“He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.”
— WEB
1 John 4:8
Cited in 1 topic on this site.
Translations sourced from the public-domain WEB, KJV, and ASV. See all sources.
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
— KJV
“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
— ASV
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Commentary
knoweth not--Greek aorist: not only knoweth not now, but never knew, has not once for all known God. God is love--There is no Greek article to love, but to God; therefore we cannot translate, Love is God. God is fundamentally and essentially LOVE: not merely is loving, for then John's argument would not stand; for the conclusion from the premises then would be this, This man is not loving: God is loving; therefore he knoweth not God IN SO FAR AS GOD IS LOVING; still he might know Him in His other attributes. But when we take love as God's essence, the argument is sound: This man doth not love, and therefore knows not love: God is essentially love, therefore he knows not God.
— Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary (public domain)
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