1 JOHN 4:19 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“We love him, because he first loved us.”
We love because he first loved us — the causal priority (hoti protos ēgapēsen) establishes that human love is response to divine initiative. Love is not human achievement but divine gift received and reflected. The order is unambiguous: God's love is chronologically and causally first.
Church Fathers on 1 John 4:19
“Let us love, because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19 For how should we love, except He had first loved us? By loving we became friends: but He loved us as enemies, that we might be made friends. He first loved us, and gave us the gift of loving Him. We did not yet love Him: by loving we are made beautiful. If a man deformed and ill-featured love a beautiful woman, what shall he do? Or what shall a woman do, if, being deformed and ill-featured and black-complexioned, she love…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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