1 John 4:20

If someone says, I love God, and he hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God... By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

A genuine love for God is proven not by profession but by an active, costly love for His people.

"I Love God, I Ain't Lying"

Have you ever had a brief interaction with a stranger that lingers in your mind years later? We have these moments all the time—the grocery cashier, the person at the gym, the barista at Starbucks—and within an hour we've forgotten their faces. But sometimes you meet someone you've never met before and fifteen years later you're still remembering it.

About sixteen or eighteen years ago I was at lunch with a friend, another pastor, on the east end of town. As we sat there, an interesting-looking character in his mid-forties walked up and said, "Hey guys, I have a magic trick for you." He did his trick; my friend said, "I can do that one." This went back and forth several times, his frustration rising, until finally he sat down, picked up a butter knife, and started tapping on his left eye—a glass eye. Clink, clink, clink. "Yes," I said, "we can't do that one."

Within minutes he asked for a ride home to Valley Center. His name was Left Eddie. As we pulled out of the parking lot he asked what we did for a living. "We're both pastors," we said. "Really? Man, I love God. I ain't lying." He must have told me eight or nine times: "I love God. I ain't lying." To this day I cannot read 1 John 4:20 without thinking of Left Eddie. And I'm happy to report a Valley Center native told me he saw Eddie just last week, so he's still around. You know what—I think Eddie probably does love God.

Many Lovers of God by Profession

Eddie isn't the only one who would profess love for God. Many people make professions of faith, declarations of devotion. In John's day it was true, and in our day it is true. But not everyone who makes such a profession follows it up with the action of their life. There are many potential lovers of God by profession.

It's fascinating that the book of Acts is addressed to a man named Theophilus, whose name means "lover of God." Yet some people profess to be a Theophilus and turn out to be the awfulest people you've ever met. A profession doesn't always align with a life.

That is exactly what the apostle John has been dealing with. This short letter was written near the end of the first century A.D. by John, probably the last living apostle, the last one who had seen the risen Jesus. He looks at the church and sees what Jesus foretold: false professors, false prophets, false teachers, false Christs, people gaining prominence among Christians whose profession sounded Christian but whose lives did not align. Such counterfeits lead people astray, so John writes to expose and oppose them.

Mutually Exclusive

John is saying there is a profession that, if it doesn't line up with one's way of life, is mutually exclusive. You cannot be turning right at the same time you are turning left. You cannot be in Los Angeles at the same time you are in Washington, D.C. Some things are simply incompatible, like oil and water.

In this passage John puts forward several things as mutually exclusive. Last week, in 1 John 4:18, we saw one: "There is no fear in love." Fear of punishment or torment and love do not go together. Here he gives us another: one cannot at the same time be a lover of God and also hate that which God made in His image. And what did God make in His image? Us. We are the image-bearers of God. So you cannot profess to love God and at the same time hate those who bear His image.

If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

It cannot get any clearer than that. There is no gradation, no nuance. John puts forward clear contrasts throughout this letter: light and darkness, life and death, good and evil, love and hate.

Three Tests of Authenticity

Here John returns to what we might call his tests for Christian authenticity—the vital signs of the new birth. These fall under three categories: obedience, love, and faith.

The test for obedience appears in 1 John 2:3: "Now by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." Verse 4 continues, "He who says, I know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." We can assess the way a person lives and see by their obedience whether they truly know God.

The test for love comes in 1 John 2:9: "He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light." And the test for faith follows in 1 John 2:22: "Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?... He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also."

These three tests appear again and again throughout chapters 1, 2, and 3. Why does John keep coming back to them? Because he is seeking to expose and oppose those who had a profession but no life to back it up, because they were leading people astray. How do we know if a person is born again, if they have the vital signs of a follower of Jesus? Obedience, love, and faith.

Not Mushy Sentimentality

When John says, "If someone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar," he is not speaking of mere heartwarming affection. As I looked back over what we've covered, I realized I may not have developed this point as well as I could have. The love John calls us to is not a warm, sympathetic feeling or mushy sentimentality. Much of modern thinking on love falls into exactly that—feeling good about something. That is not what John means.

