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1 John 4: let us love one another

Love comes from God, and whoever loves knows God.

Bible reference: 1 John 4:7-12

For weddings

At a glance

Text
King James Version, at the bottom of this page
Length, read slowly
About a minute
Where it goes
  • Scripture reading · Christian wedding ceremony and Wedding ceremonyRead by: reader
  • Second reading · Christian wedding ceremonyRead by: reader

Have the officiant read your choice first: they have the last word.

We don’t show modern translations here: they are protected by copyright. You can find them in your church’s Bible or on the publisher’s website. Further down this page is the text from the King James Version, which you may use freely.

Use in your program

What this reading says

The writer, known to the church as John, asks his friends to love one another. His reason is simple. Love comes from God, so whoever loves is close to God. Whoever does not love has not understood God at all, because God is love. The proof: God sent his Son so that people could live. Love did not start with us. It started with God, and our love for each other is the answer to his. Nobody has ever seen God, John admits. But when two people love each other, God is right there between them.

When it fits

Pick this one for a church wedding where you want the service to say that your love is a gift you received before it was a promise you made. It sits in the Catholic list of readings for marriage and in many Protestant orders of service. A couple planning a non-religious ceremony will find it too explicitly about God; Ecclesiastes 4 says something similar about two people being stronger together without naming him. Compared with the longer 1 Corinthians 13, this reading is less about how love behaves and more about where it begins.

Reading it aloud

A parent or godparent often reads it, because the words sound like a blessing from an older generation. Keep an even pace and do not rush the repeated word "love". It comes back more than a dozen times, and that repetition is the point. Pause after "God is love" before going on. The King James Version has "propitiation for our sins" in the middle, a word that trips up most readers. A modern translation says "atoning sacrifice" or "the way our sins are forgiven". Paste the version you want into the wedding program with its credit line.

Text from the King James Version

1 John 4:7-12

This older translation is in the public domain in the United States, so you may print it in your program for free. A Catholic Mass reads from the lectionary, so for a Mass, paste the text your parish uses.

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 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. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Goes well with

Scripture readings for a wedding

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