返回Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Chapter Four
1 John 4:1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have appeared in the world.
1 John 4:2. Recognize the Spirit of God (and the spirit of error) in this way: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh is from God.
Having explained the teaching on love for one's neighbor, and having pointed to this love as a sign of the abiding of the Spirit whom we have received, the apostle now adds a criterion for distinguishing true brothers and neighbors, so that we, keeping this distinction in mind, might not on account of the commandment of love enter into close relations with false brothers, false apostles, and false prophets, and thereby cause ourselves great harm. For by having fellowship with them as though they were of like mind, we will, first, harm ourselves by fearlessly communicating the teaching of the faith to the impious and casting what is holy before dogs; then we will harm those who are entrusted to us. For our love toward false brothers, false apostles, and false prophets will dispose many to accept them as teachers and to believe their teaching without caution, since they will be led into deception by our association with them. What then is the sign by which they are recognized?
Next: every spirit, that is, everyone bearing the title of prophet or apostle, who confesses the Lord Jesus as having come in the flesh, is from God, and whoever does not confess this is not from God, but his dignity is from the antichrist, which you have also heard.
The Apostle a little above (1 John 2:18) said that many antichrists have appeared in the world, that is, forerunners of the antichrist. And the confession of Christ's coming in the flesh must be made not only with the tongue, but also in deeds, as the Apostle Paul says: "we always carry about in the body the dying... of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2 Cor. 4:10). So then, whoever has Jesus working within him, has died to the world, no longer lives for the world but for Christ, and bears Him not only in Christ's flesh but also in his own, that one is from God. But whoever does not live for Christ but for himself and for the world, that is, for worldly pleasures, that one is not from God. Therefore Paul again says: "if there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not fleshly? And are you not walking according to human custom?" (1 Cor. 3:3). He who walks according to human custom does not have the Spirit of Christ; and whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, that is, does not live according to the teaching of Christ, that one is not Christ's.
1 John 4:3. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is not from God, but this is the spirit of the antichrist, about which you have heard that it will come and is now already in the world.
The Apostle says that the antichrist is already in the world; of course, not in person, but in the person of false prophets, false apostles, and heretics who precede and prepare his coming. And the antichrist himself will be a man bearing Satan within himself, "exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped" (2 Thess. 2:4). This is also why he will forbid the worship of idols (which is what the Apostle meant by "that which is worshipped"), and will present himself alone as God.
1 John 4:4. Children! You are of God, and have overcome them; for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:5. They are of the world, therefore they speak of the world, and the world listens to them.
1 John 4:6. We are of God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not of God does not listen to us.
Above, the apostle indicated the mark of the prophets and apostles of the Lord. Now he adds: you, being children of God, have overcome them, that is, the false prophets. Why? Because God, who is in you, is greater than he who is in the world, according to whose spirit the false prophets chose to live. Then he gives them yet another mark of the false prophets, in that it greatly distressed the simple ones among the faithful themselves. Some of them could naturally grieve, seeing that many received those others very eagerly, while they themselves were despised.
The Apostle also says: do not grieve if many despise you while accepting them; for like is drawn to like: they are of the world and speak worldly things, that is, they teach fleshly desires, which is why they also have listeners of the same kind, that is, the corrupt have corrupt listeners. But we, being of God and having departed from worldly lusts, become unpleasant to them. The one who lives chastely listens to us, and therefore knows God, and is ready to listen to us. About this Christ also says: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matt. 11:15), that is, He testifies that the one who has prepared himself to listen with obedience has ears.
1 John 4:6. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4:7. Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:8. He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.
1 John 4:9. The love of God toward us was revealed in that God sent His Only-begotten Son into the world, that we might receive life through Him.
1 John 4:10. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.
Above, the apostle showed with whom one should associate and with whom one should not; now he applies, as it were, a seal to what was said: therefore we know who has the Spirit of truth and who has the spirit of error, of false prophecy. Then he begins speaking about love again. Having shown that one must love certain people, namely those of like mind, he returns to what he said at the beginning. He says that love and the one who loves are from God, that the one who loves, and he alone, is born of God and knows God, while the one who does not have love does not know God either. Why then does the one who does not love not know God? He confirms this in the following manner. God is love. This is evident from the fact that He sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world so that He might grant us true life and we might live through Him. For just as God is called goodness because in His goodness He created the intelligible and sensible world, so too, having sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world out of love for us, He showed through this that He is also love. Therefore he adds: "in this is love," that is, by this it is proved that God is love. Then, showing the surpassing quality of God's love, he says: God did this, that is, gave up His own Son for us, not because we loved Him, but He was the first to begin bestowing benefits upon us out of love and sent His Son, and not only sent Him, but also by His own blood accomplished the cleansing of our sins. But if, he says, God so loved us, although we are by no means of the same nature as He, then much more ought we to love, to love those akin to us, and, having learned the surpassing quality of love, to show it to others. For just as one who does not choose what is worthy of choosing is blameworthy, so praise belongs to those who love those worthy of love, because they are beloved. And we, having disposed ourselves in this way, possess both: we are loved, because God loves us and has received us to Himself as children; and we are beloved, because we love our neighbors.
1 John 4:11. Beloved! If God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:12. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is made perfect in us.
1 John 4:13. That we abide in Him and He in us, we know from the fact that He has given us of His Spirit.
1 John 4:14. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
We have noted before that the Apostle John has a habit of repeating the same things about the same subjects. So he does now as well. No one, he says, has ever seen God. Speaking of love for the brethren, he pointed to God as an example of love, Who out of love for us delivered His Only-Begotten Son to death. Someone, upon hearing this, might ask: on what basis do you speak of things invisible? In answer to such a question he says: I myself say that no one has ever seen God; but from love for one another we come to know that God is in us. And he says this rightly, because many things invisible to us we come to know from their effects.
For example, no one has seen the soul, but from its actions and movements we are convinced that it exists and operates within us. So too we recognize God's love for us through a certain movement and action. If there is nothing incongruous in this, then this holy man also fittingly proves from the action that God is in us. What then is this action? Pure love for our neighbors. It is a sign of our abiding in Him and of His abiding in us, and also because He has given us of His Spirit. For the Pure One begets what is pure and unblemished. And since through pure love we have communion with Him, from this we, who have seen Him in the flesh, have known and testify that the Father sent Him, the Savior of the world. In order to more perfectly establish us in such knowledge, He Himself also gave an explanation concerning His own Person.
Sometimes He said: "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world" (John 16:28), that is, the Father out of love for us sent from heaven into the world His Only-begotten Son. Sometimes even more clearly: "God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish" (John 3:16); and: "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world" (John 12:47). So then, we ourselves have both seen, and from the Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), have heard, and from the action—mutual love—we know that God is in us, and has given us of His Spirit, and we are in communion with Him.
1 John 4:15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1 John 4:16. And we have known the love that God has for us, and have believed in it. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
This refers to what was said a little above (v. 2): every spirit that confesses the Lord Jesus, who has come in the flesh. The apostle has sufficiently proved that believers are children of God and that God abides in them; and he proved this by love for one another, because the Holy Spirit was given to them. After this he returns to the aforementioned discourse and says: whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, because, as was said above, every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ, who has come in the flesh, is from God. With these words the apostle also expresses another truth, that those who so confess and have the Spirit abiding in them, that is, God, themselves also abide in God. In what way? Through love for one another. And having recalled love, he repeats everything he has said about love, in order to more firmly establish the teaching about love.
1 John 4:17. Love reaches such perfection in us that we have boldness in the day of judgment, because we conduct ourselves in this world as He does.
1 John 4:18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.
God is light, and His saints, according to the saying of the Gospel (Matt. 5:14), are the light of the world and are free from the fear of torment, because they are filled with love for God. I desire, says the apostle, that you be perfected in love so that on the day of judgment we may have boldness before God, because He Himself is the Judge, according to His own saying: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son" (John 5:22). And that our boldness will be before God incarnate, the apostle expressed in the following words: "we conduct ourselves in this world as He did," that is, when we have already demonstrated that God is in us and we in Him, then we ourselves are witnesses to the perfection of love. As He was blameless and pure in the world, which is why He also said: "the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me" (John 14:30), so we too shall be in God and God in us. If He is the teacher and giver of our purity, then we must bear Him in the world purely and blamelessly, "always carrying about in the body His dying" (2 Cor. 4:10). If we live in this way, then we shall have boldness before Him and shall be free from all fear. For, having attained perfection in love through good deeds, we shall be far from fear. In confirmation of this he also adds: perfect love casts out fear. What fear? He himself says that it is the fear of torment.
For it is possible to love someone even out of fear of punishment. But such fear is not perfect, that is, it is not characteristic of perfect love. Having said this about perfect love, he necessarily says that we must love God because He first loved us, and since He first did us good, we must all the more compel ourselves to repay Him for it. Based on the words of David: "Fear the Lord, you His saints, for there is no want to those who fear Him" (Ps. 33:10), some will ask: how does John now say that perfect love casts out fear? Are God's saints really so imperfect in love that they are commanded to fear? We answer. Fear is of two kinds. One is introductory, to which torment is attached.
