I John: An Exegetical Commentary by Nate Wilson

4:1 Loved ones, do not believe in every spirit, but rather, judge the spirits whether they are out of God, because many false prophets have come out into the world.

John picks up on the angle of spirits from 3:24, noting an opposite to the spirit we received: the antichrist and the false prophets. The word "spirit" can be taken multiple ways: one being the reality of God and angels, Satan, and evil spirits, the second being a human mindset or the non-material soul which sustains that mindset. I'm not sure a distinction has to be made here. The Holy Spirit as well as unclean spirits influence the spirits of men with characteristic ways of thinking, so the different meanings for “spirit” are not unrelated. As John Cotton ways, "Every good or evil inclination is called a spirit... it always comes from some spirit... of the world, of the devil, and of God" (410).

We are to "prove/ test/try/ examine/ scrutinize/ judge/ discern" (Pershbacher) the spirits. I also like Clark's translation "evaluate" (122). Thayer expanded on the word, explaining that it was often used in the context of testing metals to see if they were genuine. John commands us to judge; this is the key word for the whole passage of v.1-6. Christians are to be a discerning people, noticing what is of God and to be embraced (love - v.7) and noticing what is not of God and rejecting it (false teachers). Notice that this command is not just addressed to the church leaders. We must not simply rest upon the judgement of a respected preacher, but WE must also judge (Clark 123). Moreover, judgement must be done with the mind by objective criteria. "This should instruct the people of God to search the scriptures daily so that they may be better able to try the spirits of their ministers. Labour also to try your own heart" (Cotton 411).

John gives a reason to be diligent in testing spirits to determine their origin: there are "many false prophets." The Old Testament stories tell us of several occasions where MANY false prophets were pitted against ONE true prophet, and things are still the same today. It takes discernment to clear through the din of the voices of all the false prophets who are teaching lies. There is a definite link between the "false prophets" and the "antichrist;" a comparison with 2:18-19 and 4:3 shows that both parties "have gone out" and are "in the world." The devil has left his place in heaven to roam the earth, and likewise, the false prophet has left the church, to work in the world. The Perfect tense of the verb "have gone out" indicates they were still at work (Westcott 140). The reality of these heretical teachers, "false prophets" is what John is dealing with in this book. "These spirits are men, preachers, religious leaders of whatever sort, who teach error" (Clark 123). We are to try these ministers (Cotton 409).

4:2 By this y’all know the Spirit of God: every spirit which agrees that Jesus Christ has come in a physical-body is out of God,

WE "know" (meaning the same as "judge" in the previous verse) the difference between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the devil--between a teacher influenced by Christ or the antichrist--by their confession, that is, what they teach and agree with. If they agree (The Greek word means literally to say the "same word") that Jesus is both fully God and fully man (Literally "flesh"), that is a good sign that it is of God. That point will quickly turn up false religions still today--Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, etc. However, there have been some heresies that emphasize that Jesus Christ had a physical body (the Nicolatians, Hymeneas and Philetus, etc.) but the Greek grammar actually emphasizes the person of Jesus rather than the flesh-and-blood mode of His existence on earth. The sense of it is not so much, "confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh," but, "confesses the Christ that has come in the flesh" (Clark 123, Cotton 415).

Westcott (142) makes two notes about this phrase, first that the verb "has come" is in the Perfect tense, meaning that His coming is an abiding fact, and secondly that "Christ came in [not into] the flesh." Jesus was not a hollow man filled with God, but truly man just as He is truly God. And whoever agrees with this is of God.

4:3 and every spirit which does not agree with Jesus Christ [having come in a physical-body] is not out of God, and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is in the world already.

Whoever does NOT agree with this doctrine of Christ is NOT of God. I've heard that this is not only true of human teachers but also true of evil spirits who have conversed with humans; they cannot say, "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh," or, "Jesus is Lord." Throughout this passage, John uses the phrase literally translated "out of God," which means the Spirit was part of God, came out of Him and into us, or perhaps in reference to children of God, the verb "born" is understood from the full phrase "born out of God" in 2:29 and 4:7. The spirit that does not confess Christ did not come from out of God.

The parallel structure of this verse with the previous verse, makes the full confession "Jesus Christ come in the flesh" the obvious expansion of the one-word "Jesus" here, and most Greek manuscripts actually expand it out, but the meaning is the same. The Greek texts, however, do not contain the word "spirit;" they just say, "this is the of-the-antichrist." But the context indicates that it's talking about the "spirit "of the antichrist.

