No Fear Love
Intro:
In 4:7ff. John is concerned that we understand fully what inspires our love for one another. As Marshall puts it, “John is here concerned with definition, not exhortation.” What is the connection between love and God? What is the basis of our love for each other? What effects show up in the lives of men and women who exhibit this kind of love? Hidden in this section is John’s famous statement that “God is love” (4:8), corresponding to his other two affirmations: “God is light” (1:5) and “God is Spirit” (John 4:24).
4:7–21 For the third time, John lays out the “love” test. The sheer volume of space dedicated to this in John’s letter speaks of the importance of love for fellow believers in the gospel-transformed life (cf. 1 Cor. 13:13).
Jesus himself said that this is how others would know that we are true believers (John 13:35). John’s point, here once again, is that this is how we can know with confidence we are true believers (1 John 4:7, 12, 16–17).
In verse 12 John declared that if we love each other, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. In verses 13–16 he has enlarged on the divine indwelling; in verses 17–21 he reverts to the theme of complete love, although now he is concerned with the completion not of God’s love in us but of our love for God. John is not suggesting that any Christian’s love could in this life be flawlessly perfect, but rather developed and mature, set fixedly upon God. He describes two marks of such ‘perfect love’, namely confidence before God and love of our brothers and sisters.
This section is dominated and held together semantically by the concept of love. The word in some form occurs thirty-two times in 4:7–5:3 (forty-three times in the entire letter). “Dear friends” (agapētoi) serves as a boundary marker and prepares for a change in subject.
In verses 13–16 the apostle discussed the relationship between love and the indwelling of God. He suggested that it is not enough merely to know that God is love. Believers must live daily in the sphere of divine love. In so doing they genuinely live in God’s presence and have God living in them.
In verses 17–21 John mentioned two evidences of the presence of a ripened fruit of love in a Christian’s life. First, such love provides confidence on the day of the coming judgment (vv. 17–18). Second, this love leads to a genuine concern for fellow Christians (vv. 19–21).
This, then, is my bridge. To simply reconstruct John’s struggles for my congregation is to rob the letter of its timeless power. To say that we ought to love one another (while true) says nothing new. But to construct the motive and power that enables love is truly significant. John envisions Christian believers who are so completely healed inwardly that reconciliation within the community is a natural by-product of spiritual maturity.
Although Stoic philosophers emphasized not fearing anything, because circumstances cannot ultimately destroy one’s reason, John’s assurance that true believers need not fear here is not explicitly directed toward all circumstances. His assurance applies specifically to punishment in the day of judgment (4:17).
With this background, we can better understand what 1 John 4:12–16 is saying to us. God is invisible (1 Tim. 1:17), and no man can see Him in His essence. Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). By taking on Himself a human body, Jesus was able to reveal God to us. But Jesus is no longer here on earth. How, then, does God reveal Himself to the world?
He reveals Himself through the lives of His children. Men cannot see God, but they can see us. If we abide in Christ, we will love one another, and our love for one another will reveal God’s love to a needy world. God’s love will be experienced in us and then will be expressed through us.
The concept of love is so important to John that three times he discusses it in this letter. This is the third passage. The first time was in chapter 2, he talked about love as evidence for our fellowship with God. In chapter 3 it was an evidence of our sonship with God. Now in chapter 4 John comes to the apex of what love is. He traces the stream of love to its source: “God is love.” There are three spiritual truths we learn from this passage. The first is found in verses 7, 8.
Love Personified (vv. 7, 8)
“Love” is a word that involves your emotions, but more than that the Biblical concept of agapē is a love that is unconditional, a love that seeks the highest good for the one who is loved, a love of total commitment. When God loves in the Bible, he does not say: “I love you if …” or “I love you because …” There is nothing in us that would cause God to love us. We are sinners. God’s love for us does not have anything to do with something in us that caused God to love us. God’s love for us is motivated by who he is, not by who we are.
