Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXLVII) 08/25/22

^4:20If anyone says, “I love God,” but keeps hating their spiritual brothers or sister, they are lying; for if they don’t love their fellow believers right in front of their eyes, how can they love God whom they have never seen?

Frederick B. Meyer (1847-1929) offers the test of our love. He says, if we are willing to be channeled through which God’s agápē flows to others, there need be no limit to the fullness of that holy current. In humbleness, selflessness, and gentleness, it will become perfect. The vessel placed beneath the waterfall is filled to overflowing. Through our Savior, we know the Father who sent Him.[1] We first venture on God’s agápē by faith; afterward, we know it. We’re not afraid to affirm that God’s agápē is in us. Love is the floating fragrance of Paradise. If you love, heaven and earth will answer you in terms of love. With strong, patient, selfless love, you will remain in unbroken touch with all pure and loving souls. Where love was crucified, there was a garden. Where there is love, lonely places blossom as the rose. Don’t be afraid! Love is on! Love is constant! He is the true God and eternal life! But to allow one thought of hatred or ill-will to muddy our minds will cause your happy experience to vanish.[2]

William Sinclair (1850-1917) notes that these last three verses are a restatement, in vivid form, of the truth and the duty contained in verses ten and eleven. God made it possible for us to love Him, and the first result of our feeling this power within us and allowing it to put itself into force will be seen in pure and devout compassion for all whom we can help. As usual, hating and not loving are interchangeable members of the class of meanness. The Apostle John argues that it is much easier for human nature to be interested in what comes before its eyes than in which it has to think. Sinclair tells us that Gregory the Great said, “In love the eyes are guides,” and Œcumenius, “Sight leads on to love.”[3] However, this may be, there is a still stronger position: the simple command of God in the Anointed One.[4] [5]

James B. Morgan (1850-1942) states that it is universally admitted that the duty of loving God and our fellow believers is at once. If we met someone who denied any obligation to keep a promise, we would count them as a hypocrite and have no cause to reason with them. The perfections of God are such as to constitute a claim which cannot be refused. All graces and virtues are centered in Him. Nothing is lacking, nothing redundant, nothing out of place. “God is Spirit.” “God is Light.” “God is Love.” He deserves to be loved for His supernatural excellence. On us, however, His claims are firm. He made us, called us, chose us, redeemed us, and preserved us. So far as we know, our obligations are greater than those of angels. Every day they increase. And we ought to say with the most unreserved sincerity and earnestness, “we love Him because He loved us first.”

Everyone should be ready to own their responsibility to speak and act out of love every time. These verses are intended to test us. The test proposed is the love for one another. It is established that we cannot love God if this is missing. The Apostle John’s words are loud and clear: “If we say we love God but hate any of our spiritual brothers or sisters in His family, we are liars. If we don’t love someone we have seen, how can we love God? We have never even seen Him. Therefore, God gave us this command: If we love God, we must also love each other as spiritual brothers and sisters.”[6]

Charles Gore (1853-1932) takes note that at the close of this Epistle, we’ve passed from the thought of a Church and world conflict, or the Anointed One and the antichrist, and are now occupied with the consideration of what Christianity, the true religion, essentially is. And the point of this section is that since religion is fellowship with God, and in the Anointed One, God has revealed His essential character as love, so love – a love like the Anointed One’s – is the essence and test of true faith. Where love is, God is; and where love is not, God is not.

For the Apostle John says, Gore, it’s all about loving one another for us to love God. And since God is Love, our love for others reflects His agápē for us. It was the Father’s purpose for which He sent His only-begotten Son into the world. John lays this out in three phases: (1) that we might live through Him; (2) to be the conciliation for our sins; (3) to be the savior of the world. Each phrase has its characteristics. But God did not plan to have His Son do all these things without involving humanity. And for those who respond to His call to reconcile and be part of Him so He can be in us, and we in Him.

But above and beyond this is that we are to complete the circle of God’s agápē to us so that we can love Him back through our Christian spiritual brothers and sisters (this does not shut out nonbelievers). But for some, this became a complicated matter because of having difficulty loving those around them. So, John asks, “How can you love God whom you have not seen when you can’t bring yourself to love those you see?” This may be true for some but not all. 

Then Gore tells us that he remembers a brilliant young man more than forty years earlier who questioned John’s argument because he found no difficulty in loving people until he saw them. It was the sight that caused the problem. Gore thinks this is John’s point. It is “sight,” that is, experience, which brings our love to the test. The pragmatic trial is that we have “to love the people we don’t like.” If we fail when this practice test is applied, we prove that we do not have genuine agápē – only our natural liking with its correlated disliking. And our profession of loving God, where our love has been put to no such test, is disproven. “If we do not love our brother and sister who we can see, we cannot love God whom we have not seen.”[7]

Alonzo R. Cocke closes his commentary on this chapter by telling us that the initial text, “Beloved, let us love one another,” shines like a golden thread through this string of pearls. Beginning with “For love is of God,” it runs through every verse until John’s injunction, “They who love God love their spiritual brothers and sisters also,” which closes the precious splendid love necklace. May God’s Spirit, with a pen of light, engrave these celestial sentences upon the loving heart of the church! “God is love.”

It brings to remembrance the stirring words of the old Methodist hymn:

“‘Tis love, ‘tis love, thou diedst for me,

I hear thy whisper in my heart;

The morning breaks; the shadows flee;

Pure universal love thou art.

To me do all thy bowels move:

Thy nature and thy name is love.”[8]

Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951) leaves us with these words: Think of this the next time you feel righteous indignation against somebody. Ask, “I have often grieved the Holy Spirit; does God still love me? I have often disobeyed the Lord, yet He keeps on loving me. I have often dishonored the Father; will He give up loving me? Here’s my prayer, says Ironside, Blessed God, by Your Holy Spirit, let that same divine all-conquering agápē flood my heart, that I may never think of myself but of others for whom the Anointed One died, and be ready to give myself in devotion and loving service for their blessing, Amen. This is Christianity in action![9]

Paul E. Kretzmann (1883-1965) feels that the beauty of God’s agápē in us has an additional effect: This agápē is perfected in us, and we will have boldness on Judgment Day because just as He is, we also are in this world. Moreover, if we have embraced God’s agápē by faith, then this agápē will work in us day after day, constantly gaining in power and enthusiasm, always giving greater strength to our faith. Thus, the final result will be that, when the Day of Judgment comes, all fear will be removed from our hearts, and we shall calmly and cheerfully appear before the Throne of Judgment. We have such cheerful confidence because we rely upon God’s agápē in the Anointed One, Jesus.[10]

This trust is strengthened, notes Kretzmann, by the fact that even as the Anointed One conducted Himself, so we disciples are to behave in this world. As the Anointed One is now, as our exalted Champion, is in His glory, at the right hand of God, we, too, are with Him in spirit, even though, according to our body, we are still in this vale of sorrows. By faith, we are partakers of the glory, the life, the salvation that the Anointed One has earned for us. Our citizenship is in heaven. The Day of Judgment means for us only the entrance into our eternal inheritance.

At this point, Kretzmann says that John’s warning comes with peculiar force: Let us show love because He loved us first. We, who have experienced the great God’s agápē, who are remaining in His agápē, cannot but feel the obligation to return love for love, love toward all men. This feeling is prompted in us. After all, He loved us first because His incredible agápē in the Anointed One conquered our unwilling hearts and changed us from enemies to friends. Therefore, the more complete and perfect God’s agápē will be in our hearts, the more cheerfully our faith takes hold of it, and the more vital and vibrant our love toward God will be.[11] [12]

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[1] 1 John 4:14; See John 14:9-10

[2] Meyer, Frederick B: Through the Bible Day by Day, op. cit., StudyLight

[3] Cf. 1 John 2:4; 3:17; and 4:12, 21

[4] Cf. Luke 10:27; John 13:34, 35; 14:21; 15:9, 10, 12

[5] Sinclair, William: A New Testament Commentary for English Readers, op. cit., p. 490

[6] Morgan, James B., An Exposition of the First Epistle of John, op. cit., Lecture XXXVIII, p. 375

[7] Gore, Charles: The Epistles of St. John, op. cit., pp. 186-187

[8] “Come, O Thou Traveler Unknown” by Charles Wesley (1742)

[9] Ironside, Harry A., The Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., pp. 181-182

[10] Cf. Romans 8:35-39

[11] Psalm 73:25-26

[12] Kretzmann, Paul E., Popular Commentary on the Bible, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 574-575

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXLVI) 08/24/22

^4:20If anyone says, “I love God,” but keeps hating their spiritual brothers or sister, they are lying; for if they don’t love their fellow believers right in front of them, how can they love God whom they have never seen?

William Kelly (1822-1888) concludes that the Apostle John impressed believers that loving our brethren is not merely the instinct of the new nature but what God insists on as obedience to Him. What is there for us holier than obedience? What humbler? Is anything more becoming, more Christlike, than obedience? It is the place which the Anointed One fulfilled in all its perfection, even by giving up His life in His perfect love to us. “I received this commandment from my Father.”[1] Did it being the Father’s command make it annoying to the Anointed One? No, whatever it cost, this was an added and immense delight to our Lord Jesus. His perfect love and the commandment of His Father combined in it, and the same appeal comes to us in loving the children of God. Not only should our hearts go out in love, but we know that we are pleasing God and doing His will. Let us not forget that He joins us by loving Him and His other children and will not have the first without the last. If it is His agápē and honor, let it be our love and duty because He loves us each with the same perfect love.[2]

James Nisbet (1823-1874) states that it does not take a whole nation or an entire Church to turn from sin and set itself to serve Almighty God to attract His attention. There is joy in heaven for one sinner that repents.[3] Instead, let’s think of God’s agápē for each individual’s soul He revealed in His work and His teaching on earth. Again and again, it must impact us as we read the Gospels when we see how our Lord thought it worthwhile to give Himself wholly and concentrate His full attention for the time on one person. And so, though at times our Blessed Lord indeed preached to the great multitudes – that He would work His miracles before thousands – yet we know that the souls our Lord saved were saved one by one with infinite love, tender care, and incredible patience.

We learn that only one was saved of all those who stood around Calvary, and that was the confessing thief. Our Lord turned His thought, love, and care into a lost soul in His suffering. The text tells us that we will also love our Christian spiritual brothers and sisters if we love God. Let’s try to communicate with the individual, the solitary man or woman. They are all so different and need such different kinds of help.[4]

George MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister who wrote works on Christian theology, including several collections of sermons. On the subject of love for God produces love for others, MacDonald had this short but eye-catching comment: “When God comes to one person, they immediately look around for their neighbor to love.”[5]

Daniel Steele (1824-1914) comments that Bible scholars have found it difficult to determine in this verse and several other passages whether John is speaking of the Son or the Father. Both are authors of this command.[6] But this effort is not without doctrinal significance. It argues that the Apostle thoroughly believed in the supreme Godhead of the Incarnate Son of God, who shared His Father’s glory before the world existed. If John thought that the Son of God was a mere human creature and not a divine God-Man, he would not confuse the Son with His Father’s personality.^[7]

Brooke F. Westcott (1825-1901) confirms his view by saying that the context makes it probable that, though the Divine Person is not clearly defined, the reference is to the Father,[8] who, by sending His Son, showed the way of love. The Anointed One gave the commandment in substance,[9] but it came from the Father as its source.[10] (Contrast the use of the Greek preposition para, meaning “heard of,”[11] “received of,”[12] and “desired of.”)[13] Not only that, but the final particle “that” gives more than the simple contents of the commandment. It marks the command as directed to an aim; and implies that the effort to obtain it can never be relaxed.[14] [15] I find all this debate over whether Jesus was the author of this command or His heavenly Father clarified by the Anointed One Himself, “I did not speak on My own, but the Father who sent Me commanded Me to say all that I have spoken.”[16]

Henry A. Sawtelle (1832-1913) sees verse twenty-one as the capstone to this theme of God’s agápē as the source of our love. The Apostle John makes it clear that it is from God; it may be through the Anointed One and remembered by John as coming from his Master’s lips. It is not the commandment embraced in the summary of the law,[17] as claimed by Henry Alford (1810-1871), for that relates to our neighbor, our fellowman in general; the love-command of the Anointed One relates to the inner circle of regenerate men and women, our relatives in the Anointed One. The word “that” introduces the significance of the commandment and its goal. Those loving God must love their brother or sister from gratitude,[18] and the divine pattern and nature of love itself, from a common sense principle![19] and now from the strong command which directly expresses God’s will in the matter.[20]

John James Lias (1834-1923) says it is easy to say we love God, but it is often not proven because we cannot see Him. We do not know Him. We may persuade ourselves that we love Him, but we may be deceiving ourselves. Persuasion, in most cases, is but a form of words. The actual proof of our love for God is the possession of His agápē. We will render it back to Him through others if we possess it. If we own it, we will provide proof. And this can only be done by displaying it. Therefore, our life must be first a struggle with, then a victory over, all that is inconsistent with love. All selfishness, pride, prejudice, and littleness must be controlled. All so-called holiness isolation must, as far as possible, be overcome. Tenderness, thoughtfulness, willingness to yield, and care for the happiness of others rather than ourselves, such as the Anointed One showed, are the signs of His presence within. If we love God, we must use agápē, for God is agápē.[21]

Robert Cameron (1839-1904) wants us to remember that our love for our spiritual brothers and sisters is not naturally attained but a divine gift that tests our relationship with God. If we belong to God, we love with God’s agápē. This agápē will go out to persons and things, not as they are attractive to us, but as they are attractive to Him. Each person was so beloved by God that He gave His Son to die for His sake, so He could reconcile the world to Himself. That same agápē in us will lead to the same devotion and sacrifice. The law could not produce love in us by all its threats and thunder. But God put to death the old life of hatred for the Anointed One and conveyed a new life, and every fiber of its being inspires us to love as He did.[22]

Erich Haupt (1841-1910) says some may think that there is one way of loving God directly, that, namely, of keeping His commandments the way of obedience. But verse twenty-one explains that this method of loving God is not an alternative, for it is God s express commandment that we love our spiritual brothers and sisters. Indeed, the words do not indicate that this is the only commandment we have received, for if John says, “He [God] has given us this command.” that does not hinder us from supposing that, besides the one in question, we have many others. But yet, strictly speaking, the precept of brotherly and sisterly love is the fulfillment of the Law.[23]

Ernst Hermann von Dryander (1843-1922) points out that the previous seven verses permit us to consider the subject of love from a somewhat different point of view, for perfect love directed to God also comprises a fear lest we should fail to exercise devotion to other believers. Have you ever considered, says Dryander, that on Judgment Day, we must account not only for sins of commission but also for sins of omission? And what sin of omission can weigh more heavily and pain than unfulfilled love? Think of the small circle of your household – spouse, children, brothers, and sisters; perhaps it was during the saddest moment of your life, at a death-bed, by a grave-side, that the awful thought flashed upon you, “I never told them how much I loved them.” Who among us can say they are not lacking in deeds of love even towards those they love most?

Think, says Dryander, again, of that wider circle – the community in which you live – the careful observer will, without fail, notice one thing: the numberless cases of want and sorrow resulting from love being withheld. Every offense against a brother or sister is a poisonous seed from which the fruit of hate is grown. Couldn’t we have laid bare the roots from which anger and hatred draw power and strength? No matter how often we see these roots were developed in refusals to love, opportunities of loving disregarded, cries of pity unheeded, and acts of mercy left undone. Just like the rich man who saw the beggar Lazarus in Abraham’s arms, he was unconcerned and uncaring while poor Lazarus lay groaning at his gate![24] The time is short, our task is essential, and the thought of neglecting our present opportunity is terrible. Today, while we can, we must love; today we must forgive and give, in love; today let holy conviction seize us, for this will make love active, burning, and zealous; then our love is perfected today, then we will have boldness, on the Day of Judgment.[25]

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[1] John 10:18

[2] Kelly, William: An Exposition of the Epistle of John the Apostle, op. cit., Logos, loc. cit.

[3] Luke 15:7

[4] Nisbet, James: The Church Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., Vol. 12, pp. 310-311

[5] MacDonald, George: Biblical Illustrator, op. cit., Vol. 22, p. 186

[6] Leviticus 19:18; John 13:34

[7] Steele, Daniel, Half-Hour, 1 John 4, Sermons, op. cit., p. 420

[8] 1 John 4:19

[9] John 13:34

[10] Cf. 1 John 1:5; 2:27

[11] (“heard of”) see John 8:26 40, 43, 47

[12] See John 10:18; 1 John 3:22; Revelation 2:27

[13] 1 John 5:15

[14] Cf. John 13:34

[15] Westcott, Brooke F., The Epistles of St. John, p. 162

[16] John 12:49

[17] Matthew 22:37-39

[18] 1 John 4:11

[19] Ibid. 4:20

[20] Sawtelle, Henry A., An American Commentary, Alvah Hovey Ed., op. cit., p. 54

[21] The First Epistle of St. John with Exposition, op. cit., pp. 347-348

[22] Cameron, Robert: First Epistle of John, op., cit., loc. cit.

[23] Haupt, Erich: The First Epistle of John, op. cit., pp. 283-284

[24] Luke 16:19-31

[25] Dryander, Ernst Hermann von: Addresses on the First Epistle of John, op. cit., Lecture XIII, Logos

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXLV) 08/23/22

^4:20If anyone says, “I love God,” but keeps hating their spiritual brother or sister, they are lying; for if they don’t love their fellow believer right in front of them, how can they love God whom they have never seen?

Robert Smith Candlish (1806-1873) declares that the Apostle John has just announced the Law of Love.[1]  Nevertheless, he still has in His mind the twofold test of God’s giving us His Spirit and our belief in the name of His Son Jesus the Anointed One and loving one another.[2] The Spirit in us confesses, and our spirit agrees, that Jesus the Anointed One was manifested in the flesh; He is the Son of God. It is a confession implying the believing recognition of God’s agápē to us in Him. It means, therefore, also the perfecting of God’s agápē within us to exclude fear and ensure our loving as He loved us first. We respond to His agápē and return it; it reproduces itself in us. And it does so, as love going out to those we see, not those we cannot see; otherwise, it would not be our loving with God’s agápē to us; it would not be our loving because God first loved us.

When we read verse twenty, we find it to be a reasonable and beneficial redirection of John’s train of thought; it ushers in a new subject. It is a valuable closing caution. John laid much stress on loving our brother or sister; loving him or her as you see them; loving them because God commands you; loving them as born of God. But your love for a fellow believer needs to be carefully watched. It is love for them as members of God’s family. It may be on other grounds and for different reasons that you love them. It may be a love of mere natural sentiment and affection, merely human love, having little or nothing in common with the agápē with which God loved you first. But to be trustworthy at all, as a test of God’s giving you of His Spirit, and so dwelling in you, it must be agápē having in it the element of godliness; love having respect for God; love to them because God loves them, and you love God.[3]

Johann E. Huther (1807-1880) concludes that although brotherly love is the natural product and activity of love for God, at the same time, practicing should be a habitual project that they who love God perform as one appointed by God. It is doubtful whether we are to understand “He has given” as God or the Anointed One. But to insist the “He” be attributed to the Anointed One, it must read “from Him,” is unfounded; because “we love God” follows. In the context, there is no reference here at all to the Anointed One; it might be safer to understand by “from” God.[4]

Daniel D. Whedon (1808-1885) explains that this doctrine of love takes the form of a commandment. Not only may we, but we must. It is an invariable divine law that the lover of God be a lover of their brothers and sisters. It is our blessedness, our highest duty.[5]

Henry Alford (1810-1871) concludes that besides accepting as common sense this argument to love one another means to love God, another most powerful one exists, which the Apostle here adds. “And this commandment has we from Him, that they who love God must also love their brothers and sisters.” And where do we find this commandment? Our Lord’s excellent summary of the law is, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, Love your neighbor as yourself.”[6] [7]

William Graham (1810-1883) focuses on the final bell calling all believers to join in loving God by loving each other. That’s why the commandment we have received of Him is, “That they who love God, love their brother and sister also.” It is the new commandment given by the Anointed One to His disciples.[8] The meaning is, “We have received this commandment from the Anointed One, that they who love God must love their fellow Christian also.” Therefore, we are obliged to fulfill this duty of brotherly love, not only in relationships between fellow believers but also by the commandment and example of the Anointed One.

