1 John 4:19-21 "We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."
This simple verse is incredibly deep. What does loving your brother have to do with loving God? Besides the obvious answer, "because God told us to!" - there is a bigger concept in this verse. When you think of God, your finite human perspective immediately tries to limit God - it is our nature. We immediately begin to say what God is and what God isn't. Throughout the Bible we are told that we can not possibly comprehend all of God, that He is limitless, all knowing, etc.
If you can not love your brother - if you can not forgive them and reconcile with them - some one you can see and you are more similar to than God, how can you love God? "Yeah but my brother is evil..." - So are you! When you love God you learn to love as God loves... even at your worst, God loves you. Without God it is impossible to love - we are selfish by nature, so again without God there is no love.
In 1 John 4:16 we are told, "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."
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