We Must

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER OF JOHN

WE MUST

1 John 4:19-21

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

NIV

If we have not gotten it before, John makes sure we hear it one more time. We did not decide to love God first and then He returns His love to us. All love begins with God. He is a God of action and not of reaction. Without the love of God, it would not be possible for us to love. It was His love which created the world and all that is in it, including us who He created in His own image. God is love. So we love because He first loved us. Now, John makes the point one more time, just in case we missed it before. If we say that we love God and do not love our brother, or John actually says if we hate our brother, then we are a liar. If we hate our brother, we do not love God. That is as plain and simple as it can be said. That Greek word translated as hate carries the meaning to pursue with hatred, to detest. It is the same Greek word both Matthew and Luke used quoting Jesus when he said regarding God and money, that we would either, that is one or the other, love one and hate the other. We cannot love both God and money. So John makes this case regarding our brother and God. In this sense, we must love both. We cannot say that we love God and hate a brother. If we hate a brother we hate God. That is strong language, yet it is the truth. However, hate is a very powerful word that means we are in pursuit of our brother with hatred. That sounds like we chase him down to do him harm. Yet, it also carries that meaning of detest, which we can do internally without our brother even knowing how much we detest him. This kind of hatred does our brother no harm, but it certainly does a great deal of harm to ourselves, in fact, it makes us out to be a liar, for in fact, then we really do not love God, we are just professing we love him without the evidence within and without. If we hold any ill feelings at all toward someone, it will eventually become evident for all to see. This ill-feeling will manifest itself in various ways. It will affect our continence when we are in that person’s presence. It may even show up just as a facial expression whenever that person’s name is mentioned. Certainly, it becomes apparent if we engage in any gossip at all regarding that person, especially if is of a negative nature. No, the plain truth is that if we say that we love God, then we have to love our brother. There is no way to get around this, we must love our brother. Of course, not in the same kind of love the agape love, the benevolent love God demonstrated by sending Jesus to die for our sins. But this is the agapao love which is in a social or moral sense. Yet John uses that same form, yet just different enough to be more of the agape type love. He used agapo`omen for our love to him and eeg`apeesen, love our brother So there is a difference in the love of God for us and the love we have for our brothers. Yet the fact remains we must love our brother. We cannot get away with anything less. We must love.