"YOU JUST CAN'T DO THAT!"

1 JOHN 4:20-5:3

Some people take Paul's statement in Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" to mean that they can do whatever they set out to do. Paul used that statement in the context of being able to endure whatever life brought him for Christ's sake. There are all sorts of things we cannot do. We cannot find a right way to do a wrong thing! We cannot serve God and anything else! We cannot be here when we are gone. And for sure we cannot hate our brother and love God. Some may protest, "I can too! God is easy to love but my brother, well, that's another story!" That's how most of us respond from time to time; especially to others we find aggravating or vexing. Even Sally, a mission worker who longed to manifest Christ's love to others, was finding it extremely difficult to have genuine affection for the worst outcasts of society. One day she had to face the issue in a police court. Lucy, a dirty and unkempt woman who had sold herself out to loose living, immorality, and all sorts of degrading practices had just been sentenced to jail. Sally happened to be there visiting and looked upon this particular woman with a degree of disgust. She knew better, but her emotions welled up against this broken piece of humanity. She remembered, however, John's words: "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen." 1 John 4:20. There are some good reasons why John said that and why it is 100% accurate. Why can't we love God if we don't love our brother?

1. WE CANNOT DO THE GREATER IF WE CANNOT DO THE LESSER: 4:20:

1. Jesus often used fidelity in small things as a test of worthiness and competence for trust in handling larger things.
1. Luke 16:10 "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much."
2. Luke 19:17 "And He said to him, 'Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, be in authority over ten cities.'"
2. In that same vein, illustrating that you can't do the greater if you can't do the lesser, God asks Jeremiah, who seems impatient in his troubles, "If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?" Jeremiah 12:5. That is, "Jeremiah, things may be bad but they'll get worse. If you can't face the minor things, how will you face the major ones? If you can't do the lesser, how can you do the greater?"
3. When it comes to love of God compared to love of brothers, the latter is less than the former! Note the weight of the commandments:
1. Matthew 22:37-38 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment."
2. Matthew 22:39 "The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself."
3. Now, it is self-evident that if you can't keep the second commandment (love of your neighbor), you sure can't keep the foremost commandment (love of God)!
4. We can't lift 200 pounds if we stagger under 50! We can't eat a horse if we stuff ourselves with a pheasant. We can't run a mile if we can't walk a block! And we can't love God if we can't love our brother -- we cannot do the greater if we can't do the lesser!

2. WE CANNOT SEPARATE LOVE TOWARD GOD FROM LOVE TOWARD OTHERS: 5:1:

1. John ties love of the Father inseparably to love of His children. The meaning is that "to truly love the Father one has to also love His child!" True love of God always includes true love of His children! You can't have one without the other! They always go together, as the old song says, "like a horse and carriage!"
2. Jesus made this clear when He separated the two groups of humanity in judgment saying that as they did or did not do to others they did or did not do to Him . Matthew 25:31-46. Love to others was love to Him ; lack of it was neglect of Him .
3. It works in families like that.
1. If you set yourself against one of my children, you set yourself against me! If you harm one of them, you harm me. An affront to one of them is an affront to me!
2. Conversely, if you bless my children, you bless me. If you are kind to my children, you are kind to me. If you help them, you help me. If you love them, you show love to me.
3. So it is that God takes personally how we treat His children, good or ill!
4. You can separate cream from milk; you can separate impurities from pure air; you can separate dross from gold -- but you cannot separate love toward God from love toward others!

3. WE CANNOT LOVE GOD AND DISOBEY HIM: 4:21, 5:3:

1. Loving others is not optional equipment. It is mandated. It is commanded. It is required. It is essential.
2. To refuse to love another is to fly in the face of God. He said, "Love one another!" Hate says, "No way!" God says, "Embrace one another!" Hate says, "Forget it!" God says, "Obey!" Hate says, "I won't!"
3. We can't claim to know and love God if our spirits rebel against His word!
1. John 14:23 "Jesus answered and said to him, 'if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.'"
2. 1 John 2:3-6 "And by this we know that we have come to know Him , if we keep His commandments. The one who says, 'I have come to know Him ,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked."
4. You can't call yourself a good citizen and be a lawbreaker. You can't be a good employee and ignore company policy. You can't be a good soldier and disobey orders. And you sure can't love God and disobey Him !

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