<p>4:20 <em>If a man says, I love God, and hates his fellow believers, he is a liar- </em>Again the allusion is to Jn 8:44, where the Jewish opposition is likened to Cain, the first liar and murderer. His first lie was in relation to his covering his hatred for his brother. This exactly fits the Judaist infiltrators; their religion had slain their brother, the Lord Jesus, and they were out to slay His brethren. Yet they were trying to hide that fact by slipping into the churches as false brethren (Gal. 2:4). The &quot;liar&quot; is the antichrist, which in John's first context was the Jewish system (see on 2:22).</p><p><em>For he that does not love his fellow believers whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen</em>- These Judaists, for all their talk about 'loving God' a very Jewish monotheistic term, in fact did not love Him because they did not love His children. We cannot literally see God, but we can 'see' Him insofar as we 'see' His Son. For the Son alone has fully 'seen' the Father (Jn. 6:46). To love the Father is to have His Spirit abiding in us, which elicits sacrificial love for His children, our fellow believers. Any hatred of those begotten by His Spirit therefore reveals that we lack His Spirit, and do not love Him.</p><p>Our attitude to others is simply so eternally important. John&rsquo;s writings are characterized by seeing everything in terms of dualism, black and white, good and evil. He describes those who do not love their brethren as having not seen God, as not being a child of God. Martin Hengel has observed: &ldquo;How one behaves towards a Christian brother at one&rsquo;s own front door is the deciding factor over faith and unbelief, life or death, light and darkness&rdquo;. John demonstrates with piercing logic that hating our brother means that we hate our God. But it is so easy to adopt the position of the man whom John sets up. We can even think that our love of God is articulated in a hating of our brother, for the sake of God&rsquo;s Truth. It is relatively easy to love God, apparently, anyway. But it&rsquo;s hard to love all our brethren. And yet this means that a <em>true</em> unfeigned love of God is not quite so natural and easy as we think. 1 Jn. 5:1-3 make it clear that it is axiomatic within loving God that we love all His children. If we don&rsquo;t love them, we don&rsquo;t love Him. So if we think that loving God is easy, think again. Think who He really <em>is</em>, of the inclusive and saving and seeking grace which is so central to His character, and the imperative which there is within it to be like Him.</p><p>Biblically, it's impossible to have a relationship with God without relating with His children. This point is hammered home by John, writing as he was to ecclesias riven with factionism and accusation. The result of believing that Christ laid down His life for us, is that we lay down our lives for our brethren (3:16). All believers are the children of God. If we love God, we will love His children (5:1,2). God and His children, the believers, are inseparable. And yet within our human nature is the tendency to try to make a distinction between them. John was fully aware of this: &quot;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? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also&quot; (4:20,21). Loving our brother is therefore the litmus test as to whether we are &ldquo;of God&quot;, whether we have &quot;passed from death unto life&quot; (3:10,14). It is simply impossible to claim to love God but politely disregard His children. It's not that we must love God <em>and also </em>our brother. If we love God we will love our brother, by loving our brother we love God. These things are axiomatic. The intimacy this implies between the Father and His sons is so deep. As those &quot;in Christ&quot;, all that is true of the Son of God, Jesus our Lord, becomes true of us. We share His relationship with the Father.</p>