1 John 4:12 (YLT)

Passage

God no one hath ever seen; if we may love one another, God in us doth remain, and His love is having been perfected in us;

Nearby Context

1 John 4:10 in this is the love, not that we loved God, but that He did love us, and did send His Son a propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:11 Beloved, if thus did God love us, we also ought one another to love;

1 John 4:12 God no one hath ever seen; if we may love one another, God in us doth remain, and His love is having been perfected in us;

1 John 4:13 in this we know that in Him we do remain, and He in us, because of His Spirit He hath given us.

1 John 4:14 And we--we have seen and do testify, that the Father hath sent the Son--Saviour of the world;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "hath", "ever", "seen", "love", "another", "doth", and "remain". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "hath" and "ever", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "Beloved if thus did God love us..." into verse 13's "in this we know that in Him...", so "hath" and "ever" belong inside that flow. In 1 John context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "hath" and "ever" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.