I John 4:20 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?
Demonstrating God’s Love
Do you love people? You say, “It depends, Wil.” What does it depend on? It probably depends upon what you have in common, how they treat you, and the general inclination you have to like them. The real question is “Does God love people?” The answer is “yes”. What does that depend upon? Does it depend upon them? Or does it depend upon Him? Does it depend upon their goodness? Or does it depend upon God’s grace? We are either going to love people based on how loveable they are or on how much love God has for them.
Notice the conditional statement in I John 4:20. It says, “If a man say, I love God.” There are a lot of things that are easy to say if we don’t have to demonstrate them. There is a difference between saying and doing. One without the other is fairly empty and that certainly comes with saying, “I love God,” when we hate people.
John uses the word “manifest” frequently in this book. “Manifest” means “to demonstrate” or “to show” something that people can see that proves what is already true. For instance, God demonstrated His love while we were still sinners by Christ dying for us. That is He demonstrated His love for us by laying aside the glories of Heaven and coming as God the Son. So, the Bible says that we should lay aside our lives for the brethren. How does the love of God dwell in me if I’m not demonstrating that love toward real people whom I can see and have interaction with every day?
Does God love people whom you do not? Did God send His Son to die for people for whom you have no special affection? The answer is “of course.” But my love of God is really a sham if I am not allowing God to demonstrate His love through me. God loves people that I don’t. So when I love Him and submit to His way, I do right by people whether I like them or not. When I do right by people regardless of my feelings for them, I may well find that what happens is that my feelings toward them sweeten up as well. We manifest our love of a God we have not seen when we do right by the people we can see.