I John 4

¹ Agape-beloved, be not believing every spirit, but be testing¹ the spirits if they are from God, for many false-prophets are gone out into the world. ² By this you know the spirit of God: Every spirit which confesses Jesus Christ having come in [the] flesh is from God, ³ and everyone which does not confess Jesus ² is not from God, and this [one] is the antichrist, whom you heard that he comes, and is now already in the world. ⁴ You are from God, children, and you have conquered them, because greater is the [one] in you than the [one] in the world. ⁵ They are from the world, because of this they speak from the world and the world hears them. ⁶ We are from God. The [one] knowing God hears us, whoever is not from God does not hear us. From this we know that spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. ⁷ Agape-beloved, let us be agape-loving one another, for agape-love is from God, and everyone agape-loving is begotten³ from God and knows God. ⁸ The [one] not agape-loving has not known God, because God is agape-love. ⁹ By this is the agape-love of God manifested in us, because God sent his uniquely-begotten⁴ son into the world in order that we zoe-live⁵ through him. ¹⁰ In this is agape-love, not that we have agape-loved God, but that he agape-loved us and sent his son [an] appeasement for our sins. ¹¹ Agape-beloved, if God thus agape-loved us, we also ought to be agape-loving one another. ¹² No one has ever beheld God. If we be agape-loving one another, God abides in us and his agape-love is perfected⁶ in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given to us from his spirit. ¹⁴ And we have beheld and we testify that the father has sent his son [to be] savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. ¹⁶ And we have known and have believed the agape-love which God has in us. God is agape-love, and the one abiding in agape-love abides in God and God abides in him. ¹⁷ By this is our agape-love perfected⁷, in order that we have boldness in the day of judgment, because just as he is, we also are in this world. Fear is not in agape-love. ¹⁸ But the perfection⁸ of agape-love throws out fear, because fear has punishment, but the [one] fearing is not perfected⁹ in agape-love. ¹⁹ We agape-love because he first agape-loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says that he agape-loves God, and hates his brother, he is [a] liar. For the [one] not agape-loving his brother whom he has seen, is not able to be agape-loving the God whom he has not seen. ²¹ And we have this commandment from him, that the [one] agape-loving God also be agape-loving his brother.

¹or "examining"

²insert "having come in the flesh" HK most; text: BA few lat

³GENNAO "gen-AH-oh" (γενναω) is used of `begetting' by the father, and `birthing' by the mother in the Greek literature in general as well as the Septuagint. Thus it refers to the reproductive process as a whole. GENNAO is also used of the special relationship between a Master and his disciples, where no literal begetting or birthing is involved. Since there isn't really an English word that encompasses the whole reproductive cycle, GENNAO is reluctantly translated as 'born' except in those contexts where it would be strange to the English reader to say 'born of a father' or 'begotten by a mother'.

⁴MONOGENES `mah-noh-gen-AYS" (μoνγενεης ) Literally `only (MONO) + begotten/birthed (GENES)'. GENNAO "gen-AH-oh" (γενναω) is used of `begetting' by the father, and `birthing' by the mother in the Greek literature in general as well as the Septuagint. Thus it refers to the reproductive process as a whole. GENNAO is also used of the special relationship between a Master and his disciples, where no literal begetting or birthing is involved. Since there isn't really an English word that encompasses the whole reproductive cycle, GENNAO is reluctantly translated as 'born' except in those contexts where it would be strange to the English reader to say 'born of a father' or 'begotten by a mother'. MONOGENES appears in: Luke.7:12, Luke.8:42, Luke.9:38, John.1:14, John.1:18, John.3:16, John.3:18, Heb.11:17, 1John.4:9. Luke only uses MONOGENES to refer to 'an only-child'. But see Heb.11:17 where Isaac is referred to as MONOGENES even though he has an older brother Ishmael. Thus it must also mean 'uniquely-born/begotten' and not strictly 'only-child'.

⁵from ZOE "ZOH-ay" (ζωη)—Life 'collectively', interdependent, interconnected. Although it means 'life' in the conventional sense (for example: Matt.9:18, Matt.27:63, Luke.2:36, Acts.25:24, Rom.7:2, 2Cor.1:8, 1Thes.4:17, 1Tim.5:10, Rev.19:20), Jesus uses ZOE exclusively of 'life eternal' (with the possible exceptions of Luke.15:13, Luke.16:25). The other N.T. writers use ZOE in both senses—temporal and eternal, generally clear from the context. The Father is the 'zoe-living God' (see Matt.16:16). The Septuagint (LXX) in Gen.2:7 has "...[God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of zoe-life, and the man became a zoe-living psyche-life" (and see 1Cor.15:45); and Gen.3:20 (LXX) "And Adam called his wife's name ZOE, because she was the mother of all zoe-living." Contrast PSYCHE (ψυχη): an individual manifestation of life/consciousness. See John.12:25 where both ZOE and PSYCHE occur. Greek also has the word BIOS (βιoς ) for 'life' in the sense of biological processes.

⁶or "completed"

⁷[or "completed"]

⁸or "completion"

⁹or "completed" version 3.85.
On 08 Sep 2009, 19:30.