The first sentence is the negative counterpart of verse 7b, with the exception that there is no reference here to being born of God, and that in the Greek “know” is not in the present tense, as in verse 7, but in the aorist tense. The same sequence of tenses occurs with the same meaning in 3.1; see discussion there for further help.

God is love. The same construction is found in 1.5 (“God is light”) and in 4.24 (“God is spirit”). The noun love, referring to a process, is the predicate of the sentence; it says something about God’s quality, character, and activity. The translator must take care not to give a rendering that equates God and love. This would imply that the clause order is reversible, and that God is love and “love is God” are both true propositions—which is certainly not what John meant to say.

After “love is of God” in verse 7a, the present clause functions as a climax: God is not only the origin of love, but love itself. At first sight this construction might suggest that John intends to identify God with an abstract principle. That this is not the case becomes clear, however, when one looks at the context, where God is represented as the personal agent of the act of loving.

The proposition “God loves us” might stand alongside such statements as “God creates,” “God rules,” “God judges.” Accordingly “God is love” does not mean to say that love is one of God’s activities, but that all his activity is loving activity. Whether he creates, or rules, or judges, he does so in love. All that he does is the expression of his nature, which is—to love.

The Greek construction cannot be followed in several languages because a corresponding verbal noun simply does not exist in the language or, if existing, cannot be used in this way, or, if it can be used this way, would not express the same meaning. Therefore translators have tried to express the force of this construction otherwise; for example, ‘God’s character is to habitually-love,’ ‘all God’s deeds are loving deeds,’ ‘God is one who continually and really loves,’ ‘God has-as-quality love.’

Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The First Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .