4:20 If anyone says 3 “I love God” and yet 4 hates his fellow Christian, 5 he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian 6 whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 7
1 sn The one who hates his fellow Christian. The author’s paradigm for the opponents portrays them as those who show hatred for fellow Christians (Grk “brothers,” but not referring to one’s physical siblings). This charge will be much more fully developed in chap. 3, where the author will compare the opponents to Cain (who is the model for one who hates a brother, since he ultimately murdered his own brother). In 1 John 3:17 the specific charge against the opponents will be failing to give material aid to a brother in need.
2 sn 1 John 2:3-11. The section 2:3-11 contains three claims to intimate knowledge of God, each introduced by the phrase the one who says (participles in the Greek text) in 2:4, 6, and 9. As with the three claims beginning with “if” in the previous section (1:6, 8, 10), these indirectly reflect the claims of the opponents. Each claim is followed by the author’s evaluation and its implications.
3 tn Grk “if anyone should say…”
4 tn “Yet” is supplied to bring out the contrast.
5 tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.
6 tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.
7 sn In 4:20 the author again describes the opponents, who claim to love God. Their failure to show love for their fellow Christians proves their claim to know God to be false: The one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.