Keep in mind that the blessed Savior commands that we should love one another and that where this brotherly love is inadequate, there is no evidence that we love God. Graham confesses that our love for one another in the present generation is icy and distant, nor will the middle wall sin erected between God’s children be speedily broken down. These partitions will probably stand till the time of persecution comes upon us. In the meantime, we must punch holes through them and reach our hands out to them the best way we can.[9]

Graham closes with the first stanza of an old German poem, “Triumph der Liebe,” that reads:

“Blessed by love Gods

 – through love men are equal to gods!

Love makes heaven heavenly

– the earth into the kingdom of heaven

William E. Jelf (1811-1875) sees the Apostle John adding one more argument to those he already offered. It involves the nature of love and the relationship between the two, showing the necessary connection between God’s agápē and human love. These are essential elements of Christian character and conditions of salvation and God’s plan of redemption. He now speaks of it as a positive command from God, apart from any logical or moral necessity for viewing as implied and implying each other, that whoever pretends to God’s agápē should love their Christian brothers and sisters.[11]

Richard H. Tuck (1817-1868) senses that the Apostle John is summarizing, in a vivid form, the truth and the duty contained in verses ten and eleven. In Jesus’ view, neighborly love is inseparable from God’s agápē, a distinguishing and essential mark. Sight is the significant provocative of love. The difficulty of loving God as an unseen Divine Being is compensated for by God’s manifestation of His Son in the flesh. We find this commandment embedded in our Lord’s synopsis of genuine love for God and others.[12] John doesn’t want his readers to think you can fool God by making Him feel they love Him when they are disgusted with their neighbors.[13]

John Stock (1817-1884) summarizes this chapter’s cheerful summary. He says that Love’s sole component is in heaven. One day, only among redeemed sinners will it perfectly exist. But until then, amidst all the various hindrances to its growth, it lives in death, shines in the darkness, and surmounts inward corruption. The possessor of it exclaims with glad surprise, “Salvation belongs to the Lord,”[14] “I can do all things through the Anointed One, who gives me strength.”[15] “Although I start out feeling faint; though I’m knocked down, I’m not knocked out; but have a vitality that mocks death and sustained by my Lord, who is the Resurrection and the Life;”[16] Who else can say to His militant and oppressed people,  “Because I live, you will also live; be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”[17] [18]

George G. Findlay (1819-1919) points out that verses seven through twenty-one form the longest paragraph in the Apostle John’s First Epistle. There is no interruption in the current of thought, and our sectional division at this point is artificial. The mind of God is plainly shown in this all-important matter. The duty is not left to interpretation, nor does it stand barefoot on reason and politeness; it operates in a calculated and distinct order: “This commandment we have from Him, that those who love God should also love their brother and sister.” This is the sum of “the commandments” illustrated by Jesus’ perfect life,[19] the “old and new commandment”[20] which governs God’s whole will for mankind from first to last.

Findlay goes on to say that the command attends the movements of faith at every step.[21] It is enforced by every obligation we owe to God and every relationship that associates us with our brethren in the congregation of the Anointed One. God forbids us to love Him unless we love our brethren: all narrower love He rejects as fake and ineffective. The Father will not give His agápē to the unbrotherly any more than to non-members of God’s family. The Head of the Church rejects the affection that pretends to focus on others when it is on oneself. To offer God a restricted love is to attribute our selfishness to Him and to make Him a monopoly within His universe – the Father whose name is Love and whose nature it is to “give generously to all without finding fault.”[22] The person who proposes this reverence to their Maker “has neither seen Him nor known Him.”[23] [24]

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[1] 1 John 4:21

[2] Ibid 3:23

[3] Candlish, Robert S., First Epistle of John, op. cit., pp. 162-163;171-172

[4] Huther, Johann E., Critical and Exegetical Handbook, op. cit., p. 596

[5] Whedon, Daniel D., Commentary of the Bible, op. cit., p. 278

[6] Matthew 22:37-39

[7] Alford, Henry: Critical and Exegetical Commentary, op. cit., p. 406

[8] 1 John 2:8; 3:11; John 13:34; 15:12

[9] Graham, William, A Practical and Exegetical Commentary on the First Epistle of John, op. cit., p. 297

[10] “Der Triumph der Liebe,” Poem by Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805), Anthology (collection of poems) for the Year 1762. Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright.

[11] Jelf, William E., First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., p. 68

[12] Matthew 22:37-39

[13] Tuck, Richard H., Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary, op. cit., p. 310

[14] Psalm 3:8

[15] Philippians 4:13

[16] John 11:25

[17] Ibid. 14:19; 16:33

[18] Stock, John: Exposition of the First Epistle of John, op. cit., p. 395

[19] 1 John 2:4-6

[20] Ibid. 2:7-11

[21] Ibid. 3:23-24

[22] James 1:5

[23] 1 John 3:6

[24] Findlay, George G., An Exposition of the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., Chap. XXII, p, 358

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXLIV) 08/22/22

^4:20If anyone says, “I love God,” but keeps hating their brother or sister, they are lying; for if they don’t love their brother or sister who is right in front of them, how can they love God whom they have never seen?

Henry goes on. We must distinguish between reverence for God and being afraid of Him. High regard for God sparks awe and worship. Obedience and good works, done from the principle of love, are not like the submissive labor of one who unwillingly labors from dread of a master’s anger. They are like a dutiful child who willingly and gladly follows their beloved father’s instructions. It is a sign that our love is far from perfect when our doubts, fears, and apprehensions about God are many.

Let heaven and earth stand amazed at His agápē. He sent His Word to invite sinners to partake of this great salvation. Let them take comfort in the happy change He brought about while they give Him the glory. God’s agápē in the Anointed One, in the hearts of Christians from the Spirit of adoption, is tested by its effects on their temperament and conduct with other believers to prove that their conversion took place. If a person professes to love God and yet harbors anger, revenge, or a selfish disposition, they make their profession of being saved a lie. But if their natural hostility is transformed into affection and gratitude, that is a good sign. So, says Henry, let us bless the name of the Lord our God for this seal of approval and promise of eternal happiness. When we do that, then we differ from the false professors, who pretend to love God, whom they have not seen, yet hate their brethren whom they have seen.[1]

Thomas Pyle (1674-1756) encourages us to remember that we must affirm our respect for God by kindness and compassion for our fellow believers. Not only is this the spoken command of the Anointed One, but the very reason we’re Christians requires it. If we don’t love them, whose situations and needs impact and affect our physical senses, we can hardly claim to have much affection for God.[2]

James Macknight (1721-1800) concludes that love for humanity is inseparable from love for God. Therefore, this commandment we received from the Anointed One[3] says that everyone who loves God must love their brother and sister also with the love of compassion, whether they are a sinner or even an enemy.

Robert Finlayson (1793-1861) points to one outstanding feature of the Divine love – very mysterious, if we stop and think about it, but still very offensive to all our preconceptions – that God still loves those who are so fanatically opposed to Him. There is something about this that startles us; there is something that quite overwhelms us. The truth is, we seldom wonder enough about it; we give such wondering to lesser things. We often don’t go that far; all we have is a vacant look on our faces as His work of grace before our eyes, and we might say to other believers that His grace and mercy are never-ending. But, Finlayson asks, have you ever seen anything like this in your experience, anything so remarkable as God’s agápē to sinners?

Finlayson states that if we breathe the forgiving atmosphere of the cross and feel with God in His agápē to sinners, we would love them even as He does. Although it is challenging to develop any interest in an unrepentant sinner, a hard thing to retain when all the soul-saving feeling is gone, and a tough thing to create any successful procedure for their redemption, that is the Divine arrangement of grace Calvary’s cross offers.

That forms the next dilemma for the Apostle John, notes Finlayson. He asks the believers if you can’t love the people you see in need of help or salvation, how can you say you love the God you can’t see? John is implying that it is by loving the seen that we are to learn to love the unseen. If we do not know the courage and patience it takes to try and win sinners, how can we understand the Divine tolerance and patience exercised toward us? Remember that love for our Godly Father is a strategic motivation for our attachment to fellow believers, and if we are not fed from on high, our love will soon wither and die. He who commands here spoke from Mt. Sinai; He now says from Mt. Calvary. His first word to the sinner is not “Love your brother,” but “Believe in me.” Should not ordinary gratitude prompt us to instantaneous show obedience to these commands?[4]

Richard Rothe (1799-1867) concludes that from every legitimate concept of God, belief follows when our neighbor enjoys our love; it is as though God was doing it. Our love cannot remain idle; it requires action on our part to prove its existence. This agápē for God merely with our understanding and lips is a desecration of His nature rather than an honor and a sacrifice we owe Him. Simply because God is love, He will not be loved to the prejudice of others. In other words, you cannot tell God; I love you more than anyone else. Sound’s flattering, but it is frustrating to Him. He urges all our love for Him to be shared with those around us. It is only in appearance, however, if there is any dividing of one’s agápē.[5]

But some might open their Bibles and read: “You cannot be My disciple unless you love Me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with Me unless you love me more than your life.”[6] Jesus is not teaching a new commandment of betrayal but the cost of following Him. The clue is in what Jesus says later: “Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people and kiss them goodbye, you can’t be My disciple.”[7]

So, Jesus is not asking those who follow Him to break God’s Law of Love and put their families and friends below Him on the love chart. Instead, He is telling them that their commitment to following Him is a matter of setting priorities. When I received my first call to mission work, I had to decide whether to go back to the USA and be with my family, whom I loved dearly, or work far from home, reaching people who had never heard about God’s agápē. In the same way, Jesus did not leave His father to come to earth to be our Savior because He hated being with God all the time. No, it was God’s agápē who sent Him, and His agápē for His Father that convinced Him to go and become our sacrifice for sin.

Alfred Plummer (1841-1926) says that now the Apostle John drives home his arguments for the practice of brotherly love because God commanded all who love Him to love their brethren. Some take “from him” to mean the Anointed One. But this is unlikely, as the Anointed One has not been mentioned for several verses: although it must be admitted that John is so full of the truth that “My Father and I are one,” that He makes the transition from the Father to the Son and from the Son to the Father almost unconsciously.

Where has God given this commandment? The whole Law is summed up in loving God with all one’s heart and one’s neighbor as oneself.[8] The Apostle thus anticipates a possible objection. Can someone say, “I can love God without loving my brother, or can I prove my love by keeping His commandments?”[9] “No!” says John; “your argument shows your error: you cannot keep His commandments without loving your brother.”[10]

Augustus Neander (1789-1850) feels that it should be clear that our fountain of love is God, who is Love. Yet, to connect to this invisible source, more is required than the impression made by His visible humanity. How can the invisible object of love influence us when the visual doesn’t? With this being the necessary connection between these two relations of love, the Apostle adds that we have a commandment from Him that they who love God must also love their brother and sister. That becomes the springboard for what John says in the first verse of chapter five. Thus, we have two revelations of God: Our brother, who is in His image, and His commandment. Not to love our brother is a flagrant violation of both.[11]

Gottfried C. F. Lücke (1791-1855) the Apostle John now produces the most durable argument: The Anointed One’s distinct command, or God’s commandment given through Him,[12] that whoever loves God must also love their brother and sister. In other words, our genuine love for God shows itself in brotherly love.[13] So then, in 1 John 5:1,[14] the substance of the mandate here in verse twenty-one – the permanent connection between God’s agápē and brotherly and sisterly love, is to be displayed from another point of view and enforced, illustrated by new motives. Since the unconverted can believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, whoever has this faith is born of God. Now, as in family life, children naturally love their parents, but for their love to be recognized, they must direct it toward their siblings. In the same way, in God’s family, love for their mutual Father in heaven is the primary feeling they all share with all God’s children. The more we read about this mandate, the more we realize you cannot have one without the other.

Genuine God’s agápē and brotherly love are inseparably connected; they serve each other as a mutual basis and condition. And as in a Christian family, love is the indispensable manifestation of the love for God, so God’s agápē is the basis for brotherly love. Accordingly, God’s supernatural love for others is grounded on their natural love for family. However, our love for God consists of faithful keeping divine commandments. This is what the Apostle John implies in verse two. He does not speak as much here about the outward principles of genuine brotherly love as he does on the internal consciousness and inner recognition and foundation of the one expression of love on the other. Instead of further demonstrating this proposition, John addresses his readers’ conscience and experience.[15]

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[1] Henry, Matthew: op. cit., loc. cit.

[2] Pyle, Thomas: Paraphrase, op. cit., p. 398

[3] John 13:34; 15:12; 1 John 3:11

[4] Finlayson, Robert: The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, op. cit., p. 139

[5] Rothe, Richard: The Expository Times, op. cit., November 1894, p. 88

[6] Luke 14:25-27 – Contemporary English Version (CEV)

[7] Ibid. 14:33 – The Message Version (MSG)

[8] Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18; Luke 10:27

[9] John 14:15

[10] Plummer, Alfred: Cambridge Commentary, op. cit., p. 154

[11] Neander, Augustus: First Epistle of John, op. cit., Chapters IV, V, pp. 274-275

[12] Cf. 1 John 3:23

[13] Ibid. 3:11; John 13:34

[14] Cf. 3:23; 4:15, 16

[15] Lücke, Gottfried: Commentary on 1^st John, op. cit., Eight Section, verse twenty-one

Today in the news and on social media, we hear more and more about equality. Equality between men and women, between blacks and whites, salaries, appointments to government positions, etc. They are not talking about justice equality “under the law,” which already seems forgotten in politics. Psychology describes inequality as an obvious or hidden disparity between individuals for various reasons.

Psychologist Christopher Dwyer, a lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon in Athlone, Ireland, says, despite the American Constitution, that “No one is created equal.” For example, some people are more intelligent than others; some are more attractive, some are healthier and happier, some are more conscientious and kinder, some make more money, etc. If we can quantify differences among people, then we can readily observe that people are not equal.

So, is that to say that some people are more important than others? A politically correct answer would be “no,” and everyone is equally important. But I also would argue, says Dwyer, not because people are equally important, but rather because of how hard it would be to decipher what is “important.” For example, if facing an ethical dilemma or philosophical puzzle in which you must choose between two people as to who lives and who dies, wouldn’t the decision boil down to who you viewed as more important? But, what is “important?’ For example, person X is more competent than Person Y, but Person Y makes more money (and pays more taxes) and is healthier than X, but then Person X has a family and is more crucial than Person Y. This could go on forever.

So, where do we draw the line? It’s likely to come down to what the “decision-maker” values. The importance of persons X and Y’s significance will likely differ across perspectives. Of course, kinship issues will affect some decisions, but outside of kinship, each person is likely to judge according to their criteria of “importance.” So, this should never be left to one individual’s decision, but like in voting, to the majority.

Psychologist E. J. R. David, an associate professor of Psychology at the University of Alaska Anchorage, suggests that we may have seen the widespread problem of equality played out. Whether intentional or not, this image presents inequality as existing because of physical or biological differences between people. But in reality, the inequalities that exist in our world are not because of some inherent characteristic. Instead, we must remember that inequality results from hundreds of years of exploitation and oppression. The reality is that there are inequalities in our world. However, these inequalities are not because of some inherently inferior characteristics that some people have. Further, systems and institutions created and maintained these inequalities to benefit some people while keeping others down.

As we collectively attempt to address inequality, we must remember that equality is the goal, not the method. An equality approach may look good and project fairness, but it cannot lead to equality. On the contrary, an unequal system will only maintain (maybe even worsen) inequality in an unequal world. Instead, we need to use an equity approach to drive our solutions. An equity approach is risky and may not produce good “optics,” but it is what is necessary. To be a faithful ally and an accomplice in addressing inequality, we must take risks and do what is required. To address disparities, we need to be willing to take risks, have bad “optics,” and potentially get in trouble – we need to use our power and privileges – to do the right and necessary thing.

In the “Good Therapy Blog,” we read that Equality is a concept in law, politics, philosophy, sociology, psychology, and many other fields based upon the notions of equal treatment, equal access to resources, and similar concepts. Philosophers and political scientists have debated the meaning of equality for generations, and the definition of equality tends to change with each age. For example, the United States Declaration of Independence declared that all men are created equal when many could not vote, and slavery was a significant force. However, notions of equality in the United States are often based upon this original declaration of equality, though they have evolved significantly.

Equality is sometimes used synonymously with fair treatment, and popular notions of equality do not necessarily require equal outcomes. For example, the fact that one person is a manager while another is a CEO does not necessarily indicate unequal treatment but refusing to promote a manager due to their race, sex, or religion would be an example of inequality. Similarly, institutional policies that make it difficult for people who are members of historically oppressed groups to advance are commonly used as indicators of inequality.

Standard definitions of equality include:

• Presuming that all people are equal

• Treating people as equals

• Providing equal access to opportunities

• Combating inequality without stereotypical and prejudicial treatment

• Compensating for the losses associated with inequality – for example, by using affirmative action measures

The presumption of equality is of significance in contemporary mental health settings. Measures designed to increase cultural competence, for example, increase the likelihood that minority groups will be treated fairly and equally. Many mental health advocates have pushed for equal treatment of people diagnosed with mental conditions, including participation in treatment decisions and an end to discrimination against those with mental health circumstances. Some mental health professionals have worked to be aware of how subtle biases can affect treatment. For example, a therapist engaged in marriage counseling might be influenced by racial stereotypes when advising a mixed-race couple.

But what does the Bible say about equality? Moses tells us that God created humans in His image. He created them to be like Himself. He made males and females equal (Genesis 1:27). Again, Moses expressed that we must be fair in judgment. We must not show special favor to the poor. And we must not show special favor to well-known people. It would be best if you were equal when you judge your neighbor. Also, do not do bad things to foreigners living in your country. You must treat them equally as you treat your fellow citizens. Love them as you loved yourselves in Egypt [Leviticus (9:15, 33-34). King David has the same idea. He declared, “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity” (Psalm 67:4). Then Solomon continued this theme when he said unequal weights and unequal measures are both alike an abomination to the Lord (Proverbs 20:10).

Jesus went even further. “He instructed that when we give a feast, invite the poor, the disabled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:13-14). To this, our Lord adds: “Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:16). This no doubt caused the Apostle Peter to preach to Gentiles, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who reverences Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him” (Acts of the Apostles 10:10:34-35).

The Apostle Paul takes up this same crusade for equality when he mentions that “God shows no partiality” (Romans 2:11). Consequently, “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Further, says Paul, Jesus is our peacemaker. He also made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of inequality (Ephesians 2:14). For example, Paul reveals that “Though Jesus was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be held onto” (Philippians 2:6).

Then our Lord’s brother, the Apostle James, told everyone to “show no partiality as you practice faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which He has promised to those who love Him?” (James 1, 26).

So, what is your standard for equality? Do you just equality based on what you see, how you feel, what you know, common morals and virtues, or on what God’s Word says about it? If we are all equal in God’s family, that is the norm for the Church. Since we were all created equal by our Creator, that is America’s standard. When God created men and women as equals, He settled the gender question. So, what’s left? Only our personal biases, prejudices, preconceptions, bigotries, racism, moral code, and popular thinking.

I remember a hit song called “What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love,” sung in 1966 by Dionne Warwick. Unfortunately, her plea has gone unnoticed in today’s world. However, the Bible has much to say about human love and God’s Love. The word love appears in the Bible as a noun, verb, or adjective between 310 times and 801 times. Within its pages, you will find cataloged comments on the full extent of human love: family love, friendly love, neighborly love, romantic love, sexual love, and dysfunctional love.

Perhaps the best way to understand what the Bible says about love is to study the various Hebrew and Greek words translated as love. Most of those are three words: two Hebrew and one Greek. But, first, of the two in Hebrew, one is ahavah, whose definition most closely matches the English word love. Ahavah generally refers to the affection or care one person shows another.

Ahavah can be used to describe a wide variety of loving human relationships. For instance: The King of Persia had ahavah for beautiful Esther. Abraham had ahavah for his son Isaac. Jonathan had ahavah for his friend David. The Israelites had ahavah for their King David. The foreign King of Tyre also had ahavah for King David, so he wanted to help David’s son Solomon build the temple.

Thus, ahavah is not just a term to describe our love for others; it’s also God’s ahavah for us! For example, Moses tells the Israelites: “Adonai didn’t set His ahavah on you or choose you because you numbered more than any other people.”[1] God’s ahavah isn’t a response to goodness; it originates from God’s character.

This is why the prophet Jeremiah says God’s love is “everlasting.”[2] God’s love is just an eternal fact of the universe. In the scriptures, we also discover God’s ahavah is more than an emotion. It’s something that God expresses through action. For instance, Moses says, “because of His ahavah for your ancestors, He brought you out of Egypt with great power.”[3] God’s love isn’t just a nice sentiment but expressed through action.

And how are we supposed to respond to God’s active, everlasting ahavah for us? With our ahavah towards God and others. That’s why Moses offers this famous command, “You are to ahavah Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your resources.”[4] God wants us to love others as He loves us! Similarly, we read, “He secures justice for the orphan and the widow; He has ahavah for foreigners, giving them food and clothing. Therefore, you are to ahavah foreigners since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.”[5] And so, at the end of the day, this whole web of loving relationships – God to us, us to God, us to each other – is rooted in God’s eternal, active ahavah.

The second Hebrew word translated as love in our English Bible is khesed. Unfortunately, this is one of those words that is difficult to translate because it combines several ideas into one: love, generosity, and enduring commitment. As the Bible Project translators explain it, “Khesed describes an act of promise-keeping loyalty motivated by deep personal care.” More succinctly, one could describe khesed as “loyal love.”

The Jewish Rabbis wrote in the Midrash and Talmud that the Book of Ruth is the Bible’s most profound illustration of human khesed. Naomi told Ruth that she should go back to her people. Ruth refused, promising to stay by Naomi’s side and take care of her. As people observed Ruth keep this promise through thick and thin, they called Ruth’s faithfulness an act of khesed – loyal love.

Khesed is more than just something humans can show each other. It’s also something that God reveals to us. The Book of Exodus recounted when Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites in Egypt. He made good on a promise to Abraham’s generations – as a contract with his family, God would restore his blessing to the nations – God raised Moses to liberate the Israelites and lead them into the promised land. And in the story, this is called an act of khesed because it was about God keeping his word.

The journey to the promised land was not easy. Enemies on every side beset the Israelites, and they grew weary of eating the mana God provided each day. Their anger eventually explodes, and they threaten to kill Moses and appoint a new leader to take them back to Egypt. God is understandably angry. But Moses steps in and says, “Please! Forgive the offense of this people according to the greatness of your khesed.”[6] Notice that Moses asks God to forgive not because the people deserve it but because it’s consistent with God’s character.

Last, we arrive at the Greek word most often translated as love in the New Testament: agápē. Fascinatingly, the earliest followers of Jesus who wrote in Greek didn’t learn the meaning of agape by looking it up in ancient dictionaries. Instead, they observed Jesus’ teachings and His life to redefine their concept of love! First, Jesus was asked about the foremost commandment in Torah. In response, Jesus quoted:[7] “You must agapaō the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”[8] Jesus then quickly appended another commandment, “Agapaō your neighbor as yourself.”[9] Which of these two commandments is the most important – loving God or loving your neighbor? For Jesus, they’re two sides of the same coin. Your love for God will be expressed by your love for people and vice versa. They are inseparable.

So, unlike ahavah, agápē is not a feeling; it’s an act of our will. It’s choosing to seek the well-being of others with no expectation of anything in return. According to Jesus, this kind of generous, self-give love reflects the very heartbeat of God: “Love your enemies and do good to them. Lend to people without expecting to get anything back. If you do this, you will have a great reward. You will be children of the Most-High God. Yes, because God is good even to the people full of sin and not thankful.”[10]

This is how Jesus lived. Jesus was constantly helping and serving the people around Him in practical and tangible ways. And He consistently moved towards poor and hurting people who couldn’t benefit Him in return. And when Jesus eventually marched into Jerusalem, He made Himself an enemy of the leaders of God’s people by accusing them of hypocrisy and corruption. But then, instead of attacking His enemies to overthrow them, He allowed them to kill Him. Jesus died for the selfishness and depravity of His enemies because He loved them.

Following Easter, Jesus and His followers claimed that God’s love for the world was revealed in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. As the Apostle Paul put it, “God showed His agápē to us. While we were still sinners, the Anointed One [Messiah] died for us.”[11] Or, in the words of the Apostle John, “God so agapaō the world that He did not send His only begotten Son into the world to find everyone guilty but to save the world from sin’s punishment.”[12] And for John then, this naturally leads to the conclusion, “That is how much God loved us, dear friends! So, we also must love each other.”[13]

Thus, Christian faith involves trusting that at the center of the universe is a Divine Being overflowing with love for His creation, which means that the purpose of human existence is to receive this agápē that has come to us in Jesus and then to give it out to others, creating an ecosystem of others-focused, self-giving agápē. (Courtesy of a sermon preached at Hillside Community Church Enumclaw. WA)

So, the next time you say you “love” God or someone else in its Hebrew or Greek meaning, think twice about whether that’s exactly how you love them or Him. Remember what the Apostle John said, “If you say something you know is not true, it makes you a liar.”[14]

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[1] Deuteronomy 7:7 – Complete Jewish Version

[2] Jeremiah 31:3

[3] Deuteronomy 4:37

[4] Ibid. 6:5 – Complete Jewish Bible

[5] Ibid. 10:18-19 – Complete Jewish Bible

[6] Numbers 14:19 – Complete Jewish Bible

[7] Mark 12:30-31

[8] Cf. Deuteronomy 6:5 – New Life Version [NLV]

[9] Leviticus 18:19

[10] Luke 6:35 – Easy to Read Version [ERV]

[11] Romans 5:8

[12] John 3:16a-17 – Seyda Paraphrase

[13] 1 John 4:11

[14] Ibid. 4:20

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXLIII) 08/19/22

^4:20If anyone says, “I love God,” but keeps hating their brother or sister, they are lying; for if they don’t love their brother or sister who is right in front of them, how can they love God whom they have never seen?

How odd and incoherent when people argue or refuse to speak because of hurt feelings but then walk into a church sanctuary, and both raise their hands as they sing, “I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship You oh, my soul rejoice! Take joy, my King, in what You hear; let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.” Why should the Lord enjoy listening to the screaming argument in your heart and mind?  It’s John’s way of saying, don’t bother to tell God that you love Him until you can genuinely say you love every one of your Christian brothers and sisters. Then, he won’t believe you.  But we must understand that love is possible even though we may not like someone or something.

The idea of a “commandment” is that it represents an injunction, warning, ban, embargo, mandate, prohibition, etc. A “commandment” is equivalent to a principle or teaching of God’s Word. It is a prescribed rule in accord with God’s standards. Love for God and love for fellow Christians form one single commandment.  John explains “commandment” in the following clause – “he who loves God must love his brother in the Lord also.”  God orders the Christian to love His people. Jesus taught the two-fold commandment of loving both God and others.[1] We cannot separate love for God and love for Christians. Those two loves operate as one in God’s economy. This idea is a summary of chapter four. Love for other Christians is a binding principle for those who walk with God.[2]

Whatever we may think of the relation between seeing and loving, there is still the Divine command to love the invisible God and the visible Christian brother or sister in whom God dwells. Sight may hinder as well as help; it is hard to love what is filthy and hideous. In such cases, let us remember that even the most debased form of humanity contains God’s creative fingerprints. Love for fellow believers is a binding principle for those who walk with God; they are not suggestions. There is no room for debate. We have no choice. God’s will prompt His children to correlate love for others with love for God. To violate the precept is not to love God. It is easy to pretend to love God, whom we cannot see, since it is a feeling only God can verify.

Therefore, the only way we can prove to others that we have faith in Jesus is to love God’s people. If we were as careful to demonstrate our love for one another as we are to criticize one another, people would soon get the idea that we loved them. We do not have to agree with them, but we are to love them. We do not have to see eye to eye with all God’s people, but we do have to love them unconditionally. A Christian who loves God expresses that love to others concretely, not just by promises or intentions. True love for God shows itself in more than emotions. It is an objective love as well as a subjective love. Active love convinces our condemning hearts that we are in tune with God. It assures us that we are right with God.

COMMENTARY

Medieval scholar Andreas says: “The person who loves God keeps His commandments and loving one’s brother fulfills those commandments. The person who does not love their believing brother or sister has not kept the commandments and, by not keeping them, has no love for God. Therefore, the one who says they love but does not do so is a liar.”[3] Saying it is not enough. Doing it proves that your claim about loving God is a reality.

William Tyndale (1494-1536) addresses the end of John’s epistle about love. He says that love cannot be seen without the flames of love and in the fire of temptation. Consequently, if someone says, I love God and still hate fellow Christian brothers or sisters; they are lying. How can it be that they don’t love their brother or sister they can see and love God whom they cannot see? Therefore, we have this commandment that they who love God also love their brother and sister. To love a person’s neighbor with God’s agápē is a sure sign that we know we love God. Not to love them is a specific token that we do not love God. To hate our neighbor is the same as hating God. Loving God means obeying His commandments, as the Anointed One tells us.[4] And the commandment is to love our neighbors because if we don’t love our neighbors cannot love God. And likewise, to hate this commandment is the same as hating the God who commanded it.[5]

John Calvin (1509-1564) looks at the phrase “and this commandment” and concludes it is a strong argument drawn from the authority and Gospel of the Anointed One. He not only gave a commandment respecting God’s agápē but told us also to love our brethren. We must, therefore, immediately commit to God’s will since some may do it their way instead of God’s way.[6]

John Trapp (1601-1669) sees singular evidence of God’s great love for us that He directed we love our neighbor as ourselves, says Benedictus Aretius.[7] Our Savior merged those two precepts to sum up the Law, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”[8] Yes, God prefers mercy before sacrifice; and is content that his immediate service should be intermitted, rather than leaving out loving our fellow man. So, Jesus said, “Leave your gift there in front of the altar. First, go and be reconciled to them.”[9] [10]

John Bunyan (1628-1688) combines verses seven, sixteen, and twenty-one to show that God’s agápē is another of those great and principal graces, which the Holy Spirit works in the heart. No matter how convincing our proclamation of faith, if love is missing,[11] such professors and not possessors are to be abandoned because they “did not depart from iniquity.”[12] Hence all pretending means nothing, whereas love is priceless. Love is measured as an infallible sign that a person is in a state of salvation. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.[13] Love divides itself between God and our neighbors. Love for God is that we keep His sayings, commandments, and laws. “Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me,”[14] and “Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me.” And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from My Father who sent Me. [15] [16]

So, says Bunyan, the heart is united in affection and love to the Father and the Son, for their love can be shone on wretched sinners. It will help in delivering them from the wrath to come. So, does this God’s agápē cause the unregenerated person to work it out themselves? No! By this agápē, faith works, in sweet passions and pangs of love, to all that are thus reconciled, as sinners see they are. The motive, then, by which faith does His work is justification and sanctification. So, likewise, the significant reason for them, I say, is love, God’s agápē, and the love of the Anointed One. That is, when our faith tells us so, for so are the words above, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.”[17] And then, “We love because He first loved us.”[18]

John Howe (1630-1705) sees loving God and loving each other are also connected in the same law. Indeed, the whole law of God is summed up in love. The Apostle Paul tells us, “Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.”[19] And you see what the Apostle John means by “law” from the occasion of this discourse. “And He has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”[20] He laid this law upon us to show how we should share our love. If we pretend to exercise our love for Him, we must do it to our brother and sister. Otherwise, He will never add us to the list of lovers of Himself.[21]

William Burkitt (1650-1703) states that this most important commandment, above the rest, this summary and comprehensive principle, including all the rest, namely, to love God above all, for Jesus’ sake, and to love our brothers and sisters as ourselves, for God’s sake. This command, which we received from God so full of wisdom, so agreeable to right reason, and so much our duty and interest to comply with, is dependent upon our love for Him. So, if we don’t keep it, John clarifies, “Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.”[22]

Matthew Henry (1662-1714) summarizes these last seven verses by beginning with the fact that the Father sent the Son; it was His will to send Him into this world. The Apostle John attests to this: “All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.”[23] This confession includes faith in the heart as the foundation; acknowledges with the mouth bring glory to God and the Anointed One. It can be proclaimed in life and conduct, despite the flatteries and frowns of the world. There must be a day of universal judgment.

Happy are those with holy boldness before the great Judge, says Henry, knowing He is their Friend and Advocate! Happy are those who have holy boldness with the possibility of being there on that day, who look and wait for it and the Judge’s appearance! True love for God assures believers of God’s agápē to them. Love teaches us to suffer for Him and with Him. Therefore, we may trust that we will also share in His glory.[24]

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[1] Matthew 22:37-40; John 13:34; Mark 12:29-31

[2] Ibid. 12:37, 39; Luke 10:27; John 13:34

[3]Andreas: (Bray Ed.), James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, op. cit., loc. cit.

[4] See John 13:35; 14:15; 15:12, 17

[5] Tyndale, William, op. cit., pp. 204-205

[6] Calvin, John: Commentary on the Catholic Epistles, op. cit., loc. cit.

[7] Aretius (1522-1574) was a Swiss Protestant theologian

[8] Matthew 22:37-39

[9] Ibid. 5:24

[10] Trapp, John: Commentary upon all books of New Testament (1647), op. cit., p. 478

[11] 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

[12] 2 Timothy 2:19

[13] 1 John 4:16

[14] Ibid. 14:21, 24

[15] 1 John 5:3

[16] Bunyan, John: Practical Works, Vol. 4, Why the Christian Profession is so Extensively Disgraced, p. 93

[17] 1 John 4:16

[18] Ibid. 4:19

[19] Romans 13:10

[20] 1 John 4:21

[21] Howe, John: op. cit., (Kindle Locations 2747-2751)

[22] Burkitt, William: Notes on N. T., op. cit., p. 733

[23] 1 John 4:15

[24] 2 Timothy 2:12

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXLII) 08/18/22

^4:20If anyone says, “I love God,” but keeps hating their brother or sister, they are lying; for if they don’t love their brother or sister who is right in front of them, how can they love God whom they have never seen?

Of these six claims, says Painter, the first three are seemingly given in the words of the claimants. The quotation is signaled by the Greek hoti (“For”) followed by the words quoted in the first person, “I” or “we.” So, what’s the difference? It seems that John is distinguishing between those still in the community and those from the outside. [1]

Michael Eaton (1942-2017) says that the Apostle John’s point is not that God’s agápē is more complex than loving people. It raises the question, “If you cannot do something easy, how can you handle something complex?” The point is that loving people is more objective, prominent, and observable by others. A person might say, “Ί love God.” How can that statement be proven? Yet if the same person says, “I love people,” the evidence is right in front of our eyes! God is Spirit. To love Him might seem “spiritual” and “devotional.” It might appear to be a matter of prayer, singing, and attending meetings. “I love God!” we might say, but God is invisible, and our love expresses itself mainly in acts of worshipful devotion. There is something more tangible about loving people! We cannot fool ourselves as quickly when it comes to loving people. The criterion of loving God is not what we feel in worship but what we experience with our Christian brother or sister, who is a physical reality.[2]

William Loader (1944) notes that in verse twelve, the Apostle John argued that our invisible God is made visible in concrete, not abstract, acts of love. Here in verse twenty, John turns this thought around and goes back the other way, thinking this time from the perspective of the loved one. If we cannot love a visible human being, we will not be able to love the invisible God. It is much more than a neat play with ideas. Loving another human being means being open and vulnerable. It means meeting them and taking them seriously. It is not simply giving; it is also receiving. If we cannot do that with another human, we will not be able to do that with God. We will block out God’s agápē and remain satisfied with something comfortable in our projection and imagination that does not disturb us. We will be practicing a form of idolatry. Usually, we have reduced God to a manageable concept like an icon or statue in such cases. Then, God is no longer the invisible and unknown but a carefully defined image designed to suit ourselves.[3]

Colin G. Kruse (1950) notes that the words, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates their brother, is a liar,” is an a fortiori statement – arguing from the lesser to the greater. If people cannot fulfill the secondary requirement (to love their fellow believers whom they have seen), they cannot accomplish the primary obligation (to love God whom they have not seen). When the Apostle John speaks of God as the one we have not seen, he is picking up an important theme from his Gospel, where the invisibility of God is mentioned again and again.[4] Here the author repeats the point he made in verse twelve that claims to know the unseen God must be validated by love for fellow believers who can be seen. The nature of an experience of God’s presence is such that it cannot exist without manifesting itself in love for God’s people. Already John has shown that God is agápē,[5] that all those born of God are loving, and that those who do not love do not know God.[6]

Bruce G. Schuchard (1958) notes that again, the Apostle John’s language recalls his letter’s beginning, mainly “we lie,’’[7] “we deceive ourselves,”[8] and “we act as if He were a liar.”[9] There, John was thinking of the secessionists. He accuses them of hating rather than loving. Instead of loving, they hated the brothers for departing from the fellowship of the beloved. Unwittingly they have preferred belonging to the realm of Satan, where the lie is the native language. If God is present in love, the father of all lies is in hate.[10] [11] But here, in verse twenty, John is talking to believers and using the secessionist as an example.  In other words, if hating a fellow Christian was the attitude of these traitors, then if we believers develop the same attitude, we are no better than they are.

Marianne Meye Thompson (1964) states that if God’s agápē empowers our love, no one can claim to love God while hating a fellow Christian. So often, the words anyone who does not love their fellow believer, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. Both mean that it is much harder to love an invisible God than a brother or sister whom one can see. However, John does not say that loving God is more complicated than loving others. Instead, love for God without love for others is impossible to imagine since God is agápē.[12]

Peter Pett (1966) says that the result of what the Apostle John has just said is that we will love all who are faithful in serving the Anointed One, those who are of and speak the truth. For they share the agápē that we enjoy, and they too are in His agápē. And they minister to us of the Anointed One, as we should minister to them. Must they not be within our love, which He has produced within us? It would be an impossible contradiction to be filled with God’s agápē and not to love those whom God loves. Thus, if a person says, “I love God,” but hates their fellow believer is a liar. That is, they do not love God. This is the test of antichrist and false teaching. They do not love the brethren because the brethren expose their false teaching for what it is and refuse to countenance their fantasies.[13]

Duncan Heaster (1967) points out that the Apostle John again refers to his Gospel,[14] where the Jewish opposition is likened to Cain, the first liar and murderer. His first lie was covering up his hatred for his brother, Abel. It fits the Judaist infiltrators exactly; their religion had slain their brother, the Lord Jesus, and they were out to kill His brothers and sisters. Yet they tried hiding that fact by slipping into the churches as false teachers.[15] The “liar” is the antichrist, which in John’s first context was the Jewish system.[16] For he that does not love his fellow believers whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. We cannot literally see God, but we can “see” Him insofar as we “see” His Son. For the Son alone has fully “seen” the Father.[17] To love the Father is to have His Spirit abiding in us, which elicits sacrificial love for His children, our fellow believers. Any hatred of those begotten by His Spirit reveals that we lack His Spirit and do not love Him.[18]

Karen H. Jobes (1968) points out that the command to love God was long-standing in the Jewish faith from which Christianity emerged. Israel’s motto is the Shema.[19] Such love for God was coupled with obedience to the covenant, which included treating others right. John’s argument is similar: love for God must be constituted by love for others, particularly fellow believers.[20]

David Guzik (1984) notes that someone might say or sing, “I want to love God more; I want to grow in my love for Him.” The first question is, how can you love a God who is invisible? God might say to us, “So, you want to learn how to love Me more, the One you can’t see? Well, you can start by loving My children, whom you can see.” Jesus’ words are loud and clear; this is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and are about to go to the altar to rededicate yourself to His service, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God. That is how you can love me more.[21]

4:21     God gave us this commandment: If we love Him, we must also love each other as brothers and sisters.

EXPOSITION

God instructed the Israelites: “Forget about the wrong things people do to you. Don’t try to get even. Love your neighbor as you want to be loved.”[22] Jesus quotes from this when He says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.  This is the first and most important command. And the second is like the first: Love your neighbor the same as you love yourself.”[23]

And just before His trial and crucifixion, He reiterates this same thought: “I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other just as I loved you. All people will know you are my followers if you love each other.”[24]  Now John brings his point to a un fait accompli.[25]  Without God, there would be no such thing as love. We became aware of love because God expressed it to us first before we knew how to express it to anyone.  In John’s way of thinking, it is love completed by love. When love is that noticeable based on an impeccable standard, it is easy to see any flaws and inconsistencies.  For instance, John points out that if we cannot love those we see and fellowship with daily, how can we claim to love a God we’ve never seen? Especially when the God who gave us Love said that if you want to keep it fresh and growing, you must pass it on to your fellow believers.

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[1] Painter, John. Sacra Pagina: 1, 2, and 3 John: Vol. 18, loc. cit.

[2] Eaton, Michael: Focus on the Bible, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., pp. 169-170

[3] Loader, William: Epworth Commentary, op. cit., p. 59

[4] John 1:18; 5:37; 6:46

[5] 1 John 4:7-8

[6] Kruse, Colin G., The Letters of John (The Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNTC)), op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[7] 1 John 1:6

[8] Ibid. 1:8

[9] Ibid. 1:10

[10] Ibid. 8:44

[11] Schuchard, Bruce G., Concordia Commentary, op. cit., pp. 492-493

[12] Thompson, Marianne M., The IVP New Testament Commentary, op. cit., p. 129

[13] Pett, Peter: Commentary on the Bible, op. cit., PDF, loc. cit.

[14] John 8:44

[15] Galatians 2:4

[16] 1 John 2:22

[17] John 6:46

[18] Heaster, Duncan: New European Commentary, op. cit., 1 John, pp.36-37

[19] Deuteronomy 6:5

[20] Jobes, Karen H., 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Book 18), p. 206

[21] Matthew 5:23-24

[22] Leviticus 19:18

[23] Matthew 22:37-39

[24] John 13:34-35

[25] Un fait accompli, French, meaning “an accomplished fact.”

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXLI) 08/17/22

^4:20If anyone says, “I love God” but keeps hating their brother or sister, they are lying; for if they don’t love their brother or sister who is right in front of their eyes, can they claim to love God whom they have never seen?

Rudolf Schnackenburg (1914-2002) says the argument is clear: only those who love their brother or sister can see and be able to love an invisible God.[1] But this conviction does not, as Jewish/Greek historian Philo said, “For we must not share everything with everyone, but restrict our gifts to what is suitable to the recipient. Otherwise, the most excellent and valuable thing which life possesses will destroy order and suffer defeat by its most mischievous foe, confusion,”[2] stem from general religious considerations, but specific thought. The way to fellowship with God is not through a visionary experience but active love. Now, some exploit this basic proposition in the name of love. That idea is implied in verse eleven, so those who follow it can rest assured of their love for brother and sister.[3]

Donald W. Burdick (1917-1996) says that the Apostle John should convince all of us that brotherly love is demanded by logic.[4] The hypothetical case John proposes is stated in the strongest terms: “If a person says, I love God and hate their Christian brother or sister, are lying.” They are not lying about hating some fellow believers but about their loving God. It indicates that the claim is manifestly self-contradictory. Love for God and hatred for a brother or sister cannot possibly coexist in the same heart. Thus, with typical Johannine sharp words, the claim is dismissed as an out-and-out lie.[5] Can you envision a pastor asking a believer who comes to them for counseling about their quarrel with another believer, “Do you love God?” If their response is “yes,” we wonder what the reaction would be when the pastor tells them they are a liar.

Raymond E. Brown (1928-1998) says that some today might have expected the Apostle John to contrast the claim to love God with indifference toward one’s brother or sister. However, in Johannine dualism, neither indifference nor insufficient love is the opposite of loving – that opposite is described here in verse twenty as not love or hate. Again, one might have expected John to charge any person who claims to love God and still hates their Christian brother or sister guilty of misunderstanding or incompleteness, but Johannine dualism is harsher. Just as hate is opposed to love (and God is Love).so lying is opposed to truth (and Jesus is Truth). As a result, John accuses such a person of belonging to Satan’s regime, for whom lying is part of everyday language.[6] If Father God is present in love, “the originator of lies” is in hate.[7]

John R. W. Stott (1921-2010) notes that love for God expresses a confident attitude towards Him, devoid of fear and loving concern for our brothers and sisters.[8] Perfect agápē that drives fear out of hatred also. If God’s agápē for us is made complete when we love one another,[9] so is our love for God. John does not mince his words. If a person’s behavior contradicts what they say, they are liars. To claim to know God and have fellowship with God while we walk in the darkness of disobedience is to lie.[10] To claim to possess the Father while denying the deity of the Son is to lie.[11] To claim to love God while hating our brothers or sister is also to lie.[12]

John Phillips (1927-2010) says that John now turns to the logic of love: “If we say we love God but hate any of our brothers or sisters in His family, we are liars. If we don’t love someone we have seen, how can we love God? We have never even seen Him.” Very blunt! Love and hate are opposites. Love for God should expel all hate, even toward the most cranky, critical, and contradictory of the Lord’s people. No one ever loved God like Jesus. “He went about doing good” was Peter s one-line summary of the Lord’s attitude toward people.[13] The Lord had His enemies, but He loved them. At times He had to expose and condemn them,[14] but He never stopped loving them.

Furthermore, He loved poor, lost, pagan Pilate just as much as He loved beloved, blundering Peter; it is also true that He died for the crafty, unscrupulous Caiaphas[15] for generous, open-minded Cornelius.[16] He had as big a heart of love for Barabbas[17] as He had for Bartholomew.[18] He wept as brokenly for Jerusalem – which killed the prophets and stoned them who were sent to her[19] – as He did for the bereaved and beloved Martha and Mary.[20] He was as eager to save Saul – who “was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers”[21] – as He was to protect the earnestly seeking Ethiopian[22] or anyone who belonged to, however unworthily, the family of God.[23]

David E. Hiebert (1928-1995) hears the Apostle John asserting that God-induced love involves the love for fellow believers. So, the Apostle asks a hypothetical question: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and yet hates their Christian brother or sister, what does that make them?” The clear verdict is, “they are liars!” They are either blind or a conscious hypocrite. There is an apparent contradiction between the individual’s explicit claim to love God while they continue to hate their fellow believers. The Greek text places “God” and “brother” side by side,[24] suggesting that the two cannot be the objects of opposite inward feelings. As British Bible scholar John Miller (1919-1895) stated: “One’s inward condition is easily measured by outward behavior.”[25] [26]

Stephen S. Smalley (1931-2018) says that when the Apostle John discusses the “tests by which our love for God may be discerned,” rather than by stages “learning to love Him,” it may well be that this second interpretation should be adopted unless we combine the two views. But in any case, John’s point is clear. As John stated in verse twelve, love for God is expressed in love for others. To withhold the one is to render the other impossible. Therefore, we are to love God in others and others in Him. Such is the meaning of “living in love.”[27] [28]

Edward J. Malatesta (1932-2018) notices that verse twenty is built around one core. It portrays and brands anyone who claims to know God while hating a fellow believer as a “liar.” God’s agápē occurs in this verse’s first and last lines so that it repeats itself with different words. For instance, “hates a brother or sister” and “does not love their brother or sister.” At the center of this is a devasting accusation and gives a reason for this accusation. The person who does not love their brother or sister whom they can see cannot possibly love God whom they cannot see.[29] It is as ridiculous as a blind person claiming they can see with their eyes closed when they cannot see with their eyes open.

Ian Howard Marshall (1934-2015) points out that a person may deceive others by declaring that they love God, but since God cannot be seen, there is no direct way of telling whether they truly love God. Even if they go through the outward motions of devotion to God, prayer, worship attendance, and so on, it may still be all empty show. But a person cannot so easily deceive others regarding their love for fellow Christians; since they can be seen, the person’s relation with them is also visible. (Admittedly, deception is still possible since loving acts may arise from false motives, but the opportunity is not as great as love for the unseen God.) It follows that if a person is seen not loving their brothers and sisters, they are unlikely to love God. Indeed, they cannot love God since one part of love for God is love for one’s fellow believers.[30]

John Painter (1935) notes that there have been six claims (NIV) up to this point in the Apostle John’s First Epistle made by the hypocrite opposition up to this point. They are:

1. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth – 1 John 1:6

• If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us – 1 John 1:8

• If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and his word is not in us – 1 John 1:10

• Whoever claims to live in Him must live as Jesus did – 1 John 2:6

• Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness – 1 John 2:9

• Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar – 1 John 4:20

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[1] 1 John 4:12

[2] The Works of Philo, The Special Laws, Loeb Classical Library, Vol. VII, translated by F. H. Colson, p. 169 (#120)

[3] Schnackenburg, Rudolf: The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., p. 226

[4] 1 John 4:20

[5] Burdick, Donald W., The Epistles of John, op. cit., p. 81

[6] John 8:44

[7] Brown, Raymond E., The Anchor Bible, op. cit., Vol. 30, p. 533

[8] Cf. 1 John 3:14

[9] Ibid. 4:12

[10] Ibid. 1:6; 2:4

[11] Ibid. 12:22-23

[12] Stott, John. The Letters of John (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries), op. cit., p. 170

[13] Acts of the Apostles 10:38

[14] Matthew 23:13-39

[15] Matthew 26:57, 63-65; John 11:49-51

[16] Acts of the Apostles 10:1-3 3

[17] Matthew 27:16; Mark 15:7

[18] Acts of the Apostles 1:3

[19] Matthew 23:37; Luke 19:41-44

[20] John 11:18-21

[21] Acts of the Apostles 9:1

[22] Ibid. 8:26-39

[23] Phillips, John: Exploring the First Epistle of John, op. cit., p. 156

[24] The Greek text reads: “God and the brother….”

[25] Miller, John, Notes on James, 1 and 11 Peter, 1, 11 and Ill John, Jude, Revelation (Bradford, Eng.: Needed Truth Publishing Office, n.d.), p. 90

[26] Hiebert, David E., Bibliotheca Sacra, op. cit., January-March 1990, pp. 86-87

[27] See 1 John 4:16

[28] Smalley, Stephen S., Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 51, op. cit., p. 264

[29] Malatesta, Edward J., Interiority and Covenant, op. cit., p. 297

[30] Marshall, I. Howard. The Epistles of John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., pp. 225-226)

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXL) 08/16/22

^4:20If anyone says, “I love God,” but keeps hating their brother or sister, they are lying; for if they don’t love their brother or sister who is right in front of them, how can they love God whom they have never seen?

Benjamin B. Warfield (1851-1921) examines the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius and says we must seek two roots in our dispositions for such mixed results – greediness for evil and love for good. There is not a single root for both in nature. Humanity’s “ability” is the root of nothing. Still, it is capable of both good and evil according to the motivating cause, which, in the case of evil, is human-originated, while, in the case of good, it is from God. Pelagius’[1] assertion that grace is given according to our merits took such an extreme form as to openly proclaim that individuals can come and hold onto God by their free will alone without God’s help. Augustine shows that the Scriptures teach just the opposite and then points out how Pelagius has confounded the functions of knowledge and love and how he forgets that we cannot earn merits until we love God. At the same time, the Apostle John asserts that God loved us first.[2] [3]

Bishop Arthur Temple Lyttelton (1852-1903), Suffragan Bishop of Southampton, states: We cannot love God whom we do not see, and then comprehend the tremendous invisible influence in which we live and move and have our being, to appreciate the person who is watching over and directing us and guiding all this complicated scheme of things. That is more complex and harder to do. And the world comes close around us and absorbs us. If that is our difficulty, we may take verse twenty to say, there is training for God’s children in agápē.

So, offers Lyttelton, if we accept that love of others is training for God’s agápē; for, though it is hard to grasp the invisible, we have the visible. We have people; we have a love of others, which is natural to us, and easy for us in a sense. And I think that is what the Apostle means for us to become sufficient using God’s agápē – the love of our brother and sister whom we see; this familiar friend, who is with us at every turn of our life, with whom we are continually in contact. And in our natural life in the world, this familiar friend is the means to train and draw out this outstanding faculty in us – the love of our friend and our fellowman. So, we are to train and exercise God’s agápē. And that simple, natural human affection we feel for our friends is the same faculty as that required for God’s agápē.

We must not think of this agápē as something extraordinary, says Lyttelton, some new and unknown faculty to be given to us. No doubt all God’s love is a gift: but all love is similar to the same affection. Although it is essentially going out of ourselves, loving another, and living for another, whether that other is our fellowman or God, still, the impulse is the same – the putting aside of all selfish motivations and living in and for God or those around us. That is love. So, the love of others is training for expressing God’s agápē because it is the same faculty needed for both. And in our weakness, when we cannot rise to God’s agápē, let us remember that we have our Lord’s warrant that “whatever we do for the least important of our brothers and sisters, we do for Him.”[4] And when we love our fellow believers, it is the first step to God’s agápē. We cannot pass it over; we cannot rise to the level of God’s agápē; we cannot see unless we love “those whom we have seen.”[5]

Alonzo R. Cocke (1858-1901) says it is easy to say, “I love God,” but the evidence supporting a claim of having love must be tested. The witness to the presence of God’s agápē in our hearts is love for our fellow Christians. One who claims to love God and yet hates their Christian brother or sister proves their assertions are lies. Hatred and love mutually exclude each other. Our fellow believers are visible, but God is invisible. Love for God is the primary, and love for fellow Christians is a copy of God’s agápē. Love for God causes love for His children.

Cocke continues: Love for God is invisible unless manifested with visible effects. A person’s profession of love to God is an incredible lie when there is no visual evidence. Likewise, the invisible God is not loved if the visible brother or sister is not loved. Such is the necessary connection between these two exhibits of the divine life as it flows in the agápē channel. From one fountain, the waters ever flow into these two streams: Love for God and love for our fellow Christians.[6]

Alan E. Brooke (1863-1939) states that since God is love, they who abide in His agápē remain in God and God in them. Thus, the test of love can give full assurance concerning the reality of our fellowship with God. It is a logical deduction from the very nature of God. Love has been made perfect in us when, and only when, we can look forward with entire confidence to the great day of God’s judgment, knowing that as the exalted Anointed One abides in the Father’s love, so we remain in it so far as that is possible under the condition of our present existence. Where complete confidence is not yet likely, love fails to reach perfection, for fear and dread have no place in true love. It drives them out entirely from the sphere of its activity. Love is not merely an attribute of God but His attitude. Love expresses the highest conception we can form of God’s very Being.[7]

Brooke goes on to say that fear is something of the nature of punishment, and they who experience it have not yet been made perfect in love. How then can they say that they have compassion? Because love, in whatever degree it is exercised, originates in something above and beyond us. It has its origin in God. It is in response to God’s love for us. But our claim to love can be put to an obvious test. Love is active and must go out to those who need it if it is genuine. If anyone claims to love God and does not show love to their fellow believers, their claim is not only false but reveals a deceptive character. Love will show itself wherever an object of love is to be found.

Those who will not take the first step can never reach the goal. If the sight of one’s brother or sister in the Lord does not call out their love, it shows they cannot have enough love to reach God. And for us, the matter is determined, once and for all, by the Master’s command. He has said, the first commandment is: “You will love the Lord your God with all your heart,”[8] and the second is, “You will love your neighbor as yourself.”[9] [10]

Harry A., Ironside (1876-1951) tells us to notice the Apostle John’s strong language in verse twenty. Listen to what he said earlier in this epistle, “If someone claims, ‘I know God,’ but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.”[11] Then John asks this stabbing question, “Who is lying? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Anointed One.”[12] Now John spells it out, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?” In other words, how you treat your Christian brother and sister is a test as to whether you really love God.[13]

Charles H. Dodd (1884-1973) tells us that the meaning of the last part of verse twenty is not entirely clear. The words “loveth not” (KJV) and “cannot” (NIV) might bear either of two meanings, which may be illustrated as follows. A schoolmaster might warn a lazy pupil, “Unless you start doing your lessons, you cannot become educated,” and, on the other hand, the recipient of an anonymous letter might remark, “A person who writes like that cannot be educated.” Similarly, here the meaning might be either that, unless a believer practices loving their fellowman, they are incapable of the more difficult task of loving God.

It could also be that the absence of practical charity proves that a person does not love God. The context seems to demand this latter meaning. John is not concerned with the stages by which we may learn to love God but with the tests by which it may be known whether we love Him. However, the most straightforward and convincing test is that of assistance towards our neighbors. In effect, we have a fresh interpretation and application of the evangelical commandment of love for God and neighbor. For the “first and greatest commandment” and the second, which is “like unto it,”[14] are in summation one commandment. Being the objects of God’s agápē, we are to love our neighbor in Him and Him in our neighbor; and that is what it means to “remain in His agápē.”[15]

Greville P. Lewis (1891-1976) is nothing between white and black, love and hate, in the Apostle John’s vocabulary. There is no grey area or fence to sit on. He is thinking of a professing Christian who is indifferent to the needs of their fellow Christians and may even positively dislike – or hate – a member of the Church to which they belong. He says that a person who says proudly, “I love God,” but fails to love any one of their fellow believers, is in plain words, “a liar.” Since John has just said in verse nineteen, “We love because He first loved us,” our capacity to love is our grateful and self-giving response to the undeserved and amazing God’s agápē for us. If, as a result of our love for God, we live in such intimate union with Him that we share His very nature, then love should become “second nature” to us. If this proves true, it follows that a person who says, “I have no feelings of love for this particular brother or that specific sister, and have no interest in their needs,” shows that love is not their “second nature.” Therefore, they do not love or belong to God.[16]

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[1] Pelagius (born c. 354 AD, probably Britain—died after 418 AD (possibly in Palestine), monk and theologian whose non- orthodox theological system known as Pelagianism emphasized the primacy of human effort in spiritual salvation.

[2] 1 John 4:10

[3] Warfield, Benjamin B., The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 5, Trans. Peter Holmes, Part 2, Introductory Essay on Augustine and the Pelagian Controversy, the External History, p. 62

[4] Matthew 25:40, 45

[5] Lyttelton, Arthur Temple: Church Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., loc. cit.

[6] Cocke, Alonzo R., Studies in the Epistles of John, op. cit., loc. cit., Logos

[7] Brooke, Alan E., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary, op. cit., p. 118

[8] Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37

[9] Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39

[10] Brooke, Alan E., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary, op. cit., p. 123

[11] 1 John 2:4

[12] Ibid. 2:20

[13] Ironside, Harry A., The Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., p. 181

[14] Matthew 22:38-39

[15] Dodd, Charles H., The Moffatt Commentary, Johannian Epistles, op. cit., p. 124

[16] Lewis, Greville P., The Epworth Commentary, Johannine Epistles, op. cit., p. 111