1 John 4:8-21

Teacher’s Guide

1 John 4:18-21

Lesson 36

INTRODUCTION

1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." (ESV)

Three times in Verses 17,18 perfect(ed) is given, four times fear is given in verse 18. Four times love ls given in verse 17-18. Look back at verse 17, "we may have confidence in the day of judgement". The result of confidence is boldness that is why some of the Bible translations differ. Focusing on the word "confidence", we are given the opposite or contrasting word "fear".

We know that God's love is perfect and when love is matured/complete and operating at full capacity in a man's life, fear is expelled. There is no possibility of the co-existence of love and fear.

The fear here is a fear that brings with it worry, sleepless nights, a growing anxiety, apprehension. The believer who maintains a Spirit-filled life will have no fear of being penalized when the rewards are distributed at the Bema Seat Judgement of Christ. He will never need to view the future with worry or apprehension. When love excels in a believer's life, it leaves nothing to be feared. Is loving service to God and others our choice and delight? Turn to 2 Cor. 5:14 (ESV). Can we say with Paul "the love of Christ controls us"? The 20th Century New Testament puts it this way, "It is the love of Christ that compels us." If we can, then we know God's love is being matured/completed in us. Let us make certain that there are no road blocks erected by our motives to hinder the maturing process. Let us seek the perfection of love as taught by our Lord in Matthew 5:43-48. (READ)

A comment on Verse 48 - perfect as applied to the believer that is to grow into complete maturity and since the context is love, the believer's love is to be maturing in the direction of the Father's perfect love.

1 John 4:19 "We love because He first loved us." (ESV) Let me give you the direct wording from the Greek text, "As for us, let us be loving, because He, Himself first loved us."

God wants us to live in an atmosphere of love and confidence, not fear and torment. We need not fear life or death for we are being perfected in the love of God. Romans 8:35, 37-39. (READ)

Praise be to the Lord; nothing in all creation, present or future, can come between us and God's love. That is why David wrote in Psalm 23:4 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me."

The perfecting of God's love in our lives is usually a matter of several stages. When we were lost in sin, we lived in fear and knew nothing of God's love. After we trusted Jesus Christ as our Saviour, we found a perplexing mixture of both fear and love in our hearts. But, as we grow in fellowship with the Father, gradually the fear vanished and our hearts were controlled by love alone. An immature Christian is tossed between fear and love; a mature Christian rests in God's love.

A growing confidence in the Presence of God is one of the evidences that our love for God is maturing. But, confidence never stands alone, it always leads to other moral results.

Obedience By Faith - 1 John 4:20-5:6

HONESTY - "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. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:20,21 (ESV)

At least six other verses in 1 John begin similarly to 1 John 4:20. We have met this important phrase six times. Three times as "if we "1 John 1:6,8,10 (READ) and three times as 'whoever says' 1 John 2:4,6,9 (READ). Each time we read these phrases we find a warning. In these verses and 1 John 4:20, the point of conviction is aimed at those who profess Christ and salvation but are not in actual fact born again.

WRITE OUT: Matthew 7:21 (ESV)

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2 Corinthians 13:5 (Phillips Translation) "You should be looking at yourselves to make sure you are really Christ's (Belong to Christ).It is yourselves you should be testing, not me (Paul). You ought to know by this time that Christ is in you, unless you are not real (genuine) Christians at all."

Love and hatred are incompatible; they are opposites. To say we love God while we hate another is to speak a lie.

WRITE OUT - 1 John 2:4-5

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WRITE OUT - 1 John 2:10-11

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If you say you love God and believe you love Him, and you hate another, you are deceived. If one says they love God and you know in your heart that they do not love Him, that one is a hypocrite and a liar. Then, a natural question for consideration is: Is our profession toward God a contradiction shown by our conduct toward others?

Eph. 2:10 (ESV) "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Lehman Strauss in his commentary on 1 John gave this testimony. "Some years back I found it difficult to understand the words "He who loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" It was easier for me to love God because all I ever knew about Him was good. But, I could see the flaws and faults, and unattractiveness in some of my brethren, and I found it hard to love them. Then one day God made it clear to me, from this verse, that if I do not love my brother, whose failures and unattractiveness, I see it proves the love of God is not in me."

Hence, then, 1 John 4:21 (ESV) "And this commandment we have from Him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother." Spiritual honesty brings peace and power to the person who practices it. Because he lives in open honesty with the Father, he can live in open honesty with other people. Love and truth go together. Because he knows God loves him and accepts him (even with all his faults) he loves God and loves his fellow believers and all others around him.

Philip Keller in his book "Salt for Society" gives this testimony. "Several years ago, a big powerful, raw-boned rancher and his attractive wife came to call on him. They had both just committed their lives to Christ. He was the first person they wanted to tell the good news to. Why did you come here first? I asked in amazement. Their reply startled me. I could hardly believe it. Because that hot blistering day you helped us harvest our crop and save it from the terrible drought, we saw what it was like to be a Christian. And so we decided then, we would give our lives to Christ. Out in the fierce summer sun of that rancher's fields, God had seen fit to use Philip and his wife's simple labour and neighbourly concern and love as a means to bring this couple to Himself."