The First Epistle Of John

In connection with the declaration that God is himself love, the Apostle sets forth the high import of love as the bond of fellowship between God and man: "No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." In the words, "no one hath seen God," must be contained the reason, why it is only through love we can be certain of his dwelling in us. "Us," we may regard as meaning the whole body of the church. "Seeing," we may first take in the sense of bodily sight. We become conscious of the presence of a visible being, by seeing him among us. But the invisible God cannot be so united with us. He cannot dwell visibly among us; there can be no visible manifestation of deity, such as was expected by the Jews and was once desired by Philip. (John xiv.8.) What John would say, therefore, is this: No one has ever seen God by the bodily sense; a denial which, in John's mode of expression, involves the assertion that he cannot thus be seen.

It follows, therefore, that the church can be united to the invisible God only by a spiritual bond; and only thereby can have the assurance that he abides with and in them, that he dwells in continued fellowship with them. And this spiritual bond is Love. As God is love itself, and all love radiates from him; so must the union of the church with him be manifested hereby, that he works in them as the spirit of love, that Love rules in them as the animating principle.

If, however, we compare other expressions of John, it becomes a question whether the word "seeing" is to be taken here in the sense of bodily sight. He is accustomed, as we observed above, to express by the original Greek word, likewise a spiritual beholding, perfect, immediate knowledge. In this sense he says (John i.18), "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." If now we take the word "see" as it is plainly used in this passage, it involves still more than what we have said: viz. that no man has ever had an immediate perception of God, has ever attained to perfect knowledge of him, neither can he thus be known by men on earth. We cannot therefore be assured of union with him, by his having become to us an object of perfect knowledge. Did it depend on that, he would remain forever beyond our reach. The incomprehensible Essence, no one has known or can know. But as God is love, we are assured of union with him and of his dwelling in us, by his abiding self-revelation among us as love; through love we abide in union with him who is love. In love we have his true essence, so far as it can be the object of perception to man on earth. Union with God through love precedes that perfect vision of God, promised us for the life which is eternal. In this union with God through love, we have already more than we are able to develop in the form of knowledge.

Herein, then, is contained the weighty truth: that only through love we can become conscious of God, can be convinced of the reality of his being and nature, -- love being in itself the reflection and the product of his nature. And hence the more a man has shut his heart against love, the more he is sunk in selfishness, the less can he know of God. But genuine love to God, that which is enkindled by the revelation of God's love to believers, and has God for its source, can only attest itself as such by the mutual love of believers for each other, since this is its necessary working and effect.