John is talking about the relationship between God and believers. If you have children, they possess your DNA. Your children have your nature, which has been genetically passed on to them. John is saying that a similar thing is true of those who have been born of God. If God as to his nature is love, then everyone who has truly been born of God partakes of his nature of love. Not only have we been born of God, but a second thing is true about us: we know God. The word “knows” here conveys the meaning of having an intimate relationship with God. It is more than knowing facts about God or understanding perceived truths about God. To know God really means to be rightly related to him.
By “perfected” John means that love has reached its aim, purpose, and goal for our lives.
“Propitiation”—now there is a five-dollar stained-glass word we don’t use every day. I’ll bet when you and your friend were running late to math class in school you did not say to your friend, “We are going to be late, and the teacher is going to be mad; so we’d better find a way to make propitiation.” We don’t talk that way. But this word is a very important word in the Bible; so let’s camp out on it for a moment. Propitiation is a word that means “to appease someone’s wrath.” In ancient Greek mythology, the gods were capricious and easily angered by humans. Humans sought to appease that anger by offering sacrifices to the gods.
Why is it necessary that there be “propitiation” for our sins? Why doesn’t God just wave his magic wand and forgive everyone’s sin? Let me answer this question with another question. Why doesn’t the state of Colorado just wave its magic wand and forgive James Holmes for murdering twelve people and wounding fifty-eight others in a theater in Aurora in the summer of 2012? To ask the question is to answer it. To do so would be an egregious violation of justice. If God were to do the same for our sins, it would be a denial of the seriousness of sin and a gross violation of his justice. Sin is so bad that it leads to a state of affairs where the Son of God himself ends up being crucified.
Propitiation is a word that includes six things in its definition: God’s holiness, wrath, justice, mercy, love, and grace. Why does there need to be a propitiation in the first place? All sin is an affront to God’s holiness.
Go forth at once, and try and make reconciliation, not only between yourself and your friend, but between every man and God. Let that be your object. Christ has become man’s reconciliation, and we are to try and bring this reconciliation near to every poor sinner that comes in our way. We are to tell him that God in Christ is reconciled.… God is now able to deal on gospel terms with the whole race. We need never think that we shall meet with men to whom God will not consent to be reconciled.
In 4:7ff. John is concerned that we understand fully what inspires our love for one another. As Marshall puts it, “John is here concerned with definition, not exhortation.” What is the connection between love and God? What is the basis of our love for each other? What effects show up in the lives of men and women who exhibit this kind of love? Hidden in this section is John’s famous statement that “God is love” (4:8), corresponding to his other two affirmations: “God is light” (1:5) and “God is Spirit” (John 4:24).
The Trinitarian origin of perfect love brings the apostle’s theme in 1 John 4:7–21 into sharp focus. Four times in the passage (once in verse 12, once in verse 17, and twice in verse 18) John refers to perfect or perfected love. The New Testament mentions many kinds of love (Matt. 5:44; 22:37–38; John 13:34; 14:15, 21; 15:12; Rom. 12:9–10; 13:8–10; 1 Cor. 8:3; 13:4–8, 13; 2 Cor. 5:14; Gal. 5:22; Eph. 5:25, 28, 33; Phil. 1:9; Col. 3:14; 1 Thess. 4:9; 2 Thess. 3:5; Heb. 13:1; James 2:8; 1 Peter 1:22; 4:8; Jude 21), but the supreme love is the perfected and completed love that comes from God at salvation. In Romans 5:5 Paul wrote, “The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” It is a love that does not derive from mystical experience or attach to emotional sentimentality, but that originates in salvation (cf. Rom. 8:28–30) and demonstrates itself in the good works of sanctification (cf. Eph. 2:10; Heb. 10:24). The fullest expression of it occurs when believers obey the Lord: “Whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected” (1 John 2:5; cf. 5:3).
This passage is actually the third time John discusses love in this letter. First in 2:7–11 he presented love as a proof of true fellowship. Then in 3:10–17 John discussed love as evidence of believers’ sonship. This third discussion of love is an example of John’s cycling back through the letter’s moral and doctrinal proofs of salvation, each time providing his readers with greater depth and breadth.
John is very fond of using this word “abide.” It is common in his Gospel as well as in this letter. In verses 12–16 alone, John uses this word six times. To abide in God (or Christ) not only is a statement of fact concerning our relationship to God and his relationship to us, but it is also a statement concerning our conduct. When we abide in Christ, we are behaving according to his character. This is why John links the concept of abiding with that of loving in these verses.
17. Parrēsia is a word John has already used to portray both the unshrinking confidence we should have at Christ’s coming (2:28) and the bold assurance we should enjoy as we approach God in prayer (3:21–22; cf. 5:14–15). Here he reverts to the future, to the day of judgment which will follow the Lord’s return. There is no evidence that John has jettisoned belief either in the parousia or in the judgment day. That day will be one of shame and terror for the wicked, but not for the redeemed people of God. Our confidence (like our obedience in 2:5) is a sign that our love has been made complete. It is grounded upon the fact that in this world we are like him (sc. Christ). To be sure, we are not yet like him in our character or in our bodies (3:2), although to some extent we do resemble him in our conduct (2:6; 3:3), but in our standing before God, even while remaining in this world, we are already like him. We are sons in and through the Son, begotten or born of God as he was (5:18), the objects of God’s love and favour like him (cf. Eph. 1:6). Therefore if Jesus called and calls God ‘Father’, so may we. We can share the confidence before God which he enjoys.
Of course there is a proper “fear of God,” but it is not the kind of fear that produces torment. “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ ” (Rom. 8:15, NASB) “For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).
“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). But a Christian does not fear future judgment, because Christ has suffered his judgment for him on the cross. “Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24, NASB). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1, NASB). For a Christian, judgment is not future; it is past. His sins have been judged already at the cross, and they will never be brought against him again.
The secret of our boldness is, “As He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). We know that “we shall be like Him” when He returns (1 John 3:1–2), but that statement refers primarily to the glorified bodies believers will receive (Phil. 3:20–21). Positionally, we are right now “as He is.” We are so closely identified with Christ, as members of His body, that our position in this world is like His exalted position in heaven.
Imagine! Nothing in all creation—present or future—can come between us and God’s love!
The perfecting of God’s love in our lives is usually a matter of several stages. When we were lost, we lived in fear and knew nothing of God’s love. After we trusted Christ, we found a perplexing mixture of both fear and love in our hearts. But as we grew in fellowship with the Father, gradually the fear vanished and our hearts were controlled by His love alone. An immature Christian is tossed between fear and love; a mature Christian rests in God’s love.
We have adopted the Greek word for fear into our English vocabulary: phobia. All sorts of phobias are listed in psychology books; for instance, acrophobia—“fear of heights,” and hydrophobia—“fear of water.” John is writing about krisisphobia—“fear of judgment.” John has already mentioned this solemn truth in 1 John 2:28; and now he deals with it again.
In v. 18, the same truth is stated negatively. The love that builds confidence also banishes fears. We love God and reverence Him, but we do not love God and come to Him in love, and at the same time, hide from Him in terror (cf. Rom. 8:14, 15; 2 Tim. 1:7). Fear involves torment or punishment, a reality the sons of God will never experience, because they are forgiven.
When believers love God because he first loved them (v. 19), their fear is driven out. Love for God and fear of his judgment cannot coexist (cf. Rom 8:15). The one who fears is not made perfect in love. When the realization of God’s love penetrates our minds and spirits, we are made perfect in love and fear of judgment is removed.
John also refers to love being “perfected in/with us” (vv. 12, 17). By this John speaks of love being brought progressively to its full godlike character in us as the gospel continues its ongoing transformative work through God’s abiding presence with us (v. 16). This will both “cast fear” out of us (v. 18) and produce “confidence” in us (v. 17) as we anticipate “the day of judgment.” For genuine gospel-believers there need be no fear of judgment day; there will be no punishment for God’s children (v. 18), because God “sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (v. 10).
That important little word abide (or dwell, KJV) is used six times in 1 John 4:12–16. It refers to our personal fellowship with Jesus Christ. To abide in Christ means to remain in spiritual oneness with Him, so that no sin comes between us. Because we are “born of God,” we have union with Christ; but it is only as we trust Him and obey His commandments that we have communion with Him. Much as a faithful husband and wife “abide in love” though they may be separated by miles, so a believer abides in God’s love. This abiding is made possible by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (1 John 4:13).
4:21 This verse summarizes chap. 4. One cannot love God without first loving his fellow believer. A claim to love God is a delusion if not accompanied by unselfish love for other Christians.
2. He grows in faith (1 John 4:16). The more we love God, the more we understand the love of God. And the more we understand His love, the easier it is for us to trust Him. After all, when you know someone intimately and love him sincerely, you have no problem putting your confidence in him.
If John grounds his first argument for mutual love on God’s eternal nature, he bases his second (9–11) on his historical gift. The God who is love (8) ‘loved us’ (10) and expressed his love by sending his Son to earth. While the origin of love is in the being of God, the manifestation of love is in the coming of Christ. And, John writes, ‘since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another’ (11)
16. The historical mission of Jesus is evidence as much of the Father’s love as of the Son’s deity. It tells us not only that God loved, but that God is love. It is one thing, however, to know and believe the love God has for us and that God is love; it is another to ‘live in love’ ourselves. Yet this we must do, for (as John has unfolded at great length in vv. 7–12) the love that is eternally in God and was historically manifested in Christ is to come to fruition in us. The only way to love, as the only way to believe (15), is by living in God and God in us. For it is the divine indwelling which alone makes possible both belief and love. They are its fruit, and therefore its evidence: ‘he who dwells in love is [i.e. is thereby seen to be] dwelling in God’ (NEB).
4:11 John now builds on his original admonition to love one another (v. 7). For the sixth time he uses this compassionate and affectionate greeting “Dear friends” (agapētoi) to exhort his readers. John is not so much introducing a new subject as he is adding to his prior discussion. Once one begins to understand the incredible price paid for sin and the magnitude of personal sin, he will understand the love of God and demonstrate it himself (John 13:31–35). The love God has shown becomes the motive for our responding to others properly. John’s use of “ought” (opheilomen) infers that there is an inner motivation and obligation to love others. Further, this obligation or debt cannot be postponed for any reason. It is one we rightly owe. John is insisting that loving God and loving others cannot be divorced, which is exactly what Jesus taught in Matt 22:37–40. John is writing to those who are recipients of God’s love. Since God has loved them in this way, they have no option but to do the same.
When we remain in this love, we live in God because God is love (cf. v. 8). It must be stated that the previous characteristics and qualifications are still required. Speaking of the love of God, as many often do, is not enough. The confession of the incarnate Christ and acknowledgment of his atonement and Lordship are necessary. Without this combination, this mutual abiding is not possible. The fact that the word “abide” (menō) occurs three times in the Greek text underscores this point.
The reflexive phrase “let us love one another” (agapōmen) occurs three times in this passage. Here in v. 7 it is an exhortation; in v. 11 it is a statement of duty, and in v. 12 it is a hypothesis.
18. The same truth is now stated negatively. The love that spells confidence banishes fear. There is no fear (i.e. no servile fear) in love. That is, ‘there is no room for fear in love’ (NEB). The two are as incompatible as oil and water. We can love and reverence God simultaneously (cf. Heb. 5:7), but we cannot approach him in love and hide from him in fear at the same time (cf. Rom. 8:14–15; 2 Tim. 1:7).
The reason why perfect love cannot coexist with fear is now given: fear has to do with punishment (the word kolasis occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in Matt. 25:46). That is to say, fear introduces the category of punishment, which is quite alien to God’s forgiven children who love him. Or the phrase may signify rather that fear ‘includes, brings with it’ (Westcott, cf. NEB) the very punishment it fears. In other words, ‘fear has in itself something of the nature of punishment’ (Brooke, Law); to fear is to begin to suffer punishment already. Once assured that we are ‘like him’ (17) God’s beloved children, we cease to be afraid of him. It is evident, therefore, that the one who fears is not made perfect in love.
IN VERSE 17 John makes the remarkable statement that a life inspired by God, a life shaped by this quality of Christian discipleship—such a life exhibits a love that is made complete (cf. 4:12, 18). The NIV misses an important connective with the foregoing verses: “By this love is made complete among us.” That is, by everything said thus far, by the principles outlined above, God’s love is perfected among us. Note that in verse 12 John refers to love being perfected in us. Now a different emphasis is apparent. God’s love is perfected not through our perception of it or our experience of it, but through our expression of it.
