1 John 4:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore, he who loves God and strives to be His disciple also loves his brother, according to His commandment.

The same love of God exhorts us to love our neighbor, that is, every human being. "If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 Jn 4:11).

Will you, Christian, want to hate the one whom God has so loved? Will you want to do evil to the one to whom God, out of love, does good? Will you want to harm the one for whom Christ, the Son of God, came into the world, suffered, and died?

Will you want to deceive, seduce, slander, or dishonor the one whom Christ, the Son of God, has so honored? Will you want to steal, seize, or take away any good from the one for whom Christ, the Son of God, shed His Blood?

Love for God and love for one's neighbor are inseparable. The Lord called the commandment to love God the first and greatest commandment. He called the commandment to love one's neighbor the second, like the first (Mt 22:38, 39). One cannot love God while despising God's commandment, which the Lord and Savior calls like the commandment to love God, namely, the commandment to love one's neighbor. One cannot love God without nourishing in one's soul sincere love for men like ourselves, created in the image of God and redeemed by the blood of the Son of God, the Savior of the world.

The Ladder compares the man who says that he loves God while hating his brother to someone dreaming in sleep that he is running, or flying, while he lies motionless on his bed. Therefore let Jacob's ladder teach you, O Christian, to build that spiritual ladder of virtues, at whose summit love is established.

“And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.” This commandment forms the essence of Christian moral teaching. Jesus Christ stated it to the lawyer when he asked Him, “Which commandment is the greatest in the Law?” (Mt 22:36-39).

And moreover, we have from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ such a commandment, and so forth. This means the commandment which Christ indicated on the basis of the old law, speaking of love for God as the first and greatest commandment in the law, and of love for neighbor as the second commandment, which is like the first (Mt 22:38-39 and note).

This is why he who does not love his brother, while saying that he loves God, is a liar. “God requires that you love those like yourself together with Him. Love together with Me, He says, and then I also will love you still more.

These are the words of One Who loves without measure. If you love those whom I love, then from this I see that you also love Me zealously” (Chrysostom).

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).

Finally, the apostle derives the necessity of love for God in inseparable connection with love for neighbors from the fact that this is a positive commandment of the Lord. It was spoken in His well-known saying about the two greatest commandments (see Mt 22:34-40), and in many other words of His.

In the farewell discourse to His disciples, for example, He said: “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). And at His judgment He will say: “As you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Mt 25:40).

The commandment to love God together with love for one's neighbor was given by God, “from Him,” in the Old Testament. It was confirmed by the New Testament Lawgiver, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. According to His word, on it hang all the Law and the Prophets (Mt 22:38, 39).