First John: 1 John 4:17-Loving One Another Accomplishes God’s Purpose in Manifesting His Love at the Cross

1 John 4:17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. (ESV)

“By this is love perfected with us” indicates the means by which the Father’s purpose for revealing His love through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross is accomplished in the lives of His children.

It is expressing the idea that if the child of God lives by means of God’s love, then the Father’s purpose for revealing His attribute of love through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross for them accomplishes its purpose with them.

“So that we may have confidence for the day of judgment” presents both the purpose and the result of God accomplishing His purpose of revealing His attribute of love through the believer who obeys His command to love one another.

It speaks of the child of God experiencing confidence in the presence of Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat.

“Because as he is so also are we in this world” presents the reason for the previous declarations in this verse.

It presents the correspondence between Jesus Christ living in fellowship with the Father by means of God’s love and John and the recipients of First John doing the same because they were obeying the command to love one another.

1 John 4:17 By means of this, this divine-love is accomplishing its purpose among each one of us so that each one of us would accomplish the Father’s purpose of experiencing confidence on evaluation day because just as He Himself does live so also each one of us does live. (My translation)

The apostle John solemnly presents three more statements.

Their purpose is to encourage the recipients of First John to continue making it their habit of obeying the command to love one another so that they would continue to experience fellowship with the Father and the Father with them.

This would correspond with the overriding purpose of First John which is revealed in 1 John 1:1-3, namely that the recipients of First John would continue experiencing fellowship with the Father and with John and those who were adhering to his apostolic teaching.

1 John 1:1 We are now proclaiming to each of you what has always existed from eternity past, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we observed for ourselves, even what we touched with our hands concerning the Word which is truly life. 2 In other words, this life was revealed. As noted previously, we have seen so therefore we are now proclaiming by testifying to each of you this life, which is eternal, which because of its eternal nature has always existed face to face with the Father. Indeed, it was revealed to each one of us. 3 What we have seen as well as heard, we are now proclaiming to each of you in order that each of you would also continue to regularly experience fellowship with each of us. Also, our fellowship is in fact with the Father as well as with His Son, who is Jesus, who is the Christ. 4 Thus, we ourselves are now communicating in writing concerning each of these things in order to cause our joy to exist in a maximum state. (Author’s translation)

The first declaration in 1 John 4:17 asserts that by means of living by means of God’s love, the purpose of God the Father revealing His love through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ for John and the recipients of First John accomplishes its purpose.

They lived by means of this love by obeying the command to love one another.

Consequently, they were living in fellowship with the Father and the Father with them.

The second declaration is a purpose-result clause which speaks of John and the recipients of First John experiencing confidence when they stand before Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church.

This purpose-result clause teaches that this confidence would not only be the result of living by means of God’s love because they obeyed the command to love one another but would also accomplish the Father’s purpose for them.

The third declaration is a causal clause which presents the reason why this is the case and states that just as Jesus Himself was living by means of God’s love so also John and the recipients of First John were doing the same.

Therefore, the first statement in 1 John 4:17 asserts that the purpose of God the Father revealing His attribute of love through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross accomplishes its purpose in the life of the child of God who lives by means of His love.

As we noted in our study of 1 John 4:16, living by means of God’s love is accomplished by obeying the Spirit inspired command of the Lord Jesus Christ to love one another which reveals the Father’s will for the lives of His children.

This obedience is the direct result of accepting by faith God’s love for them, which is communicated in the gospel and was demonstrated by the Father sacrificing His Son on the cross for them.

This obedience to the command to love one another results in the child of God living in fellowship with the Father and correspondingly the Father lives in fellowship with them.

As we noted, the second statement in 1 John 4:17 is a purpose-result clause and asserts that the John and each one of the recipients of First John would accomplish the Father’s purpose of experiencing confidence on evaluation day by living by means of God’s love.

Therefore, this purpose-result clause presents both the purpose and the result of God accomplishing His purpose of revealing His attribute of love through the believer who obeys His command to love one another and thus lives by means of His love.

This would indicate that John and the recipients of First John experiencing confidence at the Bema Seat would not only be the result of living by means of God’s love but would also accomplish the Father’s purpose for them.

In other words, receiving rewards would accomplish the Father’s will for their lives.

The confidence which John speaks of here in this purpose-result clause in 1 John 4:17 is related to receiving rewards for faithful service.

This judgment mentioned here in 1 John 4:17 is emphatically not the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev. 20:11-14) which every non-believer will appear before at the end of human history.

Rather, John is referring to the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church which takes place immediately after the rapture or resurrection of the church.

The purpose of this judgment is to evaluate the service of the child of God to determine if they merit rewards or not for their service.

The child of God has escaped experiencing God’s wrath in the lake of fire as a result of trusting in His Son Jesus Christ as their Savior (cf. Rom. 5:1-11; 8:1-4, 31-34).

Furthermore, John speaks of himself and the recipients of First John experiencing confidence at this judgment, which the non-believer will absolutely not experience at the Great White Throne Judgment.

Therefore, John is teaching the recipients of First John in 1 John 4:17 that they will have confidence that they will receive rewards from the Lord Jesus Christ when they stand before Him at the Bema Seat because they have been imitating Him by obeying His command to love one another.

Consequently, they were experiencing fellowship with the Trinity.

However, if they fail to continue to practice God’s love, they would not only lose fellowship with the Trinity but also they would lose this confidence.

Consequently, they would be ashamed when they stood before the Lord at the Bema Seat.

This is what John taught in 1 John 2:28.

1 John 2:28 Correspondingly, each one of you dear children must now continue to make it your habit of living in fellowship with Him so that each one of us would possess confidence whenever He has been revealed. Consequently, each one of us would not experience shame because of Him at His arrival. (Author’s translation)

The third and final declaration which appears in 1 John 4:17 presents the reason for the two previous declarations in this verse and asserts that just as Jesus does live so also does John and each one of the recipients of First John live.

This causal clause is marking a comparison between John and the recipients of First John who live in fellowship with the Father because they live by means of God’s love and Jesus Christ Himself doing the same.

Therefore, this causal clause is expressing the idea that the believer, who accomplishes the purpose of God revealing His love through His Son, by living by means of this love, will experience confidence on evaluation day because just as Jesus lives, so also does the believer.

In other words, they will be confident that they will receive rewards at the Bema Seat because they live by means of God’s love by obeying the command to love one another just as Jesus does.

Therefore, this causal clause that completes John’s thought in 1 John 4:17 teaches that the believer will experience confidence at the Bema Seat because they are imitating Jesus Christ as a result of living by means of God’s love, which is accomplished by obeying the command to love one another.