When John (in 1 John) says, he who hates his brother does not have light or later he who hates his brother does not love God, a form of the root "miso" is used here in Greek. This word is the opposite of agape love. He who loves his brother loves God.
John is linking the two, making this love of God practical. You cannot just say, "I love God." without consequences. John says you can be proved a liar.
It is much easier to say "I love God." and look good than it is to say, "I love my brother." People know, you know if it is true or if you are lying.
John's linking the two is obvious. God loves us. If we want to be like God, to be his people, we have to do what he does. He loves, we must love too. But often our church brothers can be hard to love.
John says it several ways in this letter to underscore the importance. If you claim to love God, you must love your brothers who you can see. These people often do things that annoy you. They may even not love you. (aghast!)
John does not say this to condemn but to challenge us. If we wish to love God and be close to God we must redouble our efforts to love people, especially our Christian brothers who we can see.
We'd like to separate our love of God (fun, exciting) from loving our brothers (hard, annoying). But John says you cannot. Jesus says so too.
Loving God and loving our Christian brothers are inextricably linked. If you plan to love God you also must plan to love your brothers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment