Staying in the Love of God
16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.
This phrase, which continues the thought from v. 15, represents the main point of John’s letter: A person who is truly a Christian and part of the Christian community correctly identifies Jesus as the incarnate Son of God. Christians demonstrate their belief in Jesus by loving others, admitting sin, and letting God transform their life (1:6–7; 2:10, 19). These actions also define a person as a true child of God and a member of the believing community.
love his brother also Doing so demonstrates an accurate understanding of the love of God (see 1 John 4:7–11). The believer’s responsibility to show Christ-like sacrificial love to other Christians is not optional; it is commanded by God as a way of displaying His love to the world (2:3–4, 7–8; 3:22–24; 5:2–3).
4:19 “We love because he first loved us.” Love is the cause of love. We love second and after him because he loved first and before us. He loved us when we could not have been worse or further from him than we were. What love is this that shone on us when we were the serfs and slaves of Satan, the dishwashers in the kitchen of iniquity?
4:18 not been perfected in love. God’s love is perfect in itself, and it brings to us the sure promise of final perfection as soon as we receive it (vv. 12, 17; 2:5). But because we are being made perfect in His love over time (3:2), the remnants of fear may temporarily coexist with love. “Perfected love” from God “casts out fear” progressively rather than instantaneously. The word “perfected” is probably better translated “completed” here and throughout 1 John.
4:13–21 The Assurance of God’s Spirit. God’s Spirit (v. 13) gives impetus for and assurance in the high calling of mutual love.
4:13 The presence and activity of the Holy Spirit within Christians are evidence that they are abiding in God (see notes on John 8:31; 15:4).
4:14 we have seen and testify. This was particularly and uniquely true for apostles like John, who were Jesus’ hand-picked witnesses. By extension and through faith, all subsequent believers testify to the same truths. Savior occurs in John’s writings only here and in John 4:42.
22. Love Perfected (part 1)
1 John 4:17–21
The apostle John is interested in bringing us to a high level of love. The early Methodists loved this section of 1 John and used to preach about ‘perfect love’. In 1777, John Wesley wrote A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. Sometimes they seemed to be teaching the very perfectionism that 1 John has repudiated, but they had some aspects of teaching from which we could learn. It is wonderful to be free from condemnation because we are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But upon this foundation we need to be built up to high levels of love, boldness and graciousness. It is at this point where we need 1 John.
(1) There is such a thing as the love of God being ‘perfected’. 1 John 4:17–18a reads: By this is the love of God perfected, that we have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love.
What is perfected love? Everyone who loves does so because he or she is born of God (4:7). In new birth a capacity for love is placed within us. The new Christian begins to love everyone. But this tends soon to be lost. We ‘lose our first love’ (Rev. 2:4). ‘Un-perfected’ love is love that has not yet become a determined principle, love that is knocked aside easily. When Christians show ‘envy, strife and divisions’ (1 Cor. 3:3), they show that their love has not yet been ‘perfected’.
‘Perfected’ love is not sinlessness! The early Methodists went wrong here. They were spiritual giants, and we could learn much from them. Their determination to reach ‘perfect love’ led them to be ‘loud singers and shouters in their praises, long agonizers in their prayers, and lion-hearted laborers for their Lord’. Their striving for the ‘perfect love’ led to enhancements in their lives. They rightly (to my mind) went beyond the Reformation tradition and looked for a higher level of holiness than most eighteenth-century Christians expected. They rightly (to my mind) broke with the idea that Romans 7:14–25 is ‘normal Christianity’. But they made some mistakes.
(i) They went too far in the way they used the word ‘sinless’ and in talking about the root of indwelling sinfulness being totally removed. Wesley said in 1767: ‘I do not contend for the term sinless, though I do not object against it.’ His followers were less cautious. But once the term ‘sinlessness’ is introduced, problems start. Anyone who claims that sin is radically ‘uprooted’ has a dazzling reputation to live up to! It will only be a matter of time before sin gets redefined so that such are able to keep to the claim of sinlessness. This tends to lead into legalism and hypocrisy.
(ii) They spoke of such a blessing being immediately available by an act of instant, expectant, promise-claiming faith. From John Fletcher onwards they linked ‘perfect love’ with the baptism with the Spirit.
(iii) They had a rather confusing definition of sin as ‘voluntary transgression of a known law’, which enabled them to claim sinlessness and yet admit there were still involuntary sins and sins against unknown requirements. It was sinlessness and yet it was not sinlessness.
(iv) The movement eventually split into two. When people look for an experience of sinlessness which does not come, they soon start ‘claiming it by faith’ without their having any ‘experience’. The holiness movement divided into those who stressed ‘experience’ and those who stressed ‘taking it by faith’. The latter was the ‘Keswick’ movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Instead of having ‘experiences’, they ‘took’ their blessings ‘by faith’. Instead of ‘eradication’ of sin, they taught ‘counteraction’ of sinfulness (inbred sin is unchanged but thwarted by God’s grace). Sometimes one half of the movement attacked the other half.
People in revival may have such rich blessings that the claim to be without sin is simply the way they feel. But others who try to apply the teaching in their own lives get themselves into difficulties. Harry Ironside tried it and said:
‘I searched my heart to see if I had made a full surrender and tried to give up every known thing that seemed in any sense evil or doubtful. Sometimes, for a month at a time, or even longer, I could persuade myself that at last I had received the blessing. But invariably a few weeks would bring before me once more that which proved that it was in my particular case all a delusion.’
Christians whose experiences of the Spirit are not so dramatic, find that their sincere strivings and prayers for eradication of sin results in awful bondage.
The Methodists were building on 1 John, but John is more clear-cut than they were. ‘If we say we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves’ (1:8). ‘Perfected’ love is not sinlessness! Rather it is love made into the determined principle of one’s life. It is a habit of refusing to be judgmental. It is taking the initiative (as God in Jesus took the initiative) in bringing about reconciliation. It is the practice of total forgiveness without moralising the forgiven person. It is leaving vindication to God. It is practising the ‘golden rule’ of being sensitive to others (see Matt. 7:12). It is risking everything to be fearless in love. It is holding no grudges.
John actually speaks of God’s love being perfected! By resting utterly in the love of God, by resting in the fact that God’s anger has been propitiated, by knowing and utterly trusting in God’s love for me, and by turning this into a principle by which I love others, the love of God is ‘perfected’. It is brought to its intended fruition. We are never sinless; we need the blood of Jesus every day. But as long as we walk in the light we have peace of conscience for ourselves, graciousness towards others, boldness as those who live in God’s presence, and (if Jesus comes) boldness to stand in His presence as forgiven sinners.
(2) The love of God is perfected in that ‘we have boldness in the day of judgment’. John implies that not all Christians have boldness, and that lack of boldness is due to lack of love. This is true in this life and it will be true in the day of judgment. The second coming and the day of resurrection will be a day of reward (see Rev. 22:12). Although every Christian will be covered with the righteousness of Jesus in the judgment, and that will be his only hope of heaven, yet it does not mean that every Christian will be equally confident.
It might seem to be impossible to be bold amidst judgment if we are to be judged by our works (see 2 Cor. 5:10). Yet there is a way. When the Christian walks in love, his conscience is cleansed (see 1:7). Such a one is not perfect, but he is cleansed. If he knew Jesus were to come in a few minutes time it would make no difference. He has assured fellowship with God now. Not every Christian has this. Not every Christian will be without shame at the second coming of Jesus. The way to know such boldness is to walk in love.
(3) John assures us of the possibility of perfected love because of the resources of the heavenly Jesus. The love of God is perfected, and we have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world.
What is the precise point of the added remark, ‘because as He is so also are we in this world’? One must note that it does not say ‘as He was’, but ‘as He is’. Right now, at this very moment, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. According to what He is—right now at this moment—so are we in this world. It means that our position in this world is determined by what Jesus is now, as He is at the right hand of the Father.
We must follow the trend of thought in what John has just said. He is urging us to reach to great heights of love, but (we ask) is it really possible? Is it possible to have a clear conscience? Is it possible to know that although one is never sinless, yet one can be so totally cleansed in conscience as to be bold before God now and bold before God on judgement day? John answers: Yes! As He is so also are we in this world! We now live on earth in accordance to what He is in heaven! He is there ready to pour down upon us the supplies of the Spirit. He is Lord of our every situation. He constantly presents our needs before the Father.
Can we live the life of love? Yes! According to what He is in glory, according to a heavenly Advocate who is able to do far more abundantly above all that we ask or even think, according to His heavenly power that is at work in our earthly situation, according to His power that is at work in us—so are we in this world.
Can we live the life of love? Yes!
Can we walk with cleansed consciences? Yes!
Can we hope to be bold in the day of judgment? Yes!
Questions For Reflection: 1 John 4:17–21
1. ‘Building up high levels of love.’ How might we do this?
2. A ‘higher level of holiness’? What do you think of this? Have Christians in days gone by been too complacent?
3. How can sin get ‘redefined’?
23. Love Perfected (part 2)
1 John 4:17–21
We have seen: (1) There is such a thing as the love of God being ‘perfected’; (2) Love, when perfected, gives ‘boldness in the day of judgement’; and (3) perfected love is possible because of the resources of the heavenly Jesus. But John has yet more to say.
(4) John goes on to portray love. Essentially it is freedom from fear. The end of verse 17 says: There is no fear in love. Verse 18 belongs with verse 17. But this perfect love throws out fear, because fear holds on to punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love.
Why are we unloving? John says it is because we are afraid, afraid about ourselves, our security, our pleasure, our reputation, our future. We are unloving because we are defensive and self-protective. Supremely, we are afraid of punishment, punishment from God now, punishment from God when judgment finally comes. We are afraid of some kind of punishment from other people. We have a fear that they will not like us, that they will reject us, oppose us, criticize us. The root of being unloving is always fear, and always fear of punishment.
But love is the opposite of all of this. Fear and love are opposites. Fear and faith are opposites. Faith and love are companions.
‘This perfect love throws out fear.’ One characteristic of John’s style is that many phrases can be taken in several ways and yet each way seems valid. The multiple ambiguity that irritates Brown and is seen as a defect is possibly an indication of the richness of John’s deceptively simple language.
Thus the meaning here could be (i) our love (or God’s love) throws out our fear of the other person, or (ii) our love (or God’s love) throws out the fear that the other person has for us, (iii) our love (or God’s love) throws out the terror we would have of God because of our feelings of guilt and (iv)—if the repercussions continue—our love will cast out the other person’s sense of terror before God and make him or her feel forgiven, accepted and reassured. John says in effect: take it whichever way you like. The kingdom of God is an entire realm of love. At every point it is a fear-removing regime. At every point and in half-a-dozen ways it banishes every kind of intimidation.
John goes deeper still: fear holds on to punishment. The deepest aspect of fear is that it is fear of punishment. We feel guilty and almost expect to be punished. We feel angry and find within us the kind of resentment which (if we have any insight into ourselves) we see as a desire to punish.
But ‘this perfect love throws out fear, because fear holds on to punishment’ and perfect love wants nothing to do with either fear or punishment.
‘Perfect love’ has as its deepest base the conviction that God loves us. It begins with the assurance that we ourselves do not need to have any fear of this kind because punishment has been turned aside from us. Even if we sin, we have an Advocate, and He is the propitiation for our sins. Punishment has been averted.
I will praise You, O LORD,
Although You were angry with me,
Your anger has certainly turned away
and You have comforted me (Isa. 12:1).
We are reconciled to God, not just because we are willing to have Him, but because He is satisfied with the blood of His Son, and is eager to have us. We can ‘know God’s love’; we can trust utterly in His determination to keep us and care for us.
‘Perfect love’ is when this conviction that God loves us becomes the base on which we treat others. ‘Perfect love’ is when we live in a way that is ‘throwing out’ every kind of fear of punishment. It is when we insist on loving others, despite the opposition of the devil and lurking animosities within our own hearts. It is when we refuse to allow the other person to fear us. It is when we have confidence in God’s love towards us and are eager to bring others into confidence that God loves them. In half-a-dozen ways perfect love ‘throws out fear’ and refuses to live in an atmosphere of punishment.
He who fears is not perfected in love (4:18). There are people—sometimes we are among them—who fall into unloving ways. Even in the church of Jesus there can be criticism, quiet complaining, gossiping, rivalry. John’s analysis of us when we are like that is not that we do not understand doctrine, not that we have the wrong temperament, not that circumstances are very difficult for us, but that we are not perfected in love. At bottom we have not really seen how much God loves us. When we are made complete in God’s love to us, it will be easier for us to be renewed in love.
(5) John develops the point that the kind of love he has in mind depends on love received by ourselves. 19We love because He first loved us (The Authorised Version, ‘We love him’, is a mistake). To lose ourselves in the love of God is the way to get to love others. Lovelessness towards others is rooted in insecurity. If we felt loved, we would show love. Verse 19 is also a rebuke to incipient pride. ‘Perfect love’ is a high level of godly living. Where would be the humility of the Christian who claimed it? John’s words are a counterbalance to self-righteousness. If the Christian does show love it is because behind human love is God’s prior love. Any love that anyone ever shows is generated by the love of God in Jesus.
That this view of verse 19 is correct is made more probable by the continuation in verse 20 which goes on to deal with the person’s claim (‘If anyone says …’). The claim to love for God is to be validated by brotherly love (verse 20).
(6) Love of God’s people is essential to love of God. 20If anyone says I love God and yet he hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen, cannot be loving God whom he has not seen. The point here is not that love of God is more difficult than love of people. It is not, ‘If you do not do the easier thing, how can you be doing the more difficult thing?’ Rather the point is that love of people is more tangible, more obvious, more observable by others. A person might say ‘I love God’. Who can prove whether he does or whether he does not? Yet if the same person says ‘I love people’, the evidence is nearer to hand! God is Spirit. To love Him might seem very ‘spiritual’, very ‘devotional’. It might seem to be largely a matter of prayers and singing and attending meetings. ‘I love God!’ we might say, but then God cannot be seen and our love is expressing itself mainly in acts of worshipful devotion. There is something more tangible about loving people! We cannot fool ourselves quite so easily when it comes to loving people. The criterion of loving God is not what we feel in worship, it is what we feel when we are with our brother, who is a tangible reality.
(7) John asks us to accept this as an obligation that God lays upon us. As often in 1 John a statement (verse 20) becomes a command (verse 21). 21And this is the command we have from Him, that he that loves God should love his brother also. We need to lose ourselves in the love of God, and then cultivate a sweetness of spirit towards others. We need to make it the principle of our lives to refuse ungodly talk about others, to reject bitterness and lasting wrathfulness, to restrain harsh and rough speaking. One wonders how John himself came to such love. There was a time when he was known as a ‘son of thunder’ (Mark 3:17). But God is able to deal with us! He knows how to make just the right mixture of circumstances that will rebuke us and train us. The ‘son of thunder’ is sweetly pressurised into becoming the ‘apostle of love’.
How do we cultivate such love? When we simply make resolutions (‘I promise not to lose my temper … not to get angry … not to complain …’), we shall probably break them the same day as we make them. A better way is to begin with God’s love to us. Then we had best be honest about ourselves. Perhaps we are lacking in patience or in gentleness. Perhaps we have proud ways or inconsiderateness. Perhaps we exaggerate or twist the truth. We had best humble ourselves before God, admit the way things are with us, and accept the fact that we are still accepted by God because of the blood of Jesus.
There is something very crushing about accepting the truth about ourselves and yet knowing that God still accepts us. It somehow enables us to leave our case and our cause in the hands of God. We become like Jesus. We surrender our reputation, our conviction that we are right, our passionate desires to have things our own way. And we accept the fact that there is something far more important, ‘the command we have from Him’.
Questions For Reflection: 1 John 4:17–21
1. ‘Perfect love throws out fear.’ Are you truly fearless?
2. Are we unloving because we are afraid?
3. Is it good to take Scriptural phrases in many ways?
20. loveth not … brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen—It is easier for us, influenced as we are here by sense, to direct love towards one within the range of our senses than towards One unseen, appreciable only by faith. “Nature is prior to grace; and we by nature love things seen, before we love things unseen” [ESTIUS]. The eyes are our leaders in love. “Seeing is an incentive to love” [AECUMENIUS]. If we do not love the brethren, the visible representatives of God, how can we love God, the invisible One, whose children they are? The true ideal of man, lost in Adam, is realized in Christ, in whom God is revealed as He is, and man as he ought to be. Thus, by faith in Christ, we learn to love both the true God, and the true man, and so to love the brethren as bearing His image.
How To Love God from This Text
I trust that there are some who, although they do not love God now, yet desire to do so. Well, this text tells you how to love God. You say, perhaps, “I will love God when I have improved my character, and when I have attended to the external duties of religion.” But are you going to get love to God out of yourself? Is it there, then? “No,” you say. How, then, will you get it from where it is not? You may go often to an empty iron safe before you will bring a thousand pound note out of it, and you may look a long time to your own heart before you will bring out of it a love to God that is not there.
What is the way by which a heart may be made to love God? The text shows us the method of the Holy Spirit. He reveals the love of God to the heart, and then the heart loves God in return. If, then, you desire to love God, use the method that the text suggests: meditate on the great love of God to man, especially upon this, “In this way God loved the world that he gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him would not perish, but would have eternal life” (John 3:16). See clearly that you have to trust your soul with Christ by faith. Perceive that it is vast love which sets before you such a way of salvation in which the only thing required of you is that you be nothing, and trust Christ to be everything, and even that faith He gives you as a gift of his Spirit, so that the plan of salvation is all of love. If you want to repent, do not so much consider your sin as the love of Jesus in suffering for your sin. If you desire to believe, do not so much study the doctrine as study the person of Jesus Christ on the cross. If you desire to love, think over perpetually, until it breaks your heart, the great love of Jesus Christ in laying down His life for His worthless foes. The love of God is the birthplace of holy love. It is not there in your hearts where you are attempting an absurdly impossible feat, namely, to create love in the carnal mind that cannot be reconciled to God, but love must be born in the heart of Jesus and then it shall come down to you.