That the readers had "heard" about this antichrist which was "already in the world" is almost an exact repeat of 2:18. John introduced most of his material in the first two chapters, but he keeps picking up on strands mentioned earlier and developing them. "This spirit of the antichrist [is] an attitude, mindset, and complex of ideas; and exists in the world today in every heresy and non-Christian religion--perhaps especially in the religion of secular humanism and its brainchild, democratic socialism, a.k.a. Communism” (Clark 126).

Why would John bother with repeating his statement in the negative? If he had simply left it at, "every spirit that confesses Jesus... is of God," it wouldn't necessarily rule out the logical possibility that some spirits who do not confess Jesus might be of God also. This negative conjunction in v.3 narrows the field so there can be no middle ground (Clark 124). There are only two camps: One is the "US/YOU" who are "out of God" and who are influenced by the "Spirit of truth." In the opposite camp are "THEM" who are "of the world" and who are influenced by the "Spirit of error/spirit of antichrist."

4:4 YOU are out of God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One in you is greater than the one in the world.

The players in this combat are identified by the first words of v.4, v.5, and v.6 ("YOU... THEY... WE"). The readers (YOU) are to judge between the two camps represented by two teachers: THEM--the antichrist, Gnostic false teachers, and WE--John and his apostolic band. The antagonism is stronger in the Greek text than in English through the use of emphatic pronouns. But the outcome of the combat is already decided: YOU have conquered THEM! Another Perfect-tense verb here indicates that the victory was achieved in the past and hasn't been challenged since. We have overcome the world, which is influenced by the evil one, who has also been overcome (2:13)! The reason we overcame the world is because the Spirit which God gave to be in us is greater than the Spirit of the world.

"The [false prophets] have captured the major denominations; they control the press, so that we are constantly misrepresented and ridiculed... yet John's words are indeed true. We children of God have conquered the false prophets. They failed to convince us of Wellhausen's higher criticism. The failed to convince us that there was no Hittite nation. They failed to convince us that the Pentateuch was written after the Babylonian captivity. We still believe in the virgin birth, the atonement, and the resurrection. We have conquered them!" (Clark 126)

4:5 THEY are out of the world; on account of this, they are speaking out of the world and the world is listening to them.

The "THEY" is the false prophets that John is combatting. That they "speak as from the world" refers, at least in part, back to the test of their confession in v.3: "They speak from a worldly point of view... the 'world' [being] the moral characteristics of the order, as separated from Christ" (Clark 127/Westcott 144). Their audience, too, is a distinguishing characteristic: Who is drinking in the teacher's message? If "the world is listening" to the message of someone, there is good reason to question whether that person's message is of God. If true Christians are paying attention to it, then we'd better listen up. (This is not, however, a failsafe test, because so many of us Christians indiscriminately fill our minds with all sorts of worldly junk!)

4:6 WE are out of God; the one who knows God is listening to us; the one who is not out of God is not listening to us. Out of this we know the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.

A corollary to this test is to note whether WE are from God by whether we are drinking in the Bible (The "US" here refers to John and the apostles who wrote the Bible.) or the newspaper/T.V./etc. of the world.

Knowing God results in a knowledge of truth vs. error, which results in discerning whether a teaching is from God or antichrist (Clark 128). The Christian audience should listen to John, not the antichrists, and today we should read the Bible rather than filling our minds with the stuff of the world. We don't do this blindly; it is a result of our knowledge of God and our judgement that tells us what is worth listening to!

In addition to our criteria of the CONFESSION and the AUDIENCE of a spirit/teacher, we can also judge them by the presence or non-presence of LOVE. This is not explicitly stated here, but it is nevertheless in the context – both before (3:13 "He who does not love abides in death") and after (4:7 "everyone that loves is born of God").

The phrase, "out of this we know" closes John’s section on the criteria for judging spirits of teachers. "The general character of those who receive and those who reject the message, and again of the teaching which is received and rejected by those who are the children of God, leads to a fuller discernment of the spirit of the truth and of the spirit of the opposing error" (Westcott 146).

It is also interesting to note that John picks up new terms for the two camps he is describing, but even though they are new words, they are the same concepts: God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ who send the Spirit which is the "Spirit of Truth," and the devil and the antichrist which are the origin of the "spirit of error" (or "the mindset of wandering astray").

4:7 Loved ones, let us love one another, because love is out of God, and every one who loves has been born out of God and is knowing God.

John comes back to love as the distinguishing mark of a Christian. Again, that love is not an emotion (Clark 131), but is defined as the action and knowledge this whole book is talking about. The verb "let us love" is the exact same hortatory as 3:18 "let us love not in words and tongue, but in action and truth."

"Love is out of God;" God is the source of love. Love does not come naturally to human nature, but we who are "born out of God" will associate with everything that is out of God. "Since love proceeds from Him, it must be characteristic also of those who partake in His nature" (Westcott 147).