Some people have fear because of their past. For others the present worries them. For still others the future threatens them. If you fear having dental work and you know you have to go to the dentist tomorrow, you are a nervous wreck between now and then because you are tormented by that fear. The fear of the future torments you now.
Love for God and others frees people from fear. “There is no fear in love,” John writes, “but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (4:18). Christians in John’s day as well as in our own have many reasons to be fearful. It really does not matter whether John is thinking primarily about God’s love for us or our love for God and others. John’s point covers all situations. When we live within the security of God’s love for us and practice love for others, we will experience freedom from all fear. As Jonathan Edwards said in his sermon on this passage:
Fear hath torment, intimating that divine love tends to banish and drive away from the mind whatsoever is tormenting and afflictive and to give ease and rest and it will do so when it is perfect, when it is strong and in lively exercises. By perfect love here we need not understand absolutely perfect but only strong love, love in its ardent exercises. Such love tends to cast out fear. Fear is the legal principle, love is the evangelical. Servile fear is the spirit of bondage, but love is the spirit of adoption. The evangelical principle gives boldness and confidence.… Fear keeps at a distance and prevents boldness of access.
Fear can be a very good motivation. I’m not going to drive 100 miles per hour around a hairpin curve because I’m afraid I might kill myself and others with me. Fear is sometimes a good thing. But as Christians we don’t have to fear the future because of God’s love for us and our love for him. The one who fears has not been made mature in love.
A loving confidence becomes a loving concern for others according to verse 19: “We love because he first loved us.” In his pithy way Luther got it right: “God does not love because of our works; He loves because of His love.” Your love for Jesus did not originate with you. It is a response to Bethlehem and Calvary.
The other side of confidence is fear. If we truly abide in the Father’s love, it follows that we will be without fear. “Perfect love drives out fear.” The statement probably should be taken almost as a Christian truism as well as an allusion to the fear of God in judgment. Love and fear are incompatible. They cannot coexist. For the Christian love is first an experience of the Father’s love for us. That “love” is so powerful and life changing that when we know it we are forever removed from the “fear” of God.
If John grounds his first argument for mutual love on God’s eternal nature, he bases his second (9–11) on his historical gift. The God who is love (8) ‘loved us’ (10) and expressed his love by sending his Son to earth. While the origin of love is in the being of God, the manifestation of love is in the coming of Christ. And, John writes, ‘since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another’ (11)
If how a person behaves contradicts what he says, he is a liar. To claim to know God and have fellowship with God while we walk in the darkness of disobedience is to lie (1:6; 2:4). To claim to possess the Father while denying the deity of the Son is to lie (2:22–23). To claim to love God while hating our brothers is also to lie. These are the three black lies of the letter: moral, doctrinal and social. We may insist that we are Christian, but habitual sin, denial of Christ or selfish hatred would expose us as liars. Only holiness, faith and love can prove the truth of our claim to know, possess and love God.
4:18 John begins this verse with an affirmation. The reason that the believer need not fear is that the relationship between him and God through Christ is based on love, and in love “there is no fear.” The word “fear” begins the sentence and is thus emphatic. Literally John says, “Fear not is in love.” The believer can have full “confidence” based on this assertion. John uses the word phobos (fear), which can mean either a good fear (respect) or bad fear (dread). It is this latter type of fear to which he is referring. There should be no dread in the life of the one in whom God dwells. In fact the claim here is that love and fear are mutually exclusive.
John has not hidden his own contempt for this kind of hypocrisy and in fact has already stated that to behave this way puts the perpetrator in kinship with Cain (1 John 3:18).
Those whose lives are not characterized by love for others are not Christians, no matter what they claim. The Jewish religionists (scribes, Pharisees, and other leaders) of Jesus’ day, as well as the false teachers in the church of John’s day, knew a lot about God, but they did not really know Him (cf. 1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 3:7). The absence of God’s love in their lives revealed their unregenerate condition as conclusively as did their aberrant theology.
