1 John 4:20

If a man say. John now returns to the hypothetical statement with which he softens implied rebukes (see on 1 John 1:6). He may also be referring to the false teachers (cf. on 1 John 2:4).

I love God. It is easy to make such a verbal claim, but the apostle shows that it is no less easy to test the truth of the claim. Verbal profession is natural and necessary (cf. Rom. 10:9), but it is not sufficient. It needs to be corroborated by the professor’s attitude toward his fellow men. An examination of the quality of a man’s love for his brethren will reveal much concerning the genuineness of his love for God.

Hateth his brother. John clearly shows what he means by “hate” when he equates it with “loveth not” in the second half of the verse. Elsewhere in the Bible, hatred often implies no more than preferring oneself above another, or loving another less than one should (see on Luke 14:26).

A liar. John gives a plain test by which we can know whether we love God. If we fail in the test, but still claim to have passed it, we are indeed deliberate liars (see on 1 John 2:4).

Loveth not. This is here equivalent to hating, which is the active form of not loving (see on 1 John 3:14, 15).

Hath seen. The finite human mind finds it much easier to love the seen rather than the unseen.

How can he? Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading, “he cannot love.” He who does not experience the lesser affection of loving his brother cannot hope to reach the higher attainment of loving an invisible God. Conversely, he who loves his brother is helping himself to love God; he is exercising the attribute that is supremely characteristic of God (1 John 4:8). This is not to say that love for man is first in importance, or even first in time. Without the indwelling God, who is love, we cannot love our brother, and it is more important to love God than to love a brother. But John reasons that we cannot have the greater without the lesser, nor the lesser without the greater. We love both God and man, but our love is more easily tested by our attitude to men than by our attitude to God.

Hath not seen. See on verse 12.