The second reason to love, namely, the state of those who love being born of God, takes us back to the parallel statement in 2:29 that, "everyone who practices righteousness is born out of God." This practice of righteousness and of loving others is a result of being born of God and knowing God.

Apparently the Gnostic "false-prophets" claimed to know God, but weren't practicing righteousness and loving others, so John is pointing out that they are frauds. There are still hypocrites today like that--even some pastors! That's why a minister should make it his job to "allay swellings and knit together the congregation in one spirit... not to allow any dissention...," wrote Cotton (430); "Preserve your love to your brethren, and you preserve your inheritance."

Are you characterized by love? I know too many Christians (including my own self) who are characterized by criticism of other Christians rather than by self-sacrificing love. Oh God, please develop in me more of the characteristics of having been born out of You!

The Perfect-tense "born" and the Present-tense "knowing" emphasize how this relationship began in the past, but especially that it is carrying on into the present (Westcott 147).

John, in typical fashion, states the same principle of love again in the negative, thus closing the door to any middle-ground possibility that there may be some people who know God, yet aren't loving other people as a life characteristic. The reason that the one who isn't practicing love does not know God is also given: because "God is love." This closes the chiasm begun in v.7, "love is of God." Hanna (437) notes that this cannot be translated "love is God." Love is a characteristic of God, but it does not describe the full sum of what God is. It is important enough to who God Is, however, that, "According to our love or lack of love to our brothers, such is our knowledge of lack of knowledge of God" (Cotton 431).

4:9 In this, the love of God in us was revealed: that God has commissioned His Son -- an only-child – into the world that we might live through Him.

Verses 9 and 10 are almost exactly the same; both echoing 3:16. By repetition, John drives home the great importance of this principle that God's sacrifice of His Son is the model upon which our understanding and practice of love must be based. The exact nature of this love in us seems a little fuzzy to me. The Greek text literally reads, "In this was revealed the love of God in us." The NASV moves the phrase "the love of God" in-between "this" and "revealed" making it sound like the "in us" is describing where the love is revealed. I'm not sure the Greek text is emphasizing that. The KJV uses the wrong preposition, emphasizing the direction in which God shows love ("toward us"), but again, the focus of the Greek text is not the direction in which the love is being revealed. The NIV uses "among us," seeming to agree with Westcott's assessment (149) that the emphasis is on "us" as the believers "in which it was revealed and in which it was effective." Dana (63) also says a similar thing: "In [the atonement,] God has demonstrated the kind of love He has planted 'in us,' that is, in the experience of believers." It appears that the love of God is already considered to be "in us," therefore, the passage is saying that the quality of that love which is already in us has already been revealed to anyone who wants to understand what it's like. It is the same quality of love which God (through Christ) displayed. That's why we should reflect the same quality with the love God has placed in us by laying down our life (3:16) and loving each other (4:11).

The word describing God's "sending" His Son into the world generally describes more than simply sending (there is another Greek word for that). This one is the root word from which we get the word "apostle," and it connotes that the person was sent for a specific purpose, or commissioned. In this case, Jesus was "sent" "in order that we might live through Him." Westcott reminds us (149) that this verb is in the Perfect tense, for Christ was "sent" at a certain time, but "we now enjoy the blessings of that mission."

John uses an interesting word to describe the Son God sent here; in modern English, the word would translate "only-child." Thayer elaborates that monogenh means "single of its kind... used of only-sons in relation to their parents. We are children of God, but in the sense in which Jesus is Son of God, He has no brethren." This only-begotten Son of God was sent in order that we might live through Him. On account of Christ's work of atonement, we move from death to life (cf. 3:14) (Westcott 149). If Christ is thus our life, notes Cotton (437), then without Him we have no life, and without Him we can do nothing.

4:10 In this is love, not that we ourselves^[1] loved God, but rather that HE loved us and commissioned His Son to be appeasement concerning our sins.

John repeats the idea of the previous verse, substituting the "in us" and "only-begotten" for a focus on the initiator of that love and a concept of propitiation. Concerning who initiates the love relationship between us and God, John is emphatic about the fact that it is God, not us. The Greek language lays special stress on the "He" and "us" to underscore this point. I read today a mission organization's report that so many thousands of people made "decisions for Christ" because of the showing of a movie, but we must remember that it is God who makes a decision for us to love us first! The Aorist tense of God's "love" reminds us of the "historic manifestation of that love in Christ's death" (Westcott 150).

John also elaborates on the previous verse: the MEANS by which we might live through Christ is though His "appeasement/atonement/ propitiation concerning our sins." The work involves soothing wrath, not just a "sacrifice" or a "way" as more modern English translations have rendered it (Pershbacher). John Cotton (442) offers a list of meanings for the word, too: "pledge... ransom... a gift to appease wrath... surety to undergo wrath for another... covering--as a plaster..." Because we have sinned, we deserve punishment from God, which is physical and spiritual death. Christ laid down His life in our stead, taking the punishment due us upon Himself. As a result, we live through Him.

What wonderful news! The conclusions Cotton (490) drew from this are compelling:

· "If God loved us while we were yet enemies, we should freely love and do kindness to our enemies as God did us."

· If God loved us while we were yet enemies, then God "loves you freely forever, for His love does not stand upon condition."

4:11 Loved ones, if God loved us like that, we ourselves also ought to love each other.

Throughout this book, John draws parallels between the behavior of the believer and that of Christ. We are to walk as He walked (2:6), be righteous as He is righteous (2:29), purify ourselves as He is pure (3:3), lay down our lives as He did (3:16), and now, love as He loved. This concludes the passage on love begun in 4:7 ("Beloved, let us love one another..."). God's love to us is the reason we should love others AND accept love from others--"one another" goes both ways. Notice also that "the obligation which St. John draws from the fact of God's love is not that we should 'love God' but that we should 'love one another'"(Westcott 151). To love a being we have never seen is rather abstract (v.12), but we can concretely love other people in response to the love God has shown us!

4:12 No one has ever watched God. If we are loving each other, God is staying in us, and His love in us is perfected.

Verses 12-16 seem to lay special focus on the mutual relationship of the believer with God. The phrase "in us" or "in Him" is repeated no less than 7 times! I see three conditions laid out for this mutual abiding:

3. "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God" (4:15)

The second two flow from the first, for confessing faith and loving others are the fulfillment of the command (3:23).

But the verse starts by saying that no one has ever seen/watched/ beheld God. That seems at first incongruous with the message of loving others. "God, because of His essential nature, has never been understandingly perceived by any one at any time" (Dana 63). The word for seen/watched/beheld is "often used of public shows" and connotes viewing "attentively, contemplating" (Thayer). We may not have ever seen God, but God can sure been seen in us! "God's love finds... tangible expression in the love of His children" (Dana 63). "The fellowship we have with God is invisible... the greatest love we can show to God is to love His image in His servants" (Cotton 446). We can't visibly see whether we are mutually abiding with an unseen God, but we can still be assured that He is staying in us because we are giving and accepting love from others.

The construction of the Greek clause "if we love one another" indicates that John expects this to be true, not that he's not sure whether we'll be loving or not; for him it's a given--if you're a Christian, you are loving! And if we are loving others, God's love in us is perfected. I have deviated from the standard translations because the Greek word order is: "His love in us is perfected," not: "His love is perfected in us." I think this is more consistent with the other "in us" phrases throughout this passage. Westcott (152) states that the Perfect Paraphrastic form ("is perfected") "emphasizes the two elements of the thought: 'the love of God is in us' [meaning His loving character], and 'the love of God is in us in its completest form.' It is through man that 'the love of God' finds its fulfillment on earth." Cotton enumerates what it means to be perfected: "sound...unfeigned...entire...growing...expert...durable."

4:13 In this we know that we are staying in Him and He in us: that He has given out of His Spirit to us.

This verse parallels 3:24 exactly: we know that we mutually abide with God because of the Spirit which He has given us. Both verses use the same word for "Spirit" and for "has given." There is an "out" in the Greek text not picked up by the major English translations; it is literally "out of His Spirit He has given to us."

4:14 And we ourselves have watched and are testifying that the Father has commissioned the Son as savior of the world.

This verse seems to be somewhat of a parenthesis: the two verses before are oriented around the phrase “in us,” and the two verses after are oriented around the phrase “in Him,” but this verse contains neither of those two phrases. The subject "we" is emphatic in this verse, and commentators take it two ways:

1. Cotton (454) takes it to refer to all believers: "When a Christian walks in love, he has seen the Savior of the world and has known Him; that makes him love his brethren, because God sent His Son to save them."

2. However, I agree with Westcott that the subject is John and the apostles (153). John admits that He and the apostles hadn't seen God Himself (4:12), but they still know God because they saw Jesus with their own eyes. The book opens with this same thought, using the same verb "we have seen and are testifying" (1:20). The apostles watched Jesus in real life in the past, while He was living on earth, and now, in the Present tense, they are telling people about what they saw.

What they heard and saw was that God "the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world." This teaching on the sending of Christ parallels what John has already just covered in 4:9-10. God is the One who sent Jesus and determined His mission for Him.

What is the connection of this verse with its context? My guess is that this is a second mark of assurance that we are mutually abiding in Christ. The first assurance is that He has given us His Spirit (4:13), the second is the credibility of the apostles (4:14). The apostles are credible because:

4:15 Whoever agrees that Jesus is the Son of God, God stays in him, and he in God.

The second criterion for mutual abiding is belief/confession/agreeing. John is referring back to the criteria by which spirits can be tested in 4:2--a test of what they believe/agree to/teach concerning Jesus. If someone agrees that Jesus is the Son of God, he is of God, and there is mutual fellowship and life--he in God and God in him. "The two clauses mark two aspects of the Christian's life: the believer has a new and invincible power for the fulfillment of his work on earth 'God is in him,' and again he realizes that his life is not on earth, that he belongs essentially to another order: 'he is in God' (Westcott 155).

Do you have your doctrine straight on who Jesus is? Are you living with the reality of an invincible God in you and a citizenship in heaven?

4:16^a And we ourselves have known and have believed the love which God has in us.

Again the subject "we" is interpreted two different ways: Cotton (458) says that we, meaning us Christians, have "believed" through faith in the Bible; we "know" through the "sense" and "experience" of loving one another. I think it's still talking about the apostles, though. John and the disciples knew Jesus and believed what He said, and they continue to have a relationship with Him, believing in Him. This parallels the "seen and testified" of verse 14. The Greek text says that this love is "in" us, not "for" us (NASV, NIV) or "to" us (KJV). The theme of the previous verses has been God and His love "in" us, and this goes right along with it. Westcott (155) elaborates that this is speaking of the love that is "in the Christian body." Looking at the larger context,

4:16^b God is love, and the one who stays in love stays in God, and God stays^[2] in him.

Finally, here is the third criterion of mutual abiding--the fulfillment of the second half of the commandment: abiding in love--that is, loving your brother (2:10) / loving one another (4:12). This verse caps off the "in Him" section beginning at 4:12, having to do with loving others and abiding in God. It is a virtual repeat of 4:12-13.

This is the third time that John states, "God is love" (cf. 4:8, 4:13); repetition signifies importance. Cotton (461-463) takes this to mean that God is the object and source of all love and that love is an essential part of God. "This exhorts us to the consistent love of the brethren." And this time, I agree with him!

4:17 In this, love has been perfected with us so that we might have an open conversation in the day of judgement--for just as He is, we also are in this world.

"In this"--in the fact that we love others and that God abides in us (from v.16)--love is perfected. This is a repeat of 4:12: "If we love one another, God abides in us and His love in us is perfected." The Perfect tense of "perfected" presents the perfection "as dependent on a continuous fellowship between God and the Christian body," says Westcott (157), and "in fulfilling this issue, God works with man." This love is perfected "with/among" us (this is omitted in the KJV)--"in our community" (Hanna 437). Because love is perfected by loving others, it is not a passive thing where God perfects the love "in" us while we don't do anything; it is rather a cooperative action; God puts love in us and enables us to love. We love, and that matures and improves our love.

The purpose of all this is once again assurance. God wants us to have confidence on judgement day. This is the third time John has touched on an action that will give us confidence or a good, open, face-to-face talk with Jesus when we stand before the judgement seat of Christ. 2:28 stressed that "remaining in Him" would yield that confidence; 3:21 stressed a clean conscience "if our heart does not condemn us;" now in 4:17, the stress is on loving others. "If we do but walk in a spirit of love and helpfulness to our brethren, neglecting our private respects, the devil and our consciences will have nothing to accuse us of, but we shall meet death and judgement in the face, without fear or shame" (Cotton 469).

The last phrase of this verse is somewhat awkward to translate. It literally reads "just as that one is, also we ourselves are in the world in this." The gist of it is clear, however: our confidence in the day of judgement will spring from the fact that we have been walking as He walked in this world and loving others. "To abide in God is to share the character of Christ under the conditions of earth," writes Westcott (158-159), "the 'in this world' emphasizes the idea of transitoriness."

"As that one is," and what is "that one?" It is Jesus, the Son of God, and "God is love." This phrase parallels the phrase, "God is love," in the previous verse. It could be read, "As God is [love], so also are we [loving] in this world" (Cotton 467). Note, however, the change in tense: here it is Present tense, "as He is, so also ARE we," but in the parallel verse (3:2) it is Future tense, "we WILL BE like Him" (emphasis mine). There is a sense in which we are currently like Jesus in our love, but another sense in which we are not yet like Him (Cotton 469).

4:18 Fear is not in love, but rather, perfect love throws out fear, because fear carries punishment and the one who fears has not been perfected in love.

Now we come to a new angle on love: The opposite of love is not only "hate" (from Chapter three) but also "fear/dread/terror" (Pershbacher). It relates back to having confidence in the day of judgement (Westcott 159). The phraseology is very similar to 3:19-21, where having a heart that does not condemn you gives confidence in the day of judgement. Having a condemning heart may be the same as a fearful heart that is afraid of punishment.

"Perfect/developed/mature love" (Pershbacher) --perfected in loving others--"throws out fear." When fear enters your mind, you must keep casting it out every time using these assurances John outlines in his letter.

Fear "involves punishment" (NASV/NIV) "has torment" (KJV) "has connected with it the thought of punishment" (Thayer). Fear is essentially self-conscious whereas love is essentially others-conscious. Two things cause fear:

b) Unpredictable things that threaten our comfort and security--perhaps this could be called "torment."

The teaching that John brings deals with both of these causes of fear. First, if we have confessed our sins and have been forgiven through Christ's appeasement, then we have no fear that God will punish us for our sins. As a corollary to that, if we are living in righteousness, we have no fear of being punished by men for wrongdoing either. Second, if God loves us and is sovreignly in control of all the world, we have nothing to fear from any unpredictable circumstances (Cotton 481). What a burden this releases from the worried heart of a believer! How freeing not to be afraid of either punishment or torment!

Is your love mature? Are you free from fear? If not, then begin casting out the fear using the assurance of God's forgiveness and of His sovereign love. Don't allow fear to take hold in your mind; cast it out!

This verse summarizes John's teaching on love very succinctly. "We love" refers to all the passages about us loving our brother and loving one another; "because He first loved us" refers back to 4:10--the fact that we didn't love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

The Greek wording makes a strong contrast between the one who fears and the "we" who love. Christians were first loved by God, and now love characterizes our lives; it cannot be any other way than this. Two lessons we can draw from this verse are given by Cotton (486):

a) It is an assurance of salvation: if we are loving, it is a proof that God elected us in love.

b) "God loved us when we loved Him not; so though man do not precede you with love, yet precede them; and if they provoke you, be steadfast in your love; be like God in your love."

[1] “How?” is the reading of the vast majority of Greek and Latin manuscripts of 1 John, including the two second-oldest (the 5^th century Alexandrinus and 048). The two oldest-known manuscripts (the 4^th century Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, together with half a dozen Byzantine-era manuscripts) instead read “not.” The Patriarchal and Textus Receptus GNT editions go with the majority, but the UBS GNT goes with its usual preference for the reading of the Vaticanus (Ancient Coptic and Syriac translations of 1 John are split between the two readings.) Either way, the text denies that someone can love God if they can't love their brother, so the dispute is merely over whether the denial is explicit (“not”) or implicit (“How?”).

4:20 If someone should say, "I am loving God," yet he is hating his brother, he is a liar, for the one who is not loving his brother whom he has seen, how is he able to love God, whom he has not seen?

This verse builds upon 4:12 "No one has seen God." Since we can't see God, the visible demonstration of our love to God is to love our brother. Love of others must absolutely follow from loving God--this is the gist of the next two verses also. This verse follows the pattern of 2:4 & 9.

“How?” is the reading of the vast majority of Greek and Latin manuscripts of 1 John, including the two second-oldest (the 5^th century Alexandrinus and 048). The two oldest-known manuscripts (the 4^th century Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, together with half a dozen Byzantine-era manuscripts) instead read “not.” The Patriarchal and Textus Receptus GNT editions go with the majority, but the UBS GNT goes with its usual preference for the Vaticanus (Ancient Coptic and Syriac translations of 1 John are split between the two readings.) Either way, the text denies that someone can love God if they can't love their brother, so the dispute is merely over whether the denial is explicit (“not”) or implicit (“How?”).

It is hypocrisy to say one thing and not live consistently with it. Whoever says they love God and hates their brother is a liar, and "Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist" (2:22). John is combating the Gnostic heresy that one can attain some mystic knowledge or relationship with God without it impacting our lives in righteous living and love for others. As Westcott writes (161), "the claim to the love of God without action involve[s] not only the denial of what is known to be true, but falseness of character." He has not only told a lie, he is a "liar." Does our walk match our talk? Lord, help us to be true and not hypocrites!

"If there is any whom you neglect and cannot have fellowship with, why, there is no soundness in you" (Cotton 489). Is there anyone like this in your life? You don't need to necessarily hate them, a simple lack of active love is all it takes, for in this verse, the passive "does not love" is equated with active "hates." Take the time now to repent of lacking love to any such person, for you have a hindrance to fellowship with God as long as this isn't made right. Not loving our brother takes away our ability to love God; conversely, if we do love our brother, fellowship may be opened up with God too (Cotton 494).

