1 John 4:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Above, the apostle insistently proved that love must be mutual, passing from God to us and from us to God. To this he added that if God so loved us, then we also must love one another.

So that, in order to believe in Him, we might by His grace love Him who first loved us, and through love act righteously. It is not the reverse, that we acted righteously in order to love.

The words of the Savior also move us to strive to become like God: “Be perfect,” He says, “as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). This means not equality, but likeness of qualities. We cannot become equal to God; we can only imitate Him and become like Him.

For in those who are in the state of slaves and hired servants, the inclination toward good is sometimes interrupted. This happens when the soul, because of a certain cooling of its feeling and distraction by worldly pleasures and joys, ceases to be struck either by fear of Gehenna or by desire for future blessings.

Yet a certain degree of perfection on which they stand teaches us only this: having begun to turn away from vices through fear of punishments or in hope of rewards, we can ascend also to the degree of love.

He loves us so much that He has even numbered the hairs on our head, as it says in the Gospels (cf. Mt 10:30). This is not because God counts hairs, but to show His exact knowledge and constant providence for us.

Having said, “We have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son as Savior of the world” (1 Jn 4:14), and “We have known and believed the love that God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16), the Apostle exhorts: “Let us love Him.”

This is the purpose of the apostolic epistle: to establish us in true love for God. And again he turns our gaze toward divine love, which is the source of every true love.

We must love Him. And why must we love Him? Because He first loved us. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins” (1 Jn 4:10).

Therefore let us firmly love God, who has loved us so abundantly from eternity. Love, as has been said, will bring us to holy boldness and filial fearlessness, both here on earth and in eternity. Let us firmly love God, and “so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:17).

The apostle concludes his present discourse on love for God and neighbors with a strong word concerning love for God and neighbors. He speaks not only of their mutual comparison or connection, but also of the necessity of grounding the teaching on love for neighbors in love for God.

“Let us love Him.” This is an exhortation, in the sense that we must and are obliged to love God. Here the apostle again points to the feature of God’s love for us: it was not we who first loved Him, but He who loved us (1 Jn 4:10).

He bestowed His love on us not according to our merits, but freely, as a gift, without any merit on our part.

The impulse and foundation of our love for God and its visible power (1 Jn 4:19-21). The grateful sacrifice of our love for God must follow from that divine love of His by which He anticipated us.

Yet our love must be inseparable from love for our neighbor, as is clearly expressed in the commandment of love: “Let us love Him, because He first loved us. If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar.

For he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God Whom he does not see? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God should love his brother also” (1 Jn 4:19-21).

Concluding his general teaching on love, the apostle exhorts us to love God, since He has obligated us to love Him by His own love, even according to the simple feeling of reciprocity and gratitude.

Then, having in mind the close connection in which Jesus Christ placed Himself with those who believe in Him and with all men in general, the apostle exhorts us also to love our neighbors.

He proves that it is easier to love visible brothers than the invisible God. From this it naturally follows that one who does not do the easier thing, and does not love his brother, cannot accomplish the harder thing, which is to love the invisible God (cf. 1 Pet 1:8-9).

That love is formed through association, and that sight attracts one to love, is evident from many experiences, especially from the experiences of friendship among companions and of familial love.