How do you love somebody you can’t see?
This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘God is on the Throne and in Control’ (1998).
That is a real problem, and there are two slightly different answers given to it in Scripture. In 1 John 4, the apostle makes the point, 'If anyone says, "I love God", and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen' (1 John 4:20). The logic behind it is simply this: everyone who is born of God has the life of God.
I'll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell anybody else. Christians are a funny lot, all full of angles and difficulties, and what have you. Loving them is a sign that you've been born of God. 'We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren' (1 John 3:14 KJV). The logic is simply that if you love the Father, you also love whoever has been born of him (1 John 5:1). Because we are in the same family, there's something about God in our brothers and sisters. If we don't love them, then our claim to love God whom we haven't seen is airy-fairy talk.
On the other side, of course, it is a miracle of God's grace in salvation that we love the Saviour without having seen him. Remember what our Lord said to Thomas, 'Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed' (John 20:29).
Physical sight is not the only kind of sight there is. There is spiritual sight. As Peter puts it, having not seen the Saviour, believers are prepared to endure persecution. 'Though you have not seen him, you love him' (1 Peter 1:8). How can that be? The answer is that, by God's Holy Spirit, we have seen the Lord; not with physical sight but with the spiritual eye of faith. It is a miracle, of course, but it is a genuine thing.
How can you love somebody that you haven't seen? Well, ask the next one hundred believers you come across and you'll find them actually saying that they love the Lord Jesus, and many of them are prepared to prove it with their lives. How do they do it? It's a mystery to atheists. Well, the answer is the miracle of the new birth.
