1 John 4:10 - An Understandable Version (2005 edition)

Here is [the essence of] love: [It is] not that we loved God [first], but that He loved us [See Rom. 5:6-8] and sent His Son to be a “covering over” [see 2:2] of our sins.

More versions

King James Version (Oxford) 1769

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Amplified Bible - Classic Edition

In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins.

American Standard Version (1901)

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Common English Bible

This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.

Catholic Public Domain Version

In this is love: not as if we had loved God, but that he first loved us, and so he sent his Son as a propitiation for our sins.

Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version

In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because he hath first loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:10 Cross References

John 13:34

I am giving you a new commandment: love one another. Also you should love one another in the same way that I have loved you.

John 15:16

I command you to do these things so that you will [demonstrate your] love for one another. [Note: Or this may mean that His command was to love one another, as in verse 12].

John 3:16

For God loved the world [of sinners] so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that every person who believes in Him would not [have to] be destroyed, but have never ending life.

John 6:51

I am the living bread who came down from heaven; if anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. Yes, and the bread that I will give [him] is my physical body, [so] that the world can have [never ending] life.”

Hebrews 2:17

So, for this reason, He had to become like His brothers in every way [i.e., except that He never sinned], so that He could become a merciful and faithful Head Priest in things related to God’s [service], [and] that He could provide a means of purifying [Lev. 16:30] for people’s sins [i.e., a “covering over” or forgiveness of them].

1 Peter 2:24

Jesus took upon Himself our sins [when] His body was placed upon the cross so that we, [through] dying to [i.e., giving up] the sinful life, would live for righteousness. You were healed [from your sins] by His being brutally treated.

1 Peter 3:18

For Christ suffered once for people’s sins [to be forgiven]. [It was the case of] a righteous Man suffering for unrighteous people, so that He could bring you [or, “us”] to God [for salvation]. [Though] He [i.e., Jesus] was put to death physically, He was brought back to life by the Holy Spirit [Note: Some translations say “in spirit”].

1 John 2:2

And He is the One who provides a “covering over” [thereby the forgiveness] of our sins [See Heb. 2:17; Dan. 9:24; II Chron. 29:24], and not of ours [who are already Christians] only, but also of the sins of the people of the whole world.

1 John 3:1

Look at how much love the Father has shown to us [Christians], that we should be called His children! But, that is what we [really] are! The reason the people of the world do not know who we are is because they do not know who God [really] is.

1 John 4:19

We love [God and others] because God has first loved us.

1 John 5:11

And this is the testimony [of God]: He gave to us [the hope of] never ending life, and this life is [available through fellowship] in His Son.