1 John 4:9

This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — John writes to a community confronting teachers who deny the reality of Christ's coming; the verse follows the declaration "God is love" (v. 8) and precedes the atoning-sacrifice point (v. 10), anchoring both in a single historical act.

The words — ἐφανερὼθη (ephanerōthē, aorist passive) means "has been made manifest," a completed act of deliberate unveiling rather than a general statement about God's character.

The thread — The same sending-of-the-Son logic appears in John 3:16, Romans 8:32, and 1 John 5:11, where the Son is the concrete content of what "God's love" means.

Why it lands — The verse defines love as a specific act (sending the Son) rather than an attribute or emotion, forcing the reader to test their understanding of "love" against that act.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

Cross-references

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1 John 5:11 And this is that testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
John 6:57 Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
1 John 4:10 And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.
John 6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And this bread, which I will give for the life of the world, is My flesh.”
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.
John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.
1 John 3:16 By this we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.