accepted positions in the L...

College: 1 John (Outline) OUTLINE I. THE WORD OF LIFE - 1:1-4 II. LIFE WITH GOD AND THE WORLD - 1:5-2:27 A. The Way of Light and Darkness - 1:5-7 B. Admitting Our ...

Lapide: 1 John (Book Introduction) PREFACE TO THE FIRST EPISTLE OF S. JOHN. ——o—— I mention three things by way of preface. First, concerning the authority of the Epistle. Se...

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