Everyone has some awareness of God. How close may humans come to the Creator of the universe? John answered that question when he wrote, “No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us:” (1 John 4:12 ASV)
In the fourth gospel account of the life of Jesus Christ, this same Apostle John revealed long before he wrote this epistle which we are now studying that, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (John 1:18 ASV, Also compare Colossians 1:15 and 1 Timothy 1:17 and 6:16)
Probably one of the claims of the false prophets had been that they had seen God and, therefore, had more profound and significant knowledge about him than the ordinary followers of Christ. That may have been John’s reason for repeating the statement he had made before by saying here in his first general epistle, “No man hath beheld God at any time:”
Ultimately seeing God is a cornerstone of the Christian’s hope. As John has already told us, “we shall see him even as he is.” (1 John 3:2 ASV) But that will have future fulfillment. Those who claim to have seen him already not only are lying but they are also undermining the hope of those who follow Christ!
The only ones who have a superior experience of God are those in whom love is at work because love is the essential nature of God. Thus, “if we love one another, God abideth in us.” Thus, the nature of God manifests itself through us when we “love one another.”
The false prophets had tried and failed to divert the followers of Christ into their own movement. John reminds the brethren that those false prophets had failed. Therefore, “they went out from us.” (1 John 2:19) They had tried to cause a rift, or create a faction. That was not a mark of love! Therefore, they, obviously, had not had a deeper or more significant experience of God. Their claim that they had “beheld God” was surely false.
John further wrote, “his love is perfected in us.” Because the true followers of Christ persisted in showing love even in the face of the efforts of those who tried to divert the message and purpose of Christ, it showed that Christ’s love was perfected in them. The proof of love being perfected in a follower of Christ is found in that person’s love of his fellows who also follow Christ. The false prophets had not shown that love. They had come to “steal, and kill, and destroy.” (John 10:10) They had gone out from the fellowship of the followers of Christ (1 John 2:19) after having enjoyed the nurture of that fellowship. Now they were seeking to lead the church astray. (1 John 2:26, 3:7)
Does the average follower of Christ have a deeper awareness of God than those who claim they have seen him? John tells us, “hereby we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.” (1 John 4:13 ASV)
One must not only understand what he knows but how he knows. Therefore, John says “hereby we know” It is not simply that we know but hereby we know. Not only is the knowledge itself reiterated but the method by which we have arrived or may arrive at that knowledge is stressed as well.
To prove the reality of God or to have a deeper awareness of God, visual evidence is impossible because, as we have just been told in the preceding verse, “No man hath beheld God at any time:” This is in harmony with the attributes of God revealed through the apostle Paul. He wrote, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (1 Timothy 1:17 ASV) Since God is “invisible,” it is obvious that, “No man hath beheld God at any time:” Thus, seeing God is not one of the ways by which we ‘know’ or become aware of the highest spiritual truth.
We have a greater awareness of God when “we abide in him and he in us,” This is the reality which is to be known by the true follower of Christ. This mutual abiding, we in him and he in us, gives us a more intimate knowledge of God than simply ‘seeing’ or beholding him would.
But, how do we know that we have such an intimate relationship with God, the Creator of the whole universe? The method of knowing is explained in the next phrase of this verse. We can have that greater knowledge and greater awareness, “because he hath given us of his Spirit.”
This is the method by which we know that “we abide in him and he in us.” Everyone who truly follows Christ is given the marvelous gift of the God’s Spirit to abide within him. This was the promise from the first day when Christ’s kingdom was established. Peter told the multitude, “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38 ASV) God’s Spirit comforts, guides and encourages the follower of Christ.
The irrefutable evidence that God’s Spirit dwells in the follower of Christ was given in verse 12 when John wrote, “if we love one another, God abideth in us.” A life which previously was motivated by hate and animosity but is now consistently motivated by love shows the unmistakable presence of God for God is love and love is of God.
While God himself is invisible Jesus Christ was not. The apostle John reminds those who follow Christ that “we have beheld and bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” (1 John 4:14 ASV)
The false teachers and false prophets had falsely claimed that they had seen God and were, therefore, qualified to be spiritual leaders. The apostle John has shown that the claim of those deceivers was totally false because, as he has pointed out, “No man hath beheld God at any time:” But Jesus Christ was, “the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15) The Apostle John had seen the one who was the, “effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance.” (Hebrews 1:3 ASV) Because of the opportunity which John and the other Apostles had to behold Christ, they testified that, “the Father hath sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” (1 John 4:14 ASV)