Stumbling over Translations

Q:  I was doing some bible study online and came across 1 John 4:21 GW (God's Word Translation) and couldn't quite believe what I read. So I had a look at 28 other bibles. This is what I found BEFORE the word "love" 13 bibles said "must love" 7 bibles just said "love" 5 bibles said "should love" 1 bible said "may also love" 1 bible said "includes loving people" 1 bible said "is to have the same love" Ok even though there is a difference between MUST, SHOULD, MAY, etc obviously to love is the key word, or the thing to do. This is what I found AFTER the word "love" 20 bibles said "love his brother" 3 bibles said "love his brother and sister" 1 bible said "love one another" 1 bible said "love others" 1 bible said "love people" now here's the two that really got me "wound up" 1 different bible said "love our CHRISTIAN brothers and sisters too" 1 different bible said "love other BELIEVERS" My two Q are 1. In the original manuscript of 1 John 4:21 what did he say? is it so hard to translate?? why so many variations??? 2. Big difference in meaning between "love one another" and "love other believers" or "love our christian bothers & sisters" So depending what bible you read, could depend what message you get!

A: Thank you for your question. We no longer have the original manuscripts of the Bible. However, we do have thousands of copies of the original manuscripts. There are over 24,000 partial and complete manuscript copies of the New Testament. The differences you have asked about have a name. They are called "variants." Variants usually involve things like misspellings, missing letters, a missing word, reversed words, etc. Those variants that may change the sense of a passage are said to be less than one-half of one percent of the New Testament. None of them affect any of the doctrines in the Bible. Furthermore, one of the greatest things God allowed for when He was inspiring the authors of the Bible to write, was to use their individual personalities and styles of writing as they composed the Scriptures. When it came to those who copied the Bible manuscripts over the subsequent centuries, there is no doubt that their different writing styles and, perhaps, own interpretations and biases found their way into the Bible. Yet, God allowed that to happen without compromising the overall message and intent of the Bible.

1 John 4:21 reads, "Christ has given us this commandment: The person who loves God must also love other believers." When it comes to your concern regarding what comes after the word "love" in 1 John 4:21, I think it is much to do about nothing. There is really not that much difference between "love one another," "love other believers" or "love our Christian brothers and sisters." First of all to say that we should love other believers or love our Christian brothers and sisters does not mean that we should do the opposite and not love unbelievers or people who are not our Christian brothers and sisters. Besides, if you are loving other believers/brothers and sisters in Christ, will you then not show love towards unbelievers? I do not think so. Rather than get hung up on a word or two in one verse, look at the entire context surrounding that verse. The Apostle John is specifically talking to believers in this section of his letter (1 John 4:4, 6, 11). Therefore, if a translation chooses to focus on loving Christians instead of loving all people, in general, it is not something to get worked up over. The entire focus of this portion of scripture is not about who we are loving, necessarily, but on the origin of that love we share with others.

The origin of the love we share with others comes from us receiving God's love, individually.  1 John 4:7 says, "Dear friends, we must love each other because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born from God and knows God." God loves us and then we let Him love others through us. But, this love from God must be defined. 1 John 4:9 says, "God has shown us his love by sending his only Son into the world so that we could have life through him." God demonstrated His love for us by dying for us on the Cross, in the Person of Jesus Christ. Our sins are so terrible that only the death of God was sufficient to take them away for eternity. Therefore, since our debt of sin has been paid for in Christ, we, in turn, share His forgiveness, the exercise of His love for us, with others when they sin against us. Remember, the Apostle Paul wrote that love "doesn't keep track of wrongs (1 Cor 13:5)." In practice, when someone sins against us, we forgive them by not holding that sin against them because it is a direct reflection of the love God has shown us. When you know the basics of the origins of love, which come from God loving us in Christ, then it helps explain the difficulties we may encounter in regards to different words used in different translations. 

In closing, let me say that it is great that you are so engaged with the word of God on subjects like this. This is how you grow, learn and come to a deeper understanding of God and His love for you. Be prayerful about subjects like this because I sense that they can become overwhelming to you and perhaps steal some of your joy in the Lord. And that is not coming from the Lord. Jesus said, "I'm leaving you peace. I'm giving you my peace. I don't give you the kind of peace that the world gives. So don't be troubled or cowardly (John 14:27)." Whenever you run into a difficult translation of a passage, continue to do what you did and look at other translations. Secondly, try to see if taking the entire context of the surrounding verses shed some light on the passage in question. Thirdly, increase your understanding of what is the Gospel of Jesus Christ so you know the basics of what it is God has given us in Christ and who we are in Him so as to filter difficult passages through that foundational truth. And lastly, but most importantly, allow the Lord to teach you the meaning of scripture. After all, it is He who inspired them and He who knows best what meaning He wanted to convey in His Word. "Every Scripture passage is inspired by God. All of them are useful for teaching, pointing out errors, correcting people, and training them for a life that has God's approval (2 Timothy 3:16)." Grace and Peace.