Loving the Unseen God

 1 John 4:20:

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

What does this mean?

When John wrote that one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen, he didn't mean we must love what is seen (your brother) first before we can love God. We know this is true because Jesus said the first commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. (Matthew 22:35-40). We are to love God first, then others.

Yet John is saying that we can’t say we love God if we don’t love our brothers and sisters in Christ, or we’d be lying. Why is this?

Because if we love God, we’ll keep His commandments.

John 14:15:

15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

What is His commandment?

John 15:12:

12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

So if we love God, we will keep His commandments to both love Him (Matthew 22:37) and each other (John 15:12). If we don’t love each other then we are not keeping His commandment, and if we don’t keep His commandment then we don’t love Him.

Simply put, our love for God is evidenced by our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

John 13:35:

35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Everyone will be able to tell we are disciples of Jesus by our love for other believers.

However, this kind of love is a sincere love, not just hypocritical deeds to make it look like we’re a good Christian. The proper motive for loving other believers is that we are doing so because we love God and want to keep His commandments.

1 John 5:2:

2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.

In other words, when we love God, and love others out of obedience to Him, then we know that we really do love His children. We have the proper motive. Our love is genuine.

Yet remember, it’s not just the appearance of love that is evidence of our love for God, but genuine love which comes from loving God first. This will only work if our love for the Lord remains alive.

Matthew 22:37-39:

37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Notice the order Jesus gives. We are to love God first, then people. If we love any person before God, then we have placed an idol before God. They have become an idol in our lives, something worshiped above God Himself. They will take a higher priority in our time, money, etc. God is a jealous God, and this does not set well with Him!

When we place people as a higher priority in our lives above God, then even our prayers can become manipulative as we seek the will of the person we are praying for above the will of God.

As always, it’s important to look at our heart motives in the things we do, including our love for others. On the one hand, we don’t want our love for people to take a higher priority over our love for God. Yet on the other hand, our love for people is evidence that we love God.

Taking time daily to revive our love for God through intimate time with Him in worship and prayer will help us guard against this kind of idolatry and keep our motives pure.