First John 4:10 teaches that love did not start with us. Our love for God is a response to his prior love, which he showed by sending his Son to deal with our sin. The apostle John wrote this to believers in the early church, Christians who were being taught to love one another as evidence that they truly knew God.
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1 John 4:10 (WEB)
What 1 John 4:10 Means
The verse begins with “In this is love,” which points to what follows as the definition of love. John then makes a contrast. The verse says that the love in view is not that we loved God first. People often assume that love is mainly something we produce, a warm feeling or a sincere effort toward the divine. John turns that assumption around and says the starting point is God’s action toward us.
The phrase “he loved us” is the center of the sentence. Then John names what that love did: God “sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” The word “atoning” refers to a sacrifice that deals with sin and makes restoration with God possible. The verse does not claim that everyone automatically feels loved or responds well. It states what God has done, and it places our love for him after that act, as its answer.
The Context of 1 John 4:10
First John is a letter, written in a pastoral tone, to a community that needed to know how to recognize real faith. Verses 7 through 13 call believers to love one another, and they explain that love comes from God because God is love. Verse 9 links the same idea to the sending of God’s one and only Son, so verse 10 clarifies the source of the love described in verse 9. Read this way, John is not switching topics. He is explaining where love begins.
Because the surrounding verses move straight from God’s love to our love for each other, verse 10 works as a hinge. It keeps human love from being treated as the foundation. It makes our love toward others something that flows out of having been loved first, which is why John goes on to say, “if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another” in verse 11.
Key Phrases in 1 John 4:10
Romans 5:8
But God commends his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
(WEB)
Paul makes a similar point about the timing of God’s love, showing that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. Reading it alongside 1 John 4:10 helps you see that God’s initiative in love is not limited to one passage but runs through the whole witness of Scripture.
1 John 4:19
We love him, because he first loved us.
(WEB)
This verse follows directly from the idea in 1 John 4:10 and states plainly that we love because God first loved us. Reading the two together shows how John connects God’s love and our response in a continuous line of thought.
A Short Prayer From 1 John 4:10
Father, thank you that love did not begin with me. Before I knew how to love you, you loved me and sent your Son to deal with my sin. When I feel distant or unsure, remind me that your love comes first and does not depend on my performance. Let that truth shape the way I treat the people around me today. Help me to receive your love fully and to pass it on in patience and kindness. Amen.
