1 John 4:20
20
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
Read 1 John 4:20 Using Other Translations
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?
If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
What does 1 John 4:20 mean?
John Gill's Exposition of the Bible
1 John 4:20
If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother
Than which profession nothing can be more contradictory, not
black and white, or hot and cold in the same degree:
he is a liar;
it is not truth he speaks, it is a contradiction, and a thing
impossible:
for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath
seen;
his person, which might have drawn out his affection to him; and
something valuable and worthy in him, which might have commanded
respect; or his wants and distresses, which should have moved his
pity and compassion:
how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
it cannot be thought he should; the thing is not reasonable to
suppose; it is not possible he should; (See Gill on 1
John 4:12).
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
(New International Version Bible Online)
