1 John 4:12

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:1-21

The Centrality of Christian Love (1 John 3:11 to 1 John 4:21 ). The reference to loving one’s brother, deliberately added almost as an appendage in 1 John 3:10 in order to introduce the next section, now leads on to that section where love is pre-eminent. Previously any emphasis has been on God’s love for His own (1 John 2:5; 1 John 2:15; 1 John 3:1) although love of fellow-Christians has not been totally ignored (1 John 2:8-11), but from now on the thought becomes central. The emphasis has... read more

Peter Pett

Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:12-14

‘No man has beheld God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit, and we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.’ We do not abide in God by seeing Him. Indeed no one has beheld God at any time. But His presence among us, and His abiding in us is revealed in the love that flows from us to our fellow-believers.... read more

Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - 1 John 4:7-21

1 John 4:7-Ecclesiastes : . John returns to the theme of 1 John 3:14 ff., be cause if the Church is the home of truth, still more is it the home of love. The evidence for our Divine sonship is that the love manifested by God in sending His Son for our redemption— a fact to which the Church bears witness— issues in love on our part to God and to our brethren; love, when mature, casts out fear. Moreover the proof that we love the unseen God is that we love our brother, as Christ commanded us.... read more

Matthew Poole

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible - 1 John 4:12

The essence of God is to our eyes invisible, incomprehensible to our minds; but by yielding ourselves to the power of his love, so as to be transformed by it, and habituated to the exercise of mutual love, we come to know him by the most pleasant and most apprehensible effects, experiencing his indwelling, vital, operative presence and influences, whereby he is daily perfecting this his own likeness and image in us. This is the most desirable way of knowing God, when, though we cannot behold... read more

Joseph Exell

Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary - 1 John 4:7-14

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES1 John 4:7.—The previous verses are in some sense an “aside.” The apostle now resumes his proper theme. His main truth is this—Love is the mark of the children of God, who is love. Love to God is a delusion if it does not find expression in love toward one another as brethren. And love of the brethren is a sure test of our having the Spirit of God, for the spirit of antichrist is a self-seeking and self-serving spirit. “Just as it severs the Divine from the human in... read more

C.I. Scofield

Scofield's Reference Notes - 1 John 4:12

perfected (See Scofield " :-") . read more

Chuck Smith

Chuck Smith Bible Commentary - 1 John 4:1-21

Shall we turn now in our Bibles to I John chapter 4. As we go back to verse 1Jo 4:24 of chapter 3, the later portion, "Hereby we know that He abides in us by the Spirit which He has given us." I know that God abides in life. How do I know? Because He has given me the Holy Spirit.Paul said, "The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession" ( Ephesians 1:14 ). We have been sealed, he said, with this Holy Spirit of promise; the seal was God's mark... read more

Joseph Sutcliffe

Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments - 1 John 4:1-21

1 John 4:1-3 . Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God. Whether those teachers believe that Christ is come in the flesh, which to the present hour the unbelieving jews deny. Try them by the faith of all the holy apostles and confessors, whether they confess that Christ is the Son of the living God. Whether he be the glory that shone in the ancient church, and dwelt on the mercyseat. The Eternal Son, the Word, the Wisdom of God, crucified for sinners. False... read more

Joseph Exell

The Biblical Illustrator - 1 John 4:12

1 John 4:12No man hath seen God at any time.If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us The nearness of GodThere is a saying of Hazlitt’s, bold, and at first seeming to be wondrous true, “In the days of Jacob there was a ladder between heaven and earth; but now the heavens have gone further off, and have become astronomical.” This may be taken as illustrating the belief of a large number of people who imagine that somehow or other the earth in its youth was... read more

John Trapp

John Trapp Complete Commentary - 1 John 4:12

12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Ver. 12. No man hath seen God ] If we read that any hath seen him, we must understand it, that indeed they did see Mercavah, velo harocheb, the chariot in which God rode, but not the rider in it, as that Rabbi speaketh. (Rab. Maim. More Nevochim, iii. 7.) His love is perfected in us ] i.e. Either actively; our love is demonstrated in the excellency of it. Or else passively;... read more

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