My current research on Proverbs has taken me into a consideration of wisdom traditions in other cultures, and so, to The Analects of Confucius from the sixth century BCE (I am working with the translation of Simon Leys [New York: W. W. Norton, 1997]).  In my reading, I was brought up short by Analect 15:24:

Zigong asked, “Is there a single word that could guide one’s entire life?”  The Master said, “Should it not be reciprocity?  What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.”

I immediately was reminded of the saying of Rabbi Hillel,

That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation. Go study (b. Shabbat 31a).

Therefore, you should treat people in the same way that you want people to treat you; this is the Law and the Prophets (Matt 7:12).

We love because God first loved us.

We love him, because he first loved us.

So you see, our love for him comes as a result of his loving us first.

We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

Why the difference?  A warning–answering that question takes us into the weeds of text criticism.  Friends, we do not have the single, pristine, “original” text of ANY biblical book, New Testament or Old.  For every passage of Scripture, we have multiple witnesses, among which we must choose.

Going to the Greek, I found that the CEB, NRSVue, NIV, ESV, and The Message were faithfully following the text in my critical edition of the Greek New Testament–which, however, notes that some old texts do provide an object for the verb “love”: either “him” (like the KJV) or “God.”  In fact, the reading “him” is found in the majority of our old manuscripts, Byzantine texts collectively called (after their characteristic style of handwriting) the minuscules.  Its prevalence prompted Erasmus to include this reading in his Textus Receptus: an influential source for the KJV translators.

However, the majority text is not necessarily the best text, since the most commonly available texts all come from the same tradition.  As Bruce Metzger notes in his A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, the best evidence from a range of textual witnesses across traditions supports reading simply ‘agapomen (“we love”) without a specific object.  Metzger writes, “Feeling the need of an accusative object after the verb. . . some copyists added ton Theon [“God”] . . . and others auton [“him”].

The best concise statement I know of why text criticism matters comes from Julia O’Brien: “Knowing what words are in the text is often as complex as understanding what those words mean” (The Oxford Handbook of the Minor Prophets, ed. Julia M. O’Brien [Oxford: University Press, 2021], xxii).  Certainly, for this passage, “what words are in the text,” the choice we make of which traditional reading to follow, makes a world of difference.

The majority reading followed by the KJV, the Living Bible, and some other translations yields a more spiritual reading–but also, let’s face it, a pretty tepid one.  I respond to God’s love with piety, by loving God back.  It is all about my internal life: what happens in my own heart.

But if what is arguably the best reading is followed, then this passage is rather about how we live, and the choices we make, in the world.  As Eugene Petersen said in his paraphrase, “First we were loved, now we love.”  We respond to God’s love for us by loving–without discrimination or distinction.

As Confucius, Hillel, and Jesus all recognized, respect for the other–any other–is fundamental to living rightly in the world.  And as the Elder realizes in 1 John, we are able so to act because of the transforming love of God, concretely demonstrated and powerfully communicated by Jesus Christ.  How do we live?  We love.  Why do we do so?  Indeed, how can we do so?  Because we have ourselves been loved by God, who knows us inside and out, we can–indeed we must–extend that grace to others.

To bring this home, friends: just last week in Minneapolis, a shooter fired through the windows of Annunciation Catholic School, killing two children and wounding 18 more, as well as three adults.  In response to the now rote “thoughts and prayers” response to yet another tragic school shooting, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called for action on gun violence: “Of course we’re standing up with love.  Of course we’re standing up with thoughts and prayers.  But thoughts and prayers are not gonna cut it.”  Former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki posted on X