1 John 4:7-9

New Catholic Bible

Footnotes

1. 1 John 4:7 There are splendid pages in the Bible that speak of what love is—for example, Paul’s hymn on love (1 Cor 13) and this text. The whole theology of love is developed in these verses, which give us the deepest understanding of Christianity as a great movement of life and experience, and not an abstract speculation. Love is reality: i.e., in God; it is witnessed to in an experience: i.e., in Christ; and it is expressed in the reality of fraternal love: i.e., among believers.
   God and love: the two words go together, just as do knowledge of God and fraternal love. The living discovery of God does not take place in plumbing the most compelling ideas but in becoming like Christ, in the experience of fraternal love. Without this, no fellowship with God is possible. Fraternal love and faith in Christ go together; and this experience enables us to verify the value of every religion and every spirituality. Nothing else can deliver human beings from the fear of judgment.
2. 1 John 4:7 Love is from God: hence, those who love God show that they are born of God. God is love: i.e., he is loving in his essential nature and in all his actions. The Gospel of John also affirms that God is spirit (see Jn 4:24) and light (see Jn 1:5) as well as true and just, powerful, holy, and faithful.