"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."
1 John 4:8
“And it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul,” (1 Samuel 18:1).
David and Saul’s son Jonathan were fast friends. In many ways, David’s friendship with Jonathan was closer than his family ties. The relationship between them is an excellent example to us of what a friendship should be like.
“He that loveth not”
How can a person have a genuine friend and not be loving? The answer is he cannot. This phrase, “he that loveth not,” is describing a person who does not know God and so he does not know how to love as God loves. This “not loving” is a continual lack of love. He doesn’t love others the way God does, nor does he know how to be loving. It is a sad state of being, but it describes so many people in our world today.
“Knoweth not God;”
When a person doesn’t know how to love it is a sure sign that he or she does not have a personal relationship with God.
“If there isn’t real love for God’s people in your life, then your claim to know God and experience God isn’t true”1 (Guzik).
“For God is love.”
God’s kind of love is the “self-sacrificing”2 kind that gives to others without expecting anything in return. The closer we are to God, the more we can understand His kind of love for others.
Lost men have a shell of love without the heart of it.
“It is because men are created in the image of God, an image that has been defaced but not destroyed by the Fall, that they still have the capacity to love . . . Human love, however noble and however highly motivated, falls short if it refuses to include the Father and Son as the supreme objects of its affection.”3 (Marshall)
Believers, we who do know God personally, we should be the best kind of friend there is. We know God and have experienced His kind of love, and we ought to be loving others as He loves us.
How are your friendships doing?
1. Guzik, David, David Guzik’s Enduring Word Commentary, the electronic version in eSword.
2. Agape.
3. As quoted in Guzik. Ibid.