1 John 4:20-21
Matthew Henry wrote this in his commentary of 1 John 4.
"We cannot but love so good a God, who loved us when we were both unloving and unlovely. The divine love stamped love upon our souls."
We were once incapable of true love, but God stamped love upon our souls.
As we close chapter 4, with only one chapter left to cover, I have seen two main themes pop up time and time again.
- Striving to attain the perfection God commands from us. "Be perfect, as I am perfect."
- Examining ourselves to see whether we be an individual striving for such perfection, or if we are content with our current lot. It certainly is a good quality to be content, except when the Creator desires to give you more.
Many would say that if you could sum up the Bible with one word — or at least one concept — it would be love. I would most likely have to agree, although there are certainly a plethora of contending words and concepts ("glory" coming in a close second).
Here in verses 20-21, we find the concept of love, a striving to show perfect love and an examining of whether or not we have attained it.
Let me stress once again before we go on, that love is not something that need be forced. Those who have been truly saved have had perfect love stamped upon their souls. True, for the new believer, it may sometimes take patient learning to use this love which we have, but Christ in us makes that simpler.
Vs. 20 — "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?"
I love the brutal honesty of John. There have been many times, and some of them recently in which I desired to write such strong words to someone, though my wonderful, loving wife usually stops me.
But John says it how it is. If you come across an individual in life or in your family or in your church that says he or she loves God, but they are known (at least by you) for how terribly they love and how easily they hate fellow Christians…they are a liar. No matter what they say, and no matter what their spiritual conversations or spiritual readings or whatever else…they do not actually love God.
How could they?
The invisible God is most known for a single thing — His love towards those who deserve damnation. You see it in all 66 books of Scripture. That's who He is. If you are not drawn to His most notable characteristic, how can you possibly love Him? You cannot not.
If my wife had been famous for being a pyromaniac, I would have never have fallen in love with her. I have no desire to burn down buildings. Even if she had pointed out all the benefits of the hobby, I would not have been swayed. To love her, and to follow her wherever she went would have meant be a pyromaniac myself.
(Not a great example. I haven't had my coffee yet, but I think you get the point.)
We fall in love with people, because of their character. There is something about them that we need, that we want to share in. Sometimes you can't quite put your finger on it. Early love is hard to define, but there is something about that person that is contagious and you want to catch forever.
That thing with God is love. And to those He calls, He gives His love freely. This love is not to simply be accepted. It's meant to spread on like a virus, and we must share it. How could we not? We ought to be so full of love, it ought to be so coursing through our veins, it ought to drive us, it ought to be at the center of our every thought. It ought to glow in the dark and even in the light.
And it ought to be extended ESPECIALLY to fellow believers.
If you do not love the unbeliever who persecutes you, you are disobeying Christ's command. But if you do not love the fellow believer, you are hating the spirit of God Himself, and certainly His love is not in you.
Vs. 21 — "And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also."
One last word. We have spoken at length in this series through 1 John about love. It is not a feeling. "Feeling love" does not last long. It ends in divorce. "Action love" lasts forever. When Jesus spoke about loving your neighbor in Luke 10, He told the story of the Good Samaritan. And we all know how that story goes…
A samaritan was walking down the road, saw a poor beat up man along the side of the road and was suddenly overcome with tears, his heartstrings pulling like gravity.
"The poor man!" cried the Samaritan. "That poor poor man will never be helped. I feel so terrible for Him."
However, when the emotional moment had passed, the Samaritan felt better and kept walking.
The point of that story was that the Good Samaritan had loving feelings towards the man, just like Jesus wants us to have.
WRONG
The real story is about what the Samaritan DID for the Jew. And remember, this was during a time when Jews and Samaritans hated each other. Perhaps these two had even crossed paths before, spewing hateful words at each other. When the Samaritan saw that Jew, I doubt he felt love toward him. Perhaps he even smirked ever so slightly.
But…
He did something out of love. The greatest commandment is not to feel love towards God and love towards your neighbor. It's to serve God and your neighbor as Christ served us in His life, death and resurrection.
If you claim to love God, you must also claim that His love is in you. And if His love is in you, you must show it to your brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter how you feel about them.
"The eye is wont to affect the heart; things unseen less catch the mind, and thereby the heart. The member of Christ has much of God visible in him. How then shall the hater of a visible image of God pretend to love the invisible God himself? We must love God originally and supremely, and others in him. It cannot but be a natural suitable obligation that he who love God should love his brother also." — Matthew Henry
