comedyoferrors

1 John 4:20-- Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.


Is it just me, or is this really bad logic?

It seems to me that it would be far easier to love someone that you cannot see: Someone who doesn't have any annoying habits. Someone who won't argue with you over who gets to drive the car today. Someone you'll never have to bug about helping you clean the room (after all, god is intangible, and he's not in the habit of working miracles anymore!) Someone who doesn't spend half an hour ranting at you about something you don't even care about.....and so on and so forth.

Why would any one think that loving people is easier than loving god? People are always there, around you, in your face. Asking you to do them favors, being selfish, arguing with you, disappointing you. Getting along with people can be a constant struggle.

Meanwhile, god-- if he exists-- looks for all the world like an imaginary friend.

And I already know that people will say "yes, but god challenges the way I live. He wants me to act a certain way and not another. He wants me to do certain things, but not others." But it still goes back to the fact that god is intangible. And many times, it's the little things-- mundane, ordinary human things that you'll never catch any supposed god doing that make it hard to get along with people.

So my question is: What the hell did the author mean by this passage? Is he actually implying that it is harder to love an intangible god than the people around you? If so, he is making a false statement. If he is making a false statement, how can the bible be the "perfect" word of god?

andrewcriddle

The point I think is that it is easy to pretend that you love God, for various reasons, some of which are mentioned above. Just as it is easy to pretend you love some difficult relative as long as they stay safely away.

Claims of loving people who live far away from you become very suspicious if you are unable to get on with your neighbours; similarly claims of really loving God become very dubious if you can't stand the other people in your church.

Andrew Criddle

Roger Pearse

People that we have never seen are always to some extent imaginary. That's why people who meet me in person are always disappointed. (At least, that's what I believe is the reason and I'm sticking with it).

I wish that I could make selected people that I've never met disappear. (Starting with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customes).

chrisengland

Yeah but after I,ve got my tax rebate.