First John: 1 John 4:20-One Does Not Love God If They Hate Their Fellow-Believer Lesson # 185

1 John 4:20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. (ESV)

“If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar” is presenting an eternal spiritual principle and refers to a hypothetical Christian making the claim that they love God and hating their fellow-Christian.

“For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” presents the reason for the previous assertion.

1 John 4:20 If anyone enters into making the claim “I love God (the Father)” and yet does at any time hate his fellow-believer, then he is a liar. For the one who at any time does not divinely love his fellow-believer whom he has seen causes himself to be totally unable to love God (the Father) whom he has never seen. (My translation)

The apostle John solemnly presents an eternal spiritual principle or spiritual axiom with regards to disobeying the command to love one another.

It asserts that if any member of the Christian community enters into making the claim “I love God” and yet does at any time hate their fellow-believer, then he is a liar.

This eternal spiritual principle stands in contrast with the one presented in verse 19, which states that John and the recipients of First John did practice love for God because He Himself first loved each of them.

This love for God was manifested by their obedience to the Father’s command to love one another, which His Son Jesus Christ communicated to the apostles by the Spirit and who in turn communicated by the Spirit this command to the church.

Therefore, the contrast is between John and the recipients of First John who loved God the Father as demonstrated by their obedience to His command to love one another and a hypothetical believer who did not love the Father because they did not obey this command.

This is the fourth time the apostle John has mentioned a hypothetical Christian hating their fellow-Christian.

1 John 2:9 The one who at any time does say he is in the light and yet does at any time hate his fellow-believer, is still in the darkness. (My translation)

1 John 2:11 The one who at any time does hate his fellow-believer is in the darkness. Specifically, he is conducting his life in this darkness. Consequently, he unequivocally does not know for certain where he is going because this darkness has blinded his eyes. (My translation)

1 John 3:15 Anyone who does at any time hate his fellow-believer is a murderer. Consequently, each one of you possess the conviction that every murderer absolutely never experiences eternal life living in him. (My translation)

Now, as was the case in 1 John 2:9, 11 and 3:15, “to hate” speaks of expressing unjustifiable hostility and antagonism towards one’s fellow believer, which expresses itself in malicious words and actions.

This hatred exists between believers since the kingdom of darkness can deceive believers and of course believers still have a sin nature.

Therefore, this indicates that every believer has the capacity to hate their fellow believer in the sense of being hostile and antagonistic towards them since they all have a sin nature until the day that they die or the rapture, whichever comes first.

This type of hatred is seen in Saul and David’s relationship in which the former hated the latter by persecuting him and even attempting to kill him.

“To hate” also speaks of the believer’s indifference towards their fellow believer.

John mentions this type of hatred in 1 John 3:17-18.

1 John 3:16 By means of this, each one of us knows experientially that which constitutes divine-love, namely that, He Himself, the one and only, laid down His life on behalf of each and every one of us. Consequently, each and every one of us is obligated to lay down our lives for the benefit of our fellow-believer. 17 But whoever at any time does possess the essentials required to sustain an earthly human existence and in addition does at any time see his fellow-believer possessing a need, yet shuts off his compassionate affections from him, how does God’s love live in him? 18 Dear children, let not any one of us at any time love one another by means of talk produced by the use of the tongue but rather by means of action produced by obedience to truth. (My translation)

Now, in 1 John 4:20, when the apostle John asserts a Christian is a liar if they enter into making the claim that they love God and yet hate their fellow-Christian, he is clearly implying that they are involved in hypocrisy.

Therefore, by implication, John is warning them to not become involved with this sin. He wants their love for God and each other to be sincere.

Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines hypocrisy, “a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not possess; a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.

If we paraphrase this definition, we could say that the believer who makes the claim that they know the Lord experientially or in other words are experiencing fellowship with Him and yet do not observe conscientiously His commands is making a pretense of having godly character which they do not possess.

Romans 12:9 and 1 Peter 2:1 prohibit the believer from getting involved with hypocrisy.

1 Peter 2:1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. (NASB95)

Romans 12:9 Your divine-love must continue to be characterized as being without hypocrisy. All of you continue to make it your habit to detest that which is evil in character. All of you continue to make it your habit to be devoted to that which is good. (My translation)

1 John 4:20 is the fourth verse in First John in which the apostle John refers to a Christian not loving his fellow-believer and thus disobeying the command to love one another.

1 John 3:10 By means of this, God’s children are manifested as well as the devil’s children: Any person who at any time does not practice that which constitutes true righteousness by no means possesses the characteristic originating from the one true God. Specifically, the one who at any time does not divinely love their fellow believer. (My translation)

1 John 3:14 Each and every one of us has confirmed that we have been transferred from death to life because each one of us are divinely loving our fellow-believer. The one who at any time does not practice divine love continues to exist in death. (My translation)

1 John 4:8 The one who at any time does not practice divine-love never enters into knowing God (the Father) experientially because God (the Father) is divine-love. (My translation)