What Does 1 John 5:2 Mean?
By this we perceive that we love the children of God, whenever we love God and do his commands.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.THE KEY
The same Greek word names loving God and loving God’s children, joining both loves to the keeping of God’s commands.
THE MEANING
Your love for God’s children is recognized in a life that loves God and keeps what God commands. The verse holds these together as one movement: love directed toward God and made visible in relation to God’s children.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that love for God’s children can be separated from love for God or from keeping his commands; here, all three belong together.
THE ROOT
ἀγαπάω
agapaō
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπ-
agap-
Love, cherish.
The same Greek verb is used for loving God’s children and loving God. English repeats “love,” but the shared Greek word shows these are joined expressions of love, not separate kinds.
ALSO GROWS
agapaō: To love, cherish.
ἀγαπάω
This verb appears for both loving God’s children and loving God, linking the two relationships in the verse.
agapē: Love.
ἀγάπη
This noun belongs to the same word family, keeping love for God and love for God’s children within one shared family of meaning.
τηρέω
tēreō
GROWS FROM
τηρε-
tēre-
Keep, guard, observe, preserve.
The word translated “keep” carries the sense of guarding or preserving what is entrusted. The verse presents love alongside this ongoing attention to God’s commands.
ALSO GROWS
tērēsis: Keeping, observance.
τήρησις
This related noun is used for keeping God’s commandments, showing the practice named here as more than a passing act.
syntēreō: Preserve, keep safe.
συντηρέω
This compound shares the same root and brings out the preserving sense within “keep.”
γινώσκω
ginōskō
GROWS FROM
γινωσκ-
ginōsk-
Come to know, recognize, perceive.
“perceive” in this verse is ginōskō. The verse speaks of recognizing love through what is lived: love for God and the keeping of his commands. Knowing here is tied to discernment, rather than mere information.
ALSO GROWS
gnōsis: Knowledge, knowing.
γνῶσις
This noun from the same word family links knowing with the recognition named in the verse.
epiginōskō: Recognize, know.
ἐπιγινώσκω
This related verb emphasizes recognition, echoing the verse’s claim that love can be known by its joined expression.
THE PATTERN
Love for God becomes recognizable in keeping God’s instruction and in love for God’s children.
If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has perceived, cannot love God, whom he has not perceived.If you love me, guard my instructions.And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your living soul, and with all your might.THE THREAD
By this we perceive that we have perceived him, if we guard his commands.This verse repeats the roots γινώσκω (ginōskō, know) and τηρέω (tēreō, keep or guard), now in relation to knowing God. Together, the two verses show how love and knowing become recognizable through the keeping of God’s commands.
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