“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”
My Notes
What Does 1 John 4:16 Mean?
John makes one of the most profound theological statements in Scripture: God is love. Not God has love, or God shows love — God is love. Love isn't an attribute of God alongside other attributes. It's His very nature. Everything He does flows from what He is.
The verse begins with personal experience: "we have known and believed the love that God hath to us." John isn't starting with abstract theology. He's starting with encounter. We've experienced this love. We've believed it. And from that experience, he makes the declaration.
The second half draws the practical conclusion: "he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." If God is love, then inhabiting love means inhabiting God. There's a mutual indwelling — you in God, God in you — and the medium is love. Not knowledge. Not obedience. Not spiritual experience. Love.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What does it mean to you that God doesn't just have love but is love — that it's His essential nature?
- 2.How does 'God is love' reshape how you interpret the harder things God does or allows?
- 3.What does 'dwelling in love' look like in your most difficult relationship right now?
- 4.If love is the way you dwell in God, how does that simplify (or complicate) your spiritual life?
Devotional
God is love. Three words that contain everything.
Not God is powerful (though He is). Not God is holy (though He is). God is love. That's His essence. When you strip away everything else, when you get to the irreducible core of who God is, you find love.
This means that every act of God — creation, redemption, judgment, discipline — flows from love. Even the things that don't feel loving are expressions of a nature that is fundamentally, essentially love. When God disciplines, it's love. When God says no, it's love. When God waits, it's love. The lens never changes.
And then the stunning implication: if you dwell in love, you dwell in God. Not love as a feeling — love as a choice, a posture, a way of living. When you love someone — genuinely, sacrificially, not because they deserve it — you're living inside God's nature. He's in you, and you're in Him, and the connection point is love.
You don't have to be a theologian to dwell in God. You have to love. That's the address.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And we have known and believed,.... Or have a full assurance and knowledge of, and faith in,
the love that God hath to…
And we have known and believed ... - We all have assurance that God has loved us, and the fullest belief in the great…
God is love - See on Jo1 4:8 (note). He that dwelleth in love - he who is full of love to God and man is full of God,…
Since faith in Christ works love to God, and love to God must kindle love to the brethren, the apostle here confirms the…
And we have known and believed Literally, And we have come to know and have believed. This is the natural order;…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture