Loving the brethren

Loving the brethren, and its antithesis, is a recurring theme in 1 John. But in Johannine usage, what does it mean to love or hate the brethren?

To know what it means to love the brethren, we need to start with what it means to hate the brethren. The one defines the other.

And that’s because John is writing in response to a crisis. Some false teachers, along with their disciples, are guilty of hating the brethren by what they teach and do accordingly. To love the brethren would be the opposite.

“The churches to whom 1 John was written are under doctrinal and emotional duress. There had been a recent departure of false teachers from the church (2:19) and that apparently was both painful and unpleasant and that was still evident in 2 John (v7). This is evident especially in the repeated charge against the secessionists that they do not love other believes (e.g. 1 John 2:9-10; 3:10; 4:7). The Christians to whom John wrote in 1 John were in need to instruction, but more importantly they needed to be reassured and comforted in light of the recent upheaval ending in the departure of the false teachers (5:13; see 2:19),” A. Köstenberger et al., The Cradle, The Cross, & the Crown (B&H 2009), 792.

“As far as we are able to determine with regard to the background of 1 John, some in the church taught that possession of the Spirit was not enough; those ‘truly enlightened’ must be initiated into all kinds of ‘secret knowledge’ open only to those initiates. This created all kinds of insecurity and second-guessing among those who were no longer sure whether they were Christians at all–when in fact those self-characterized ‘super-Christians’ turned out not to be believers in the end. This seems to follow from 1 John 2:19,” ibid. 793.

“Although John does intend to edify his readers, most scholars rightly reject this view as an inadequate explanation of the evidence. Some believers have already seceded (1 John 2:18-29), and John is writing to warn his readers about false teachers who are actively trying to deceive them (2:26)…’savage wolves’ were rending the flock, and John labels them ‘false prophets’ (1 John 4:1), ‘deceivers’ (2 John 7), and ‘antichrists’ (1 John 2:18; 4:3; 2 John 7). Probably their secession owed much to their failure to convert more of the congregations(s) to which they once belonged (1 John 2:18-19)…John finds he must reassure the faithful and explain in straightforward terms the differences between the two groups and thereby give them grounds for their own assurance and confidence before God (1 John 5:13) at a time when they were being made to feel inferior and spiritually threatened…Meanwhile their [secessionists] own conduct was so haughty, loveless, and schismatic that they denied the very gospel they claimed that only they understood, prompting some of the more hesitant amongst those left behind to wonder at times if they had the Spirit at all (see 2:26-27), D. Carson & D. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament (Zondervan 2005), 678.