I've called this series Fullness of Joy, and I'm convinced you cannot experience fullness of joy without understanding what it looks like, practically, to love God and others with an alive and active love. Virtually every time the New Testament writers speak of this quality of love, they use a specific word, most clearly defined in 1 Corinthians 13.

You've probably heard these words at a wedding—Pastor Jason performed his son Nick's wedding yesterday and quoted from this chapter. Reading from the New Living Translation:

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud. It is not rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice in injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful and endures through every circumstance.

This is what God's love is to look like practically in my life. If I am walking in the light, this is the kind of love that will be evident toward others.

Increasingly Evident

The attributes of God's love should be increasingly evident in my life toward others. On day one, is this love perfectly evident in me? No. But it should become increasingly evident over time as God works in me. As time goes by, my life should move toward "Miles is patient and kind."

Now, it's laughable that you're laughing—but it's laughable because we recognize we don't live up to it. Try putting your own name in: patient and kind, not jealous or boastful or proud or rude, does not demand his own way, not irritable, keeps no record of wrongs. I'm not there yet. But God's love—agapao—should be increasingly evident in my life.

Why? For one reason, because it is commanded. 1 John 4:21 says, "And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also." This is not a suggestion. God did not say, "If you get around to it, maybe try to be patient." He said love one another—be patient, kind, not rude, not boastful. That ups the game considerably.

Jesus commanded this in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you." He repeated it the same night in John 15:12, adding, "Greater love has no one than this, but that a man would lay down his life for his friends." Paul picked it up in Romans 13:8, saying he who loves another has fulfilled the law, for all the commandments are summed up in "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Who Is My Brother?

If you are anything like me—and you are, because I'm a sinner and you're a sinner—at this point you might be hedging. I need to love my brother, my neighbor. But surely there are some people I don't have to love. That's exactly where people's minds went 2,000 years ago. As Jesus points out in the Sermon on the Mount, the teaching of that day was, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."

How many of us would love to sign up for that, where we get to be the arbiters of who's a neighbor and who's an enemy? "I don't like that guy—don't have to love him. I can be rude, unkind, irritable." We won't even get into Jesus' follow-up, "Love your enemy"—that's for another day. We're just talking about loving the children of God, which is hard enough.

So who is my brother? 1 John 5:1: "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten of him." If you believe Jesus is Savior and have trusted in Him, you are born of God. So if I am born of God, I will love all His children—maybe not perfectly on day one, but increasingly over time. By this alive and active love we demonstrate that we are God's children.

I'm Not Sure I Can Do This

You might say, "Pastor, I'm not sure I can do that." I'm with you—we should be challenged by the Scriptures, because they set before us God's standard, the standard by which He judges and the standard He ultimately wants to bring us into. But our concern is invalidated by at least three points.

Galatians 5:22: "The fruit of the Spirit is love." The evidence of God's Spirit in me is this love. Philippians 2:13: it is God "who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure." And Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." So God's Spirit is in me, the evidence of that Spirit is love, and God Himself enables and empowers me supernaturally to love this way.

An Apparent Circle

But how do I know if I am actually loving the children of God? John answers in 1 John 5:2: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments." If you're not a little confused, you may have missed what looks like circular reasoning. The argument runs: if you say you love God but don't love His children with 1 Corinthians 13 love, you're a liar; if you love God, you will love His children; and we know you love His children because you love God and keep His commandments.

How do we draw this together? If I am born of God, then I will love God and others. Love for God and love for others are united as one thing in John's view of the new birth. We love because He first loved us (1 John 4:19); in response to His love, we love Him and we love those begotten of Him. John does not see a difference between loving God and loving His people, because the church is called the body of Christ. In loving God's people, you are loving God.

All of this is expressed in keeping His commandments. And what is His commandment? In Matthew 22, the lawyer asked Jesus for the greatest commandment, and Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments all the law and the prophets are fulfilled."

So when Eddie said to me, "I love God, I ain't lying," here is the test: the true child of God is known by their obedience to the law of love. They are seeking, by God's enabling power, to love God and to love others—both the people of God and, in another study, even their enemies—with love that is patient, kind, not irritable, not rude, not conceited.

