1 John 4:7

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and everyone that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God.

Here, of course, is another test, the love of "one another," such love being of God himself. One stands in amazement at a comment on this like the following:

"Everyone" here includes all the human beings in whose nature love is or ever has been, whether they ever heard of God or Christ or not.[24]

Such a comment is typical of much of the nonsense that has been written on this section of John's letter. "Love one another" is neither sexual love ([@eros]) nor animal affection ([@fileo]), but Christian love ([@agape]). This is a love known only "in Christ," being the gift of God himself, having no connection whatever with mere humanism. John's repeated stress of such Christian love in this epistle might have been due to the fact, as supposed by Macknight, that "some of the Jewish converts, retaining their ancient prejudices, still considered it their duty to hate the heathen,"[25] even those who had accepted Christianity.

[24] James William Russell, Compact Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1963), p. 603.

[25] James Macknight, op. cit., p. 90.