1 John 4:7-12; 16; 18-19

Beloved,

let us love one another

because love is of God;

everyone who loves is begotten of God

and has knowledge of God.

The man without love has known nothing of God,

for God is love.

God’s love was revealed in our midst in this way:

he sent his only Son to the world

that we might have life through him.

Love, then, consists in this:

not that we have loved God,
but that he has loved us

and has sent his Son as an offering for our sins.

Beloved,
if God has loved us so,
we must have the same love for one another.

No one has ever seen God.

Yet if we love one another

God dwells in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.

We have come to know and to believe

in the love God has for us.
God is love,
and he who abides in love

abides in God,

and God in him.

Love has no room for fear;

rather, perfect love casts out of fear.

And since fear has to do with punishment,
love is not yet perfect in one who is afraid.
We for our part, love

because he first loved us.