Born Again by Faith, Not Works

All this talk of obedience puts us in a challenging place, because we must ask: how do I become a child of God? Many believe we become a child of God by keeping His commandments. But John has put it the other way: you become a child of God, and then you fulfill these commandments by His enabling power.

So how do you become a child of God? 1 John 5:3-5: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God." By faith in Christ, I become a victorious child of God.

We must be careful not to fall into the pattern of thinking that keeping the commandments earns us a place as a child of God. The opening words of John's gospel say it clearly: "To as many as received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to be called the children of God" (John 1:12). When you become a child of God by grace through the work of Jesus on the cross, then God works in you, and that is evidenced in your love for God and for others.

Nicodemus and the Bronze Serpent

A very religious man came to Jesus one night—Nicodemus, recorded in John 3. He was one of the leading rabbis of his day, a Pharisee who sought to keep all of God's law and Judaism's traditions perfectly. He was probably a morally good person. He came with formalities, but Jesus cut him off: "Nick, unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God."

Nicodemus's brain popped like a grape. He had kept the law; of course he was going to heaven. "How can a man be born again? Must I go back into my mother's womb?" Jesus, full of grace and truth, tried to explain, but Nicodemus wasn't getting it. So Jesus said, "Let me speak in earthly terms," and referenced the book of Numbers, which Nicodemus knew well.

In that story, after Israel left Egypt, venomous snakes came into the camp because of their murmuring and began biting the people. God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole; anyone bitten had only to look to it and be healed. The scientifically minded would say, "That's stupid—you have to do something to fix this." No—you must trust and look, and you'll be saved.

So Jesus said, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so shall the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life." Twice He repeats it. This is how you are born again—by faith.

Nicodemus thought he would be saved by his morality. Jesus said that wouldn't do it. But a few years later, Nicodemus saw Jesus lifted up on a cross, and something clicked. After Jesus died, Nicodemus was one of the two men who took His body and prepared it for burial. I have a feeling we'll see Nicodemus in heaven—not because of his good works, but because he trusted in Jesus as the Christ.

Known by Love

How do we know a person has trusted in Jesus? It is evidenced in their life, not their profession—seen in their love for God and their love for others. Jesus said, "By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another."

It's distressing to me that in 2019 in America, the perception of many non-Christians is that Christians are characterized by hate. Yet Jesus said they would know us by our love. In saying that, our love does not mean we overlook or blindly look away from sin—Jesus didn't do that. He confronted corruption, sin, and wickedness, but always with grace and truth and love.

Would to God that it would be increasingly evident in my life and in yours that we are patient and kind, not jealous or boastful or proud, not rude, not demanding our own way, not irritable, keeping no record of wrongs—not rejoicing in injustice but rejoicing when the truth wins, never giving up, always hopeful, enduring through every circumstance. I am not sufficient of myself to accomplish that. I need God by His Spirit to enable me. Would you agree for yourself?

Closing Prayer

Father, we do need Your help to love in this way, because there are people in our lives—maybe in our own homes, certainly in our neighborhoods, workplaces, and school campuses—that we find unlovely. But Jesus, every one of us was unlovely, and You demonstrated Your love toward us in that while we were still sinners, You died for us. You promised that if we trust in You and in Your love as demonstrated on the cross, You would make us Your children supernaturally—we would be born again, begin to inherit Your nature, and Your love would compel us to love You and to love others, first those who are part of Your body and then beyond, even those we consider our enemies.

So I pray, God, that You would enable us this week to not keep a record of wrongs, to not be boastful or irritable or proud, to be kind and patient, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as You have forgiven us. Do that work in us. We praise You, Jesus.

And if you have been religiously trying to earn God's favor, and this is the first time you recognize that's not how it happens, but you want to receive His grace and become His child, you can call out to the Lord right now. Dear Jesus, I know that I need Your grace. I've been trying to fix myself, but I know I can't do it. I recognize my failures today. I pray that You come into my life, forgive me of my sin, and help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, amen.