1 John 4:10

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Ἐν τούτῳ ἐστὶν ἡ ἀγάπη, οὐχ ὅτι ἡμεῖς ἠγαπήσαμεν τὸν Θεόν, ἀλλʼ ὅτι αὐτὸς ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς, καὶ ἀπέστειλεν τὸν Υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἱλασμὸν περὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν.

Transliteration

In toutō estin the agapē, not that hēmeis ēgapēsamen the Theon, but that autos ēgapēsen us, and apesteilen the Huion of him hilasmon concerning the hamartiōn of us.

Grammar Details

• *toutō*: dative, neuter, singular - this/in this
• *estin*: present indicative, 3rd singular - is
• *agapē*: nominative, feminine, singular - love
• *hēmeis*: nominative, plural - we
• *ēgapēsamen*: aorist active indicative, 1st plural - we loved
• *Theon*: accusative, masculine, singular - God
• *autos*: nominative, masculine, singular - he/himself
• *ēgapēsen*: aorist active indicative, 3rd singular - he loved
• *apesteilen*: aorist active indicative, 3rd singular - he sent
• *Huion*: accusative, masculine, singular - Son
• *hilasmon*: accusative, masculine, singular - propitiation/atonement
• *hamartiōn*: genitive, feminine, plural - of sins

Word Meanings

• *agapē*: love/divine love/selfless love
• *ēgapēsamen*: we loved/we showed love
• *ēgapēsen*: he loved/he showed love
• *apesteilen*: he sent/he dispatched/he commissioned
• *hilasmon*: propitiation/atonement/means of forgiveness
• *hamartiōn*: sins/failures/misses of the mark

Referenced Verses

• Eph 2:4-5 : 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 5 even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ– by grace you are saved!–
• 1 John 2:2 : 2 and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.
• 1 John 3:1 : 1 (See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God’s children– and indeed we are! For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know him.
• Rom 5:8-9 : 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?
• John 15:16 : 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.
• 1 Pet 3:18 : 18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit.
• 1 John 4:19 : 19 We love because he loved us first.
• 1 John 4:8-9 : 8 The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him.
• Rom 3:25-26 : 25 God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed. 26 This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness.
• Deut 7:7-8 : 7 The Basis of Israel’s Election It is not because you were more numerous than all the other peoples that the LORD favored and chose you– for in fact you were the least numerous of all peoples. 8 Rather it is because of his love for you and his faithfulness to the promise he solemnly vowed to your ancestors that the LORD brought you out with great power, redeeming you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
• Dan 9:24 : 24 “Seventy weeks have been determined concerning your people and your holy city to put an end to rebellion, to bring sin to completion, to atone for iniquity, to bring in perpetual righteousness, to seal up the prophetic vision, and to anoint a most holy place.
• John 3:16 : 16 For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
• Rom 8:29-30 : 29 because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
• 2 Cor 5:19-21 : 19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making his plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf,“Be reconciled to God!” 21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.
• Titus 3:3-5 : 3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another. 4 But“when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, 5 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
• 1 Pet 2:24 : 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed.