So we know by experience and trust the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever continues to love continues in union with God and God in union with him.

There is no fear in love, and perfect love drives out fear, because fear pertains to punishment, and no one who is subject to fear has attained perfection in love.

If anyone says, "I love God," and yet habitually hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love our brothers. Whoever does not continue to love continues still in death.

Whoever does not love has never come to know God by experience, because God is love.

This is how we can be sure that we love the children of God, by continuing to love God and to obey His commands.

Stop loving the world, or the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, there is no love for the Father in his heart,

Dearly beloved, let us practice loving one another, because love originates with God, and everyone who practices loving is a child of God and knows God by experience.

In this way is seen the true love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear children, let us stop loving with words or lips alone, but let us love with actions and in truth.

Dearly beloved, if God has loved us so, we ought to love one another too.

No one has ever seen God; yet if we practice loving one another, God remains in union with us, and our love for Him attains perfection in our hearts,

We love, because He loved us first.