4:21 And we have this command from Him in order that the one who is loving God might also love his brother.

This verse parallels the twofold commandment of 3:23, that we should believe/love God and love our brother. This is offered in proof of why the brother-hater of the previous verse is a liar. It is a command of God to love our brother, and when God commands something, we'd better do it (Cotton 490). Notice also the Present tense "we have" concerning the commandment. The command therefore remains with us and "the effort to obtain it can never be relaxed" (Westcott 162). God gave that command for a purpose, and that purpose is "in order that" we might love our brother. Are you fulfilling this purpose of God?

[1] Modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament render this verb in the Perfect tense based on one ancient manuscript (Vaticanus) and six less-ancient manuscripts, but since thousands of Greek manuscripts have the Aorist spelling, including three of practically the same age as the Vaticanus (Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, and 048, it seems more reasonable to preserve the traditional spelling found in the Textus Receptus instead of the outlier adopted by the United Bible Society. It doesn’t introduce a theological change; it just allows the verbs “we loved… He loved” to match in tense as they should.

[2] Although not in the Alexandrinus manuscript, the Vulgate Latin translation, or the Textus Receptus, Patriarchal editions of the Greek New Testament, many Greek manuscripts include the word, including the majority of the oldest-known Greek manuscripts, so it is included in modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament. Even without the word explicitly written, the context assumes it, so there is no difference in meaning.

[3] Modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament removed the object of our love (Him=God) from the traditional Greek text when they discovered it was not in the Vaticanus or Alexandrinus manuscripts, but “theon=God” is the object in two other manuscripts just as old as the Vaticanus and Alexandrinus, namely the Sinaiticus and 048, and the ancient translators of the Vulgate, Coptic, and Syriac versions also rendered “God” as the object explicitly, so it seems that the traditional reading of the majority of Greek manuscripts followed by the Textus Receptus and Patriarchial editions is actually a middle ground, and the UBS has adopted a radical position. The limitation on the object of love is strategic, for without God, humans still love, but are “lovers of themselves” (2 Tim. 3:2) rather than of God.

1Jn 4:1 αγαπητοι μη παντι πνευματι πιστευετε αλλα δοκιμαζετε τα πνευματα ει εκ του θεου εστιν οτι πολλοι ψευδοπροφηται εξεληλυθασιν εις τον κοσμον	4:1 Loved ones, do not believe in every spirit, but rather, judge the spirits whether they are out of God, because many false prophets have come out into the world.
1Jn 4:2 εν τουτω γινωσκετε^{(Maj.,Lat.=3sPassive)} το πνευμα του θεου παν πνευμα ο ομολογει ιησουν χριστον εν σαρκι εληλυθοτα εκ του θεου εστιν	4:2 By this y’all know the Spirit of God: every spirit which agrees that Jesus Christ has come in a physical-body is out of God,
1Jn 4:3 και παν πνευμα ο μη ομολογει τον ιησουν χριστον^-A,B+10/^א⁼^kurion [εν σαρκι εληλυθοτα^א^{,Maj.,Syr.,T.R.}] εκ του θεου ουκ εστιν και τουτο εστιν το του αντιχριστου ο ακηκοατε οτι ερχεται και νυν εν τω κοσμω εστιν ηδη	4:3 and every spirit which does not agree with Jesus Christ [having come in a physical-body] is not out of God, and this is the [spirit] of the antichrist, which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is in the world already.
1Jn 4:4 υμεις εκ του θεου εστε τεκνια και νενικηκατε αυτους οτι μειζων εστιν ο εν υμιν η ο εν τω κοσμω	4:4 YOU are out of God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the One is you is greater than the one in the world.
1Jn 4:5 αυτοι εκ του κοσμου εισιν δια τουτο εκ του κοσμου λαλουσιν και ο κοσμος αυτων ακουει	4:5 THEY are out of the world; on account of this, they are speaking out of the world and the world is listening to them.
1Jn 4:6 ημεις εκ του θεου εσμεν ο γινωσκων τον θεον ακουει ημων ος ουκ εστιν εκ του θεου ουκ ακουει ημων εκ τουτου γινωσκομεν το πνευμα της αληθειας και το πνευμα της πλανης	4:6 WE are out of God; the one who knows God is listening to us; the one who is not out of God is not listening to us. Out of this we know the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error.

