What does it mean that no one has seen God (1 John 4:12)?

Now we come to another thing. It is God Himself present. Not merely have I got the divine nature, but God is present in a very remarkable way. "No man hath seen God at any time." How can I know and love a being that I have never seen? "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." The Apostle Paul expresses it in a different way. "The love of God," he says, "is shed abroad in our hearts." Now, what makes it so remarkable here? If we look at John 1:18, it is said there, "No man hath seen God at any time." How can I know and love a person I have never seen? "The only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." That is, in the Gospel, which is to bring Christ before us, I find the sense to be this: Well, you have not seen God, and yet you have; because He who was the very delight of the Father - who is in the bosom of the Father - the immediate and closest object of the Father's delight - He has declared Him. Therefore I do know Him. It is the answer to the difficulty, that no man ever saw God. Christ has made Him known to me. Here, in the Epistle, it is, "no man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." That which is revealed in Christ is brought directly into our own hearts, because the Holy Ghost is in us When Christ was in the world, it was the Son casting out devils and doing mighty works. And yet He said, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Now, by the Spirit, He says, "We will come unto him, and make our abode with him." He makes God dwelling in us the answer here to not seeing God; as Christ being in the world was then the answer to not seeing God. Having washed us in the blood of the Lamb, He comes and dwells in us. We have a knowledge of God in that way. "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." It is not merely that the nature is there, but God is there. "Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit." This is the way we have the consciousness that we dwell in God, because, as God dwells in us, and He is infinite, we have the consciousness of dwelling in God. He is our home: we dwell in Him. He is our abode. It is the presence of the Holy Ghost that gives the consciousness of God's being there.

But the Son of God who came in divine love is gone back to His Father. And the apostle again says, "No one hath seen God at any time," in the plainest reference to similar words in the Gospel. Yet the Son, the rejected Son, is not here to declare Him. What is the answer to the same want now? "If we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us." Is not this a striking and solemn means of supplying the need? Does it not address itself in a direct and powerful way to you, my brothers, to me, and to every other child of God? We are here and now through the Son not only washed from our sins but made sons of God, and by our mutual love according to God to know and witness Him in a world that knows Him not. The children are now to reflect here the love of God. This the Lord did perfectly when here; how are we, or are we really knowing and abiding in His love thus?

But we have only looked into the first words of the apostle's answer now. Let us hear what remains: "If we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us" (verse 12). The love of Christians mutually is the proof and the power of communion that He abides in us, and that His love is perfected in us, instead of being choked by the flesh or enticed by the allurements of the world. Evangelising the incredulous or perishing sinner is no answer to the question raised. Where and how is God to be seen now? In face of every effort of Satan to set the children of God against one another, their loving each other as God loved and as Christ manifested it declares that God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. What an encouragement to walk humbly and unobtrusively in the love that is of God! What a reproof to any who think little of its importance and blessing! Yet 1 John 4:12 could not have been without John 1:18, and more too — Christ's death for us and the gift of the Spirit to us. Christ must be the life in order to such a reproduction. Yet when the disciples saw its perfection in Christ, how little they realised God in Him! When He died and rose, they understood it better. But when anointed with the Spirit they enjoyed best of all, and walked as they abode in that love, which is the energy of God's nature. It is so with us now in principle and in fact too according to the measure of our spirituality.

In John 1:18 the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. He who is in the most perfect intimacy, in the most absolute proximity and enjoyment of the Father's love, the one eternal, sufficient object that knew the love of the Father as His only Son, has revealed Him unto men as He has Himself known Him. What is the answer in our epistle to this same difficulty? "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." By the communication of the divine nature, and by the dwelling of God in us, we inwardly enjoy Him as He has been manifested and declared by His only Son. His love is perfect in us, known to the heart, as it has been declared in Jesus. The God who has been declared by Him dwells in us. What a thought! that this answer to the fact that no one has ever seen God is equally, that the only Son has declared Him, and that He dwells in us. What light this throws upon the words, "which thing is true in him and in you!" For it is in that Christ has become our life that we can thus enjoy God and His presence in us by the power of the Holy Ghost. And from this we have seen that the testimony of verse 14 flows.

