Theophylact of Ohrid, on 1John 4:20

“If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not?”

“Above, the apostle insistently proved that love must be mutual, passing from God to us and from us to God; he added to this that if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another. Now he again raises the discourse to the same point and says: since the duty lies upon us to love our brother, following the example of God's love for us, and by rendering love to God we fulfill this duty, we must certainly love our brother as the most perfect proof of love for God. For if this does not exist, then our love for God will not be preserved either, since the duty toward our neighbors — a duty flowing from the love of God — will have been violated. He adds an even stronger word for the reproach of those who wish to pervert divine love. The Apostle speaks as if to say: love is evidently formed through association with one another; and association presupposes that a person sees his brother and through interaction with him becomes even more attached to him by love, for seeing greatly draws one to love. If this is so, then he who makes nothing of that which draws far more to love, and does not love the brother whom he has seen, how can he be regarded as truthful when he says that he loves God, Whom he has not seen, Who is neither in association with him nor grasped by any sense? If anyone shamelessly says that he loves God but hates his brother, that person, perverting divine love, proves himself beyond this to be also a transgressor of His following commandment: "By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35).”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.