63 - 1Jn 4:12
Θεὸν οὐδεὶς πώποτε τεθέαται· ἐὰν ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους, ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ἡμῖν μένει, καὶ ἡ ἀγάπη αὐτοῦ τετελειωμένη ἐστὶν ἐν ἡμῖν. The following verse brings in the close of the discussion: attributing to brotherly love the μένεινἐνΘεὸς [“abide in God”]. It is true that, on the first glance, the words Θεὸνοὐδεὶςπώποτετεθέαται [“no one has ever seen God”] seem to stand in the text without any mediating link. The first thing we have to ask is, whether the emphasis rests on the Θεὸν [“God”] or on the τεθέαται [“has seen”]. The arrangement suggests the former. In that case we should have an antithesis between God as the invisible and the brother as seen; but then there would arise only one sense, that we could love the unseen God only in our brethren, and that this brotherly love would have the same blessed result (μένεινἐν ἡμῖν[“abide in us”]) as if we could have seen God. But where do we find in the Bible the faintest trace of the thought that we can love God only in our brethren? Not indeed in 1Jn 4:20, where the subject is only the confirmation of brotherly love. Love in its direction and impulse takes no account of the visibility or invisibility of the object beloved. It has indeed the tendency to desire sight of the object; but that is by no means necessary to its existence or strength. Moreover, if the apostle had wished to speak of the contrast between loving the invisible God and the visible brethren, of the ease or the difficulty of loving the unseen and the seen, he might have by one word indicated that contrast.
Thus we fire driven to the second possibility, that of laying the stress on the τεθέαται [“has seen”]. The meaning then is, that no man hath indeed seen God; any visible fellowship with Him is out of the question; but a spiritual fellowship of another kind is possible, and becomes actual if we love I the brethren. It is plain that this meaning is unexceptionably suitable; and, for the rest, it may be easily explained why, notwithstanding the emphasis, the object comes before the verb. Tor, to look closely, while it is true that inside the verse itself, as we have just seen, there is an antithesis between the invisibility of God and the spiritual union with Him which is nevertheless necessary, it is still true that the verse as a whole lays the stress on that fellowship with God into which we through love of the brethren enter, and of which 1Jn 4:11 had spoken. Hence the Θεὸν [“God”], as the point around which the whole revolves, is placed at the outset. That, instead of the direct phrase οὐδυνάμεθαθεᾶσθαιτὸνΘεὸν [“we are not able to see God”], the more limited οὐδεὶςπώποτετεθέαται [“no one has ever seen”] is used, rests on the thought that we certainly need not hope to attain what has been inaccessible to all before us. The promise which is here in a certain sense given to brotherly love as the equivalent for not being able to see God, is at a first glance twofold: first, that God will abide in us; secondly, that ἡἀγάπη αὐτοῦ τετελειωμένηἐστὶν ἐνἡμῖν [“his love is perfected in us”]. But let us ascertain whether these two are really distinct. That would be the case only if ἡἀγάπη αὐτοῦ [lit. “the love of him”] meant “our love to God.” Then the two clauses would issue in what we commonly find distinguished as ὁΘεὸςἐνἡμῖν καὶἡμεῖςἐν αὐτῷ [“God in us and we in him”]. But this translation is impossible. For, throughout the section we have heard of our love to our neighbour, but never once of our love to God; and this latter idea would be a new one entering without any bond of connection, and furthermore at the close of the section. But it is equally out of the question to translate ἀγάπη αὐτοῦ [lit. “the love of him”] of the love of God to us; for it would be quite out of harmony with the tenor of a section which exhibits our love as the reflection and effluence of divine love to turn round and inversely represent the divine love as the result of our love to the brethren. There remains only, therefore, the solution which we found it needful to adopt in 1Jn 2:5,—that is, to exclude from the expression every objective or subjective reference of the ἀγάπη [“love”], and to take it simply as the love which God has, and which He is. Brotherly love shows that love which is in God is also in us: a thought which obviously is the most striking conclusion for the whole discussion of the section before us.
Moreover, the apostle inserts a τετελειωμένη [“perfected”], an idea which from this point plays a conspicuous part; compare 1Jn 4:17 and 1Jn 4:18 (bis). By this last fact we may note at once that the writer is approaching the end of his discussion. Thus also is explained the relation between the two members of the leading clause, ὁΘεὸςμένειἐν ἡμῖν [“God abides in us”] and ἡἀγάπη αὐτοῦ κ.τ.λ. [“his love, etc.”]. In the latter the emphasis lies on τετελειωμένη [“perfected”], and the two are related as general to particular: that God abideth in us, on this or that condition or supposition, the apostle had more than once said; but here at the end he adds expressly, that the divine nature of love in its whole fulness and glory takes up its dwelling in us. This is the highest perfection in God, that His love neither excludes any nor ever suffers interruption; and this is therefore the image and ideal for love among Christians, so that all individuals should love one another without exception (ἀλλήλους [“one another”]), and that with uninterrupted energy (the present ἀγαπῶμεν [“we love”]).