4:7 ᾿Αγαπητοί, ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους, ὅτι ἡ ἀγάπη ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐστι, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἀγαπῶν ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ γεγέννηται καὶ γινώσκει τὸν Θεόν.	4:7 Loved ones, let us love one another, because love is out of God, and every one who loves has been born out of God and is knowing God.
4:8 ὁ μὴ ἀγαπῶν οὐκ ἔγνω τὸν Θεόν, ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν.	4:8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
4:9 ἐν τούτῳ ἐφανερώθη ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν, ὅτι τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ ἀπέσταλκεν ὁ Θεὸς εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἵνα ζήσωμεν δι᾿ αὐτοῦ.	4:9 In this, the love of God in us was revealed: that God has commissioned His Son--an only--child--into the world that we might live through Him.
4:10 ἐν τούτῳ ἐστὶν ἡ ἀγάπη, οὐχ ὅτι ἡμεῖς ἠγαπήσαμεν^{Perfect tense:B+6mss,UBS} τὸν Θεόν, ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι αὐτὸς ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς καὶ ἀπέστειλεν τὸν υἱὸν αὐτοῦ ἱλασμὸν περὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν.	4:10 In this is love, not that we ourselves loved God, but rather that HE loved us and commissioned His Son to be appeasement concerning our sins.
4:11 ᾿Αγαπητοί, εἰ οὕτως ὁ Θεὸς ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς, καὶ ἡμεῖς ὀφείλομεν ἀλλήλους ἀγαπᾶν.	4:11 Loved ones, if God loved us like that, we ourselves also ought to love each other.
4:12 Θεὸν οὐδεὶς πώποτε τεθέαται· ἐὰν ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους, ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἡμῖν μένει καὶ ἡ ἀγάπη αὐτοῦ τετελειωμένη ἐστιν ἐν ἡμῖν.	4:12 No one has ever watched God. If we are loving each other, God is staying in us, and His love in us is perfected.
4:13 ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ μένομεν καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν ἡμῖν, ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ δέδωκεν ἡμῖν.	4:13 In this we know that we are staying in Him and He in us: that He has given out of His Spirit to us.
4:14 καὶ ἡμεῖς τεθεάμεθα καὶ μαρτυροῦμεν ὅτι ὁ πατὴρ ἀπέσταλκε τὸν υἱὸν σωτῆρα τοῦ κόσμου.	4:14 And we ourselves have watched and are testifying that the Father has commissioned the Son as savior of the world.
4:15 ὃς [^UBSε]αν ὁμολογήσῃ ὅτι ᾿Ιησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὁ Θεὸς ἐν αὐτῷ μένει καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ Θεῷ.	4:15 Whoever agrees that Jesus is the Son of God, God stays in him, and he in God.
4:16 καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐγνώκαμεν καὶ πεπιστεύκαμεν τὴν ἀγάπην ἣν ἔχει ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἡμῖν. ῾Ο Θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστί, καὶ ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ μένει καὶ ὁ Θεὸς ἐν αὐτῷ [μενει^-A,TR,P].	4:16 And we ourselves have known and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and the one who stays in love stays in God, and God stays in him.
4:17 ἐν τούτῳ τετελείωται ἡ ἀγάπη μεθ᾿ ἡμῶν, ἵνα παρρησίαν ἔχωμεν ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς κρίσεως, ὅτι καθὼς ἐκεῖνός ἐστι καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ.	4:17 In this, love has been perfected with us so that we might have an open conversation in the day of judgement--for just as He is, we also are in this world.
4:18 φόβος οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ, ἀλλ᾿ ἡ τελεία ἀγάπη ἔξω βάλλει τὸν φόβον, ὅτι ὁ φόβος κόλασιν ἔχει· ὁ δὲ φοβούμενος οὐ τετελείωται ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ.	4:18 Fear is not in love, but rather, perfect love throws out fear, because fear carries punishment and the one who fears has not been perfected in love.
4:19 ῾Ημεῖς ἀγαπῶμεν [τον θεον^א^{,048+6mss+sy+bo+vg} /αὐτόν^Maj,TR/ - ^A,B+4mss,UBS], ὅτι αὐτὸς πρῶτος ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς.	4:19 As for us, we love Him because HE first loved us.

4:20 ἐάν τις εἴπῃ ὅτι ἀγαπῶ τὸν Θεόν, καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ μισῇ, ψεύστης ἐστίν· ὁ γὰρ μὴ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν ὃν ἑώρακε, τὸν Θεὸν ὃν οὐχ ἑώρακε πως[1] δύναται ἀγαπᾶν;	20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
4:21 καὶ ταύτην τὴν ἐντολὴν ἔχομεν ἀπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, ἵνα ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν Θεὸν ἀγαπᾷ καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ.	21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

Reference	What they SAY	What they DO	What they ARE
2:4	"I know Him"	does not keep commands	a liar
2:9	"I am in the light"	hate brother	in the darkness
4:20	"I love God"	hate brother	a liar