A person who has committed evil deeds approaches God with fear, and approaches in order not to be punished. This is the preliminary fear. The other fear is perfect. This fear is free from such dread; which is why it is called pure and enduring forever (Ps. 18:10). What then is this fear, and why is it perfect? Because the one who possesses it is completely captivated by love and strives in every way to lack nothing of what one who loves deeply must do for the beloved.
1 John 4:18. He who fears is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:19. Let us love Him, because He first loved us.
By fear here is meant the preliminary fear. Whoever sincerely loves God does what is pleasing to Him not out of fear of punishment, but out of an inclination toward virtue and out of love for God, not safeguarding himself even with the lawful fear that consists in love for what is good. And that fear which does something in order not to fall under punishment is identical with the first. Therefore it is also added: "fear has torment."
1 John 4:20. Whoever says, "I love God," but hates his brother, is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God, Whom he does not see?
Above, the apostle insistently proved that love must be mutual, passing from God to us and from us to God; he added to this that if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another. Now he again raises the discourse to the same point and says: since the duty lies upon us to love our brother, following the example of God's love for us, and by rendering love to God we fulfill this duty, we must certainly love our brother as the most perfect proof of love for God. For if this does not exist, then our love for God will not be preserved either, since the duty toward our neighbors — a duty flowing from the love of God — will have been violated. He adds an even stronger word for the reproach of those who wish to pervert divine love.
The Apostle speaks as if to say: love is evidently formed through association with one another; and association presupposes that a person sees his brother and through interaction with him becomes even more attached to him by love, for seeing greatly draws one to love. If this is so, then he who makes nothing of that which draws far more to love, and does not love the brother whom he has seen, how can he be regarded as truthful when he says that he loves God, Whom he has not seen, Who is neither in association with him nor grasped by any sense? If anyone shamelessly says that he loves God but hates his brother, that person, perverting divine love, proves himself beyond this to be also a transgressor of His following commandment: "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). Therefore, whoever loves God and strives to be His disciple, by His commandment, loves his brother also.
1 John 4:21. And we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.
1 John 4:1. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have appeared in the world.
1 John 4:2. Recognize the Spirit of God (and the spirit of error) in this way: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh is from God.
Having explained the teaching on love for one's neighbor, and having pointed to this love as a sign of the abiding of the Spirit whom we have received, the apostle now adds a criterion for distinguishing true brothers and neighbors, so that we, keeping this distinction in mind, might not on account of the commandment of love enter into close relations with false brothers, false apostles, and false prophets, and thereby cause ourselves great harm. For by having fellowship with them as though they were of like mind, we will, first, harm ourselves by fearlessly communicating the teaching of the faith to the impious and casting what is holy before dogs; then we will harm those who are entrusted to us. For our love toward false brothers, false apostles, and false prophets will dispose many to accept them as teachers and to believe their teaching without caution, since they will be led into deception by our association with them. What then is the sign by which they are recognized?
Next: every spirit, that is, everyone bearing the title of prophet or apostle, who confesses the Lord Jesus as having come in the flesh, is from God, and whoever does not confess this is not from God, but his dignity is from the antichrist, which you have also heard.
The Apostle a little above (1 John 2:18) said that many antichrists have appeared in the world, that is, forerunners of the antichrist. And the confession of Christ's coming in the flesh must be made not only with the tongue, but also in deeds, as the Apostle Paul says: "we always carry about in the body the dying... of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body" (2 Cor. 4:10). So then, whoever has Jesus working within him, has died to the world, no longer lives for the world but for Christ, and bears Him not only in Christ's flesh but also in his own, that one is from God. But whoever does not live for Christ but for himself and for the world, that is, for worldly pleasures, that one is not from God. Therefore Paul again says: "if there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not fleshly? And are you not walking according to human custom?" (1 Cor. 3:3). He who walks according to human custom does not have the Spirit of Christ; and whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ, that is, does not live according to the teaching of Christ, that one is not Christ's.
1 John 4:3. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is not from God, but this is the spirit of the antichrist, about which you have heard that it will come and is now already in the world.
The Apostle says that the antichrist is already in the world; of course, not in person, but in the person of false prophets, false apostles, and heretics who precede and prepare his coming. And the antichrist himself will be a man bearing Satan within himself, "exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped" (2 Thess. 2:4). This is also why he will forbid the worship of idols (which is what the Apostle meant by "that which is worshipped"), and will present himself alone as God.
1 John 4:4. Children! You are of God, and have overcome them; for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:5. They are of the world, therefore they speak of the world, and the world listens to them.
1 John 4:6. We are of God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not of God does not listen to us.
Above, the apostle indicated the mark of the prophets and apostles of the Lord. Now he adds: you, being children of God, have overcome them, that is, the false prophets. Why? Because God, who is in you, is greater than he who is in the world, according to whose spirit the false prophets chose to live. Then he gives them yet another mark of the false prophets, in that it greatly distressed the simple ones among the faithful themselves. Some of them could naturally grieve, seeing that many received those others very eagerly, while they themselves were despised.
The Apostle also says: do not grieve if many despise you while accepting them; for like is drawn to like: they are of the world and speak worldly things, that is, they teach fleshly desires, which is why they also have listeners of the same kind, that is, the corrupt have corrupt listeners. But we, being of God and having departed from worldly lusts, become unpleasant to them. The one who lives chastely listens to us, and therefore knows God, and is ready to listen to us. About this Christ also says: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matt. 11:15), that is, He testifies that the one who has prepared himself to listen with obedience has ears.
1 John 4:6. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4:7. Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:8. He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.
1 John 4:9. The love of God toward us was revealed in that God sent His Only-begotten Son into the world, that we might receive life through Him.
1 John 4:10. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.
Above, the apostle showed with whom one should associate and with whom one should not; now he applies, as it were, a seal to what was said: therefore we know who has the Spirit of truth and who has the spirit of error, of false prophecy. Then he begins speaking about love again. Having shown that one must love certain people, namely those of like mind, he returns to what he said at the beginning. He says that love and the one who loves are from God, that the one who loves, and he alone, is born of God and knows God, while the one who does not have love does not know God either. Why then does the one who does not love not know God? He confirms this in the following manner. God is love. This is evident from the fact that He sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world so that He might grant us true life and we might live through Him. For just as God is called goodness because in His goodness He created the intelligible and sensible world, so too, having sent His Only-Begotten Son into the world out of love for us, He showed through this that He is also love. Therefore he adds: "in this is love," that is, by this it is proved that God is love. Then, showing the surpassing quality of God's love, he says: God did this, that is, gave up His own Son for us, not because we loved Him, but He was the first to begin bestowing benefits upon us out of love and sent His Son, and not only sent Him, but also by His own blood accomplished the cleansing of our sins. But if, he says, God so loved us, although we are by no means of the same nature as He, then much more ought we to love, to love those akin to us, and, having learned the surpassing quality of love, to show it to others. For just as one who does not choose what is worthy of choosing is blameworthy, so praise belongs to those who love those worthy of love, because they are beloved. And we, having disposed ourselves in this way, possess both: we are loved, because God loves us and has received us to Himself as children; and we are beloved, because we love our neighbors.
1 John 4:11. Beloved! If God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:12. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is made perfect in us.
1 John 4:13. That we abide in Him and He in us, we know from the fact that He has given us of His Spirit.
1 John 4:14. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
We have noted before that the Apostle John has a habit of repeating the same things about the same subjects. So he does now as well. No one, he says, has ever seen God. Speaking of love for the brethren, he pointed to God as an example of love, Who out of love for us delivered His Only-Begotten Son to death. Someone, upon hearing this, might ask: on what basis do you speak of things invisible? In answer to such a question he says: I myself say that no one has ever seen God; but from love for one another we come to know that God is in us. And he says this rightly, because many things invisible to us we come to know from their effects.
For example, no one has seen the soul, but from its actions and movements we are convinced that it exists and operates within us. So too we recognize God's love for us through a certain movement and action. If there is nothing incongruous in this, then this holy man also fittingly proves from the action that God is in us. What then is this action? Pure love for our neighbors. It is a sign of our abiding in Him and of His abiding in us, and also because He has given us of His Spirit. For the Pure One begets what is pure and unblemished. And since through pure love we have communion with Him, from this we, who have seen Him in the flesh, have known and testify that the Father sent Him, the Savior of the world. In order to more perfectly establish us in such knowledge, He Himself also gave an explanation concerning His own Person.
Sometimes He said: "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world" (John 16:28), that is, the Father out of love for us sent from heaven into the world His Only-begotten Son. Sometimes even more clearly: "God so loved the world, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish" (John 3:16); and: "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world" (John 12:47). So then, we ourselves have both seen, and from the Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18), have heard, and from the action—mutual love—we know that God is in us, and has given us of His Spirit, and we are in communion with Him.