We now pass on to other subjects in this section. It will be remembered that in John 1:18 it is said, "No man hath seen God at any time." That statement is repeated here, but not for the same reason or purpose. There, it is in connection with the revelation of God. No one has ever seen God to be qualified thus to witness to what He is — only the Son who has come from the bosom of the Father, who has personal knowledge of God, is personally acquainted with the perfections of His nature and character; He is thus a competent witness; He speaks what He personally knows — what He has seen and heard (John 3:32).

Here, in verse 12, the apostle is not thinking of the Son of the Father testifying among men to what God is, but of God being manifested in His children. The children of God, loving one another, are displaying in their measure the love that is in God. "No one has seen God at any time," but if we love one another that is a display of Him. The moral nature of God is in us. This, as we have already seen, is an active nature. If it is present at all in a man, it is present in activity. Since it is the moral nature of God, it is proper to say God is dwelling in us. God dwells in us by a nature and life from Himself. It is His love that is in us. In loving one another, that love is having its normal activity in us. This is what is meant by the expression, "And His love is perfected in us."

“No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” The apostle here is speaking of a practical response to, and effect of, the love of God. If that love is to be evidenced, it is to be evidenced toward the children of God, because no man has seen God at any time. A careless, self‑centered man will assume he loves God without that professed love taking any practical shape, because he does not see God. But the test of this is in whether or not he loves the children of God. This is the proof of God’s abiding in us; and His love hereby is perfected in us, that is, it is producing its properly matured fruit. He is not speaking of how much we love one another, but of the fact. But a fact will always manifest itself. The degree will depend on the individual’s degree of enjoyment of God’s love, but the apostle does not here speak of this.

Verses 11, 12, are blessed effects of the presence and action of the love of God in us. Thereby God Himself dwells in us and His love is perfected in us. To what glorious truths does this link us! We read in the Gospel of John, chapter 1:18, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." And in this verse of the Epistle, "No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." The same Christ who revealed God in the world dwells in the saints in whom He also reveals God. Such is the privilege of those whose life Christ is. "His love is perfected in us." When love is in exercise in the intercourse of saints, God has His place in this intercourse; He is there, for He Himself is love. And if God is present producing His love in others, it is a perfected love.

Now we are responsible for knowing God, and we who believe in Christ have the joy of knowing God. Every word, every work, every look of His recorded in the word lets us into that intimacy; for the inspired have much to tell us even in all these ways of Christ about God. They all reveal Him, the least thing as well as the greatest. But now the Lord is gone. He that declared God is in heaven. Is there no present living witness of God? The apostle repeats here in the Epistle, "No man hath beheld God at any time." His love was in all perfection in Christ, He was seen in contrast with all human imperfections. Where is the resource? "If we love one another." Is it not very solemn that God points to Christians for letting this dark world behold what God is? We are called especially by the action of divine love in our souls and ways to be the witnesses of God to the world that doubts all certainty about Him. When Christ declared Him, He was as perfect as Himself; but how is it in our case, spite of every infirmity? "If we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us." The apostle here too looks at the principle, not at how far saints fail; and this we have seen to be the way of John. He never forgets the source in God, and the channel in Christ who manifested it; and he sets before the saints the outflow of grace in accordance with the new nature.

God loved us when there was nothing in us to love, and when there was no response in our hearts to His heart. And the manifested love of God to us should bear its fruit in our behaviour towards our fellow believers; “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” (v. 11.) “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” (John 1:18.) The name of Father was manifested to man by Him who dwelt in His Father's bosom; who abode in the love of His Father's heart. And again we read, “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12.) For the children of God, when loving in a divine way, have God dwelling in them. And thus, God's love toward His children is perfected in them. They become the expressions of it. Filled with it, the heart overflows. The love of God enriches the heart so that there is ability to give out love to others. There is no stint in God's love, but marvellous meagreness in man's love. But as God dwells in us, the naturally selfish heart of man becomes a fountain of kindness towards others, and that of a divine character.

No one has ever seen God. How can He be known? The Gospel of John answers, The Only-begotten hath declared Him; here the word, If we love one another, God dwelleth in us. This renders Him visible; it is the proof He is there.

In verse 12, John repeats what he had said in the first chapter of his Gospel: "No man hath seen God at any time" (John 1:18 ). But on that occasion he immediately added as an answer to such a situation: "The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him". But as John writes his Letter, the Son has returned to glory and is out of our vision. The answer to the dilemma is different: "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us". Romans 5 tells us that "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us" (Rom. 5:5). Love amongst believers is the evidence that God dwells in them, and we can say that God is seen in the saints.