The One in Front

“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar. For whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:20-21)

At times in our faith, we can be frustrated by the fact that we don’t see and hear God in the same way that we see and hear people in our lives—our spouses, our children, our co-workers. They are in front of us in flesh and blood. We can talk to them in a way that it’s just not the same with God.

But this lesson from 1 John is the takeaway for us: loving God and loving neighbor are not two separate things.

Because we do not see God and hear God in the same way that we do our neighbor, to love God we must love our neighbor.

We love the person who is in front of us. That is Saint John’s point.

If we don’t actually love the person right in front of us, how could we claim to love God?

St. John points out that this is the commandment we have from Him. Jesus our Lord gave us this. He united these two things together.

It’s not our job to separate them or do half of them.

Love of God and love of neighbor go hand-in-hand.

There can’t be any other way.