1 John 4:15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
1 John 4:16. And we have known the love that God has for us, and have believed in it. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
This refers to what was said a little above (v. 2): every spirit that confesses the Lord Jesus, who has come in the flesh. The apostle has sufficiently proved that believers are children of God and that God abides in them; and he proved this by love for one another, because the Holy Spirit was given to them. After this he returns to the aforementioned discourse and says: whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, because, as was said above, every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ, who has come in the flesh, is from God. With these words the apostle also expresses another truth, that those who so confess and have the Spirit abiding in them, that is, God, themselves also abide in God. In what way? Through love for one another. And having recalled love, he repeats everything he has said about love, in order to more firmly establish the teaching about love.
1 John 4:17. Love reaches such perfection in us that we have boldness in the day of judgment, because we conduct ourselves in this world as He does.
1 John 4:18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.
God is light, and His saints, according to the saying of the Gospel (Matt. 5:14), are the light of the world and are free from the fear of torment, because they are filled with love for God. I desire, says the apostle, that you be perfected in love so that on the day of judgment we may have boldness before God, because He Himself is the Judge, according to His own saying: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son" (John 5:22). And that our boldness will be before God incarnate, the apostle expressed in the following words: "we conduct ourselves in this world as He did," that is, when we have already demonstrated that God is in us and we in Him, then we ourselves are witnesses to the perfection of love. As He was blameless and pure in the world, which is why He also said: "the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me" (John 14:30), so we too shall be in God and God in us. If He is the teacher and giver of our purity, then we must bear Him in the world purely and blamelessly, "always carrying about in the body His dying" (2 Cor. 4:10). If we live in this way, then we shall have boldness before Him and shall be free from all fear. For, having attained perfection in love through good deeds, we shall be far from fear. In confirmation of this he also adds: perfect love casts out fear. What fear? He himself says that it is the fear of torment.
For it is possible to love someone even out of fear of punishment. But such fear is not perfect, that is, it is not characteristic of perfect love. Having said this about perfect love, he necessarily says that we must love God because He first loved us, and since He first did us good, we must all the more compel ourselves to repay Him for it. Based on the words of David: "Fear the Lord, you His saints, for there is no want to those who fear Him" (Ps. 33:10), some will ask: how does John now say that perfect love casts out fear? Are God's saints really so imperfect in love that they are commanded to fear? We answer. Fear is of two kinds. One is introductory, to which torment is attached.
A person who has committed evil deeds approaches God with fear, and approaches in order not to be punished. This is the preliminary fear. The other fear is perfect. This fear is free from such dread; which is why it is called pure and enduring forever (Ps. 18:10). What then is this fear, and why is it perfect? Because the one who possesses it is completely captivated by love and strives in every way to lack nothing of what one who loves deeply must do for the beloved.
1 John 4:18. He who fears is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:19. Let us love Him, because He first loved us.
By fear here is meant the preliminary fear. Whoever sincerely loves God does what is pleasing to Him not out of fear of punishment, but out of an inclination toward virtue and out of love for God, not safeguarding himself even with the lawful fear that consists in love for what is good. And that fear which does something in order not to fall under punishment is identical with the first. Therefore it is also added: "fear has torment."
1 John 4:20. Whoever says, "I love God," but hates his brother, is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God, Whom he does not see?
Above, the apostle insistently proved that love must be mutual, passing from God to us and from us to God; he added to this that if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another. Now he again raises the discourse to the same point and says: since the duty lies upon us to love our brother, following the example of God's love for us, and by rendering love to God we fulfill this duty, we must certainly love our brother as the most perfect proof of love for God. For if this does not exist, then our love for God will not be preserved either, since the duty toward our neighbors — a duty flowing from the love of God — will have been violated. He adds an even stronger word for the reproach of those who wish to pervert divine love.
The Apostle speaks as if to say: love is evidently formed through association with one another; and association presupposes that a person sees his brother and through interaction with him becomes even more attached to him by love, for seeing greatly draws one to love. If this is so, then he who makes nothing of that which draws far more to love, and does not love the brother whom he has seen, how can he be regarded as truthful when he says that he loves God, Whom he has not seen, Who is neither in association with him nor grasped by any sense? If anyone shamelessly says that he loves God but hates his brother, that person, perverting divine love, proves himself beyond this to be also a transgressor of His following commandment: "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). Therefore, whoever loves God and strives to be His disciple, by His commandment, loves his brother also.
1 John 4:21. And we have this commandment from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.