The term propitiation refers to a covering for sin (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:17), and is a form of the same word (hilasmos) used in 2:2 (for a more detailed explanation of this important word and its background, see chapter 4 of this volume). Hundreds of years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah foresaw His propitiatory sacrifice:
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. (Isa. 53:4–6; cf. 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 3:18)
Thus John exhorted his readers: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (cf. John 15:13). The apostle really just restated his admonition from 3:16, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” No one who has ever savingly believed in Christ’s atoning sacrifice, and thus been granted eternal life, can return permanently to a self-centered lifestyle. Instead such persons will obey Paul’s exhortation to the Ephesians to “be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Eph. 5:1–2; cf. 1 Peter 1:15–16).
Why can believers have such confidence? Because as He is, so also are we in this world. This stunning statement means the Father treats the saints the same way He does His Son Jesus Christ. God clothes believers with the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 3:21–22; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9), and grants the Son’s perfect love (Matt. 9:36; John 10:11, 14–16; 13:1; 14:21) and obedience (cf. John 4:34; 5:30; 18:37). Someday believers will stand before God’s throne as confidently as their Lord and Savior does. When they reach that final accounting, they will see the fulfillment of 1 John 3:2b, “We [believers] know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”
4:12 This verse is striking both in its affirmation and order. Literally, the verse begins, “God no one ever has beheld.” Hiebert notes: “The verb used here is not that used in John 1:18 (ἑώρακεν [eōraken]), which simply denotes the fact of having seen; the verb here (τεθέαται [tetheatai]) implies a careful observation or close scrutiny (the word “theater” is derived from it).” No man has seen God in his unveiled essence, glory, and majesty. Indeed, we are incapable as finite sinful creatures of looking on God. It would certainly be our death. He can be seen, however, in the lives of those who demonstrate his love to others.
It would certainly be our death. He can be seen, however, in the lives of those who demonstrate his love to others. There are no exceptions to who has seen God (“no one”), and there are no exceptions to the time frame (“has ever”). Jesus claimed that one who had seen him had also seen the Father (John 14:9), but this is not the kind of seeing referred to here. As Hiebert explains, “What Moses saw on Sinai (Exod 33:22–23) or Isaiah in the temple (Isa 6:1), were theophanies, revelations by which God made Himself visible to the eye.”
The second section of the verse opens with a third-class conditional sentence (“if we love one another”) which leaves the possibility of not fulfilling the condition. Not everyone who professes to be a child of God manifests this kind of mutual love. But it is God’s rightful expectation since it is the demonstration that God who revealed himself in Christ is also revealed in the lives of those in whom he “abides” (translated “lives”). In fact, this mutual love is the evidence that this has taken place. A person loves because God has come to dwell within him.
Three different witnesses are suggested in these verses: 1. The witness of the believer that Jesus Christ is God’s Son (1 John 4:15); 2. the witness in the believer by the Spirit (1 John 4:13); and 3. the witness through the believer that God is love and that He sent His Son to die for the world (1 John 4:14).
These witnesses cannot be separated. The world will not believe that God loves sinners until they see His love at work in His children’s lives.
God’s love is proclaimed in the Word (“God is love”) and proved at the cross. But here we have something deeper: God’s love is perfected in the believer. Fantastic as it may seem, God’s love is not made perfect in angels, but in sinners saved by His grace. We Christians are now the tabernacles and temples in which God dwells. He reveals His love through us.
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, famous British preacher, had five sons, all of whom became ministers of the Gospel. One day a visitor in their home dared to ask a personal question: “Which of you six is the best preacher?”
Their united answer was, “Mother!”
Of course, Mrs. Campbell Morgan had never preached a formal sermon in a church; but her life was a constant sermon on the love of God. The life of a Christian who abides in God’s love is a potent witness for God in the world. Men cannot see God, but they can see His love moving us to deeds of helpfulness and kindness.
