4:20 If anyone says 1 “I love God” and yet 2 hates his fellow Christian, 3 he is a liar, because the one who does not love his fellow Christian 4 whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 5
1 tn Grk “if anyone should say…”
2 tn “Yet” is supplied to bring out the contrast.
3 tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.
4 tn See note on the phrase “fellow Christian” in 2:9.
5 sn In 4:20 the author again describes the opponents, who claim to love God. Their failure to show love for their fellow Christians proves their claim to know God to be false: The one who does not love his fellow Christian whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
6 tn This ὅτι (Joti) is best understood (1) as causal. Some have taken it (2) as declarative, giving the content of the Spirit’s testimony: “and the Spirit is the One who testifies that the Spirit is the truth.” This is certainly possible, since a ὅτι clause following the cognate verb μαρτυρέω (marturevw) often gives the content of the testimony (cf. John 1:34; 3:28; 4:39, 44). But in the Gospel of John the Spirit never bears witness on his own behalf, but always on behalf of Jesus (John 15:26, 16:13). There are, in fact, some instances in the Gospel of John where a ὅτι clause following μαρτυρέω is causal (8:14, 15:27), and that is more likely here: “and the Spirit is the One who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.”