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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Theophylact of Ohrid
We have noted before that the Apostle John has a habit of repeating the same things about the same subjects. So he does now as well. No one, he says, has ever seen God. Speaking of love for the brethren, he pointed to God as an example of love, Who out of love for us delivered His Only-Begotten Son to death. Someone, upon hearing this, might ask: on what basis do you speak of things invisible? …
Oecumenius
No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. We have also said before that it is customary for this blessed man to repeat the same things about them, and to wish to instill the habits of what is said in those who are being taught, and to lead the discourse to what is clearer and more perfect. …
Western Saints
Augustine of Hippo
"No man hath seen God at any time:" He is a thing invisible; not with the eye but with the heart must He be sought. But just as if we wished to see the sun, we should purge the eye of the body; wishing to see God, let us purge the eye by which God can be seen. Where is this eye? Hear the Gospel: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." But let no man imagine God to himself according to the lust of his eyes. …
Bede
And His charity is perfected in us. However, it must be inquired how he says that the perfection of divine charity consists in mutual love, since the Lord in the Gospel pronounces that it is not a great thing if we love those who love us, unless that same love extends also to enemies, about whom he here seems completely silent? Unless perhaps we should love even these enemies with the gaze of fraternal love, so that they do not always remain enemies, but repent from the snares of the devil and join us in a genuine covenant. …
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