Jesus did not simply preach the love of God; He proved it by giving His life on the cross. He expects His followers to do likewise. If we abide in Christ, we will abide in His love. If we abide in His love, we must share this love with others. Whenever we share this love, it is proof in our own hearts that we are abiding in Christ. In other words, there is no separation between a Christian’s inner life and his outer life.
“Love one another” begins as a commandment (1 John 4:7), then it becomes a privilege (1 John 4:11). But it is more than a commandment or a privilege. It is also the thrilling consequence and evidence of our abiding in Christ (1 John 4:12). Loving one another is not something we simply ought to do; it is something we want to do.
The first part of verse 12 at first seems to be out-of-place. What does God’s invisibility have to do with love? But when we read the entire verse, the statement makes sense. John is saying that others’ seeing you loving others is evidence to other people that God is real and that God lives in you.
Which is easier, to love God or to love people? If we put that to a vote, the majority would say that it is easier to love God and harder to love people. The reason is simple: God is perfect, and he loves me; people are imperfect and don’t always love us. On top of that, some of them have rotten personalities. You would think John would agree, but he does not. For John it is harder to love God than people. People are visible, but God is not. If you don’t love people whom you see, how can you claim to love God whom you have never seen? Furthermore, if you don’t love people, then you are not loving God because God has declared that one of the ways you show your love for him is by visibly showing your love for others.
Max Lucado introduced us all to Chad, a shy, quiet little boy. One day he came home and told his mother he’d like to make a valentine for everyone in his class. Her heart sank. “I wish he wouldn’t do that!” she thought. She had watched the children when they walked home from school. Her Chad was always behind them. They laughed and hung on to each other and talked to each other, but Chad was never included. Nevertheless, she decided she would go along with her son. She purchased the paper, glue, and crayons and for three whole weeks, night after night, Chad painstakingly made thirty-five valentines. Valentine’s Day dawned, and Chad was frantic with excitement! He carefully placed the valentines in a bag and bolted out the door. His mom decided to bake his favorite cookies because she knew he would be disappointed when he came home from school. It hurt her to think that he wouldn’t get many valentines, maybe none at all. That afternoon she had the cookies and milk on the table. Finally, when she heard their voices, she looked out the window to see the children laughing and having the best time. As usual there was Chad in the rear, but walking a little faster than usual. She fully expected him to burst into tears as soon as he got inside. His arms were empty, she noticed, and when the door opened, she choked back the tears. “Honey, I have some warm cookies and milk for you,” she said, but he hardly heard her words. He just marched right on by, his face glowing, and all he could say was, “Not a one—not a one.” The mother’s heart sank. Then he added, “I didn’t forget a one, not a single one!” And Jesus didn’t forget a single one of us when he died on the cross.
But here, to our astonishment and confusion, John goes on to say that if we love each other, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. That is, the unseen God, who once revealed himself in his Son, now reveals himself in his people if and when they love one another. God’s love is seen in their love because their love is his love imparted to them by his Spirit (cf. v. 13). The words do not mean that when we begin to love, God comes to dwell in us, but the reverse. Our love for one another is evidence of God’s indwelling presence. See 3:17 for another reference to God’s love living in us.
John goes further still. Reciprocal Christian love means not only that God lives in us but also that his love is made complete in us. It would be hard to exaggerate the greatness of this conception. It is so daring that many commentators have been reluctant to accept it and have suggested that the genitive in his love is not subjective (‘God’s love’) but objective (‘our love for God’; cf. 2:5) or definitive (‘Godlike love’). But the whole paragraph is concerned with God’s love and we must not stagger at the majesty of this conclusion. God’s love, which originates in himself (7–8) and was manifested in his Son (9–10), is made complete in his people (12). It is ‘brought to perfection within us’ (NEB). God’s love for us is perfected only when it is reproduced in us or (as it may mean) ‘among us’ in the Christian fellowship. It is these three truths about the love of God which John uses as inducements to brotherly love. We are to love each other, first because God is love (8–9), secondly because God loved us (10–11), and thirdly because, if we do love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us (12).
It is only by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth and whose first-fruit is love (Gal. 5:22), that we ever come to believe in Christ and to love others. Emphasis on the Holy Spirit is, in fact, ‘the predominant idea of this section’ (Ebrard). This, then, is the sequence of thought: we know that we live in God and God in us ‘because he has given us of his Spirit’ (13), and we know he has given us of his Spirit because we have come to ‘acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God’ (15), and to live ‘in love’ (16).
Much Christian truth is contained in the straightforward affirmation of verse 14. Here is the essence of the gospel. The world means sinful society, estranged from God and under the dominion of the evil one (cf. 5:19). Its urgent need was to be rescued from sin and Satan. And the Father ‘so loved the world’ (John 3:16) that he sent his Son, his dear and only Son, to be its Saviour.
The perfect tense of the verb (apestalken, ‘has sent’) points not just to the historical event of the sending, but to the purpose and result of it, namely the salvation of the world.
Last spring I was explaining to an introductory New Testament class Paul’s view of grace as it appears in Galatians. Paul shares John’s opinion that it was God’s love expressed in Christ that inspires the Christian life. In fact, as Paul argued in Romans 7, law by itself simply triggers rebellion. Then I tried an experiment. I asked all forty students to write a one-page essay analyzing whether their lives had been shaped by the threat of law or the wonder of God’s grace. I was devastated by the results. Over 90 percent of the class admitted privately that the possibility of God’s disfavor and wrath had shaped their Christian outlook since childhood. God’s unending love was not foremost in their minds, but his possible displeasure was. Christianity, they reported, was really about following the rules. When I told them it was not, you could hear a pin drop. Some privately commented that this was the first time they had heard such “good news.”
I do not believe that my student sampling was unusual. These were mature young men and women who came from strong evangelical churches and families. And their reflex was to please God so that he would continue to favor them. They had not learned to please God because he already favored them. Because of this reality many Christians are troubled, and many have a genuine fear of God. The following was written by a 21-year-old student who is a strong, knowledgeable evangelical. Her sentences were submitted in a term paper describing the justice of God.
I feel like God punishes me for sins all of the time. I feel that there is always something I am being punished for. I know that is impossible because there are not enough minutes in the day for God to punish us. I probably should not call it punishment, but that is the way I feel about God’s justice. I know of God’s love and blessings for me and for that I am eternally grateful and thankful. But I live with this fear that one mess-up and I will be punished again.
I am forced to ask, what is happening in the church? In our families? Who has stolen the good news out of the gospel? As a result, I have built into my syllabi numerous points where I emphasize the loving, abundant generosity of God. And this semester (as I write) it happened again: After one such explanation of God’s unmerited love, a mature student told me, “I’ve never heard anything like this before.”
The point is that they were exhibiting extraordinary love among the loveless, not as a way to make God love them, but as a spiritual exercise, to invigorate their hearts, to touch love itself—because they have felt loveless themselves. Remarkably, loving someone who is unlovely brings into focus the power of God’s choice to love us in our unloveliness.
In verse 12 John makes the simple point that if no one has seen God the Father at any time (cf. John 4:24; 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16), and Jesus is no longer visibly present to manifest Him, people will not see God’s love unless believers love one another. If they love one another, God will be on display, testifying that He abides in [them], and His love is perfected in [them] (cf. John 13:34–35; 1 John 3:24). The unseen God thus reveals Himself through the visible love of believers; the love that originated in God and was manifested in His Son is now demonstrated in His people.
Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to the wind (John 3:8) and said people can see only the Spirit’s effects; there are no visible, physical signs that guarantee that someone is filled with the Spirit. But the reality of their faith enables believers to know they have the indwelling Spirit, as John reminds his readers: We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
The day of judgment refers in the broadest sense to the final time of reckoning before God (cf. 2:28). John says believers can live their lives with confidence (literally, “boldness”) as they look to the day when Christ returns and they stand before God (1 Cor. 3:9–15; 2 Cor. 5:10; cf. James 1:12; Rev. 2:10). In 3:21 John used the same word (parrēsia) to refer to the confidence believers can have that God will grant their prayer requests. In the present verse the apostle declares that boldness and lack of fear should characterize believers (cf. Rom. 5:2; Heb. 6:19) whenever they think ahead to God’s time of judgment (cf. Titus 2:13).