HIS LOVE PERFECTED WITH US - 1 JOHN 4:17

Verse 17: By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.

John continues his thought from the previous verse, signified with the phrase by this—by this which I have just explained. Specifically, that our continuous abiding relationship with God in the sphere of His divine love is the basis for what follows.

Perfected Love

Love is perfected with us is an amazing pronouncement, when we consider the unique identity of this love. Kenneth Wuest defines it in this way:

This is not primarily God’s love for us or our love for Him, but the love which God is in His nature, produced in our hearts by the Holy Spirit [emphasis added].1

The fact as stated that love is perfected implies that love exists in its divinely planned objective and is fully realized by the last phrase of verse 16: “the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” The believer residing in this love relationship with God now functions effectively in serving Him; and does so by being motivated by personal love for God, the Father (1 John 2:5) as demonstrated by the consistent study and accurate application Scripture. This is walking in the Light, His objective for us to reside in a stable, harmonious fellowship. However, the emphasis of the word perfected is not placed primarily on the believers’ existing status, but on the accomplished process carried out to achieve this existing status.2 And that process, by which love is perfected, is with us—that is, His love in accompaniment with us. It is just as if His “love walks arm in arm with us.”3

Therefore, we are the instruments He has intentionally chosen to employ, in order to show forth His love in the world. This accompaniment implies the necessity for an active fellowship between the believer and his Creator in expressing His love. This can never be attained by human effort, but by the believer’s total reliance upon the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:7).

Our Confidence

  Since the full intent of God’s love has been completed and has reached its intended goal, John states the reason for believers to continue in this sphere of love with God: that we may have confidence in the day of judgement. The Greek word for confidence means courage, boldness, fearlessness.4 Confidence is a characteristic of the mature believer being in fellowship with his Lord and guided by the Holy Spirit. John uses this word 4 times in this epistle: twice regarding confidence in our prayers (3:21f; 5:14) and here and in 3:28 pertaining to His coming at the Rapture event (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17); for at that time there will be a judgment for Church Age believers. It is important that we not confuse this judgment with the Great White Throne Judgment of the last day which is for unbelievers (Revelation 20:11-15; cf. John 3:18). Neither will this be a judgment for our sins, for they have already been judged, once and for all, when Christ “bore our sins in His body on the cross” (1 Peter 2:24; cf. Hebrews 9:28).

This day of judgment that John refers to is to evaluate the quality of the believers’ works, as described by the Apostle Paul:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

Paul explains further the basis for this assessment:

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:11–15)

Gold, silver, precious stones refers to good works that were accomplished while in fellowship, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Whereas, wood, hay, straw describes the intended “good” works performed while the believer is out of fellowship and motivated in a carnal, sinful state (1 Corinthians 3:1–3). It should be obvious that fire will consume these intended “good” works performed while the believer is residing outside of the perfected sphere of love— walking in darkness, out of fellowship (1:6). Hence, we are able to understand John’s desire for us to have confidence that we receive our reward for faithfully functioning according to God’s intended plan for our lives.

As He Is, We Are

This final phrase is confusing as it stands and needs clarification as to what is He? and we are what? First, what is He? The context states God is love 4:8, 16, but previously John has also indicated that Christ is pure (3:3); without sin (3:5); righteous (3:7); and willing to be sacrificed (3:16). This substantiates Christ’s impeccable, faultless, and blameless character as deity.

Secondly, we are what? What we are not is love, for this is His divine essence. However, we are by design expected to habitually express His love in this world, just as He did. Van Ryn aptly observed that “this statement does not therefore have any reference to our personality, or to our conduct, but to our position as believers.”5 And our position is to be His representatives while we are in this world, following the example He left for us by reflecting His love, His humility and His righteous character to others (John 13:15). Note that in this world does not refer to Christ, for presently and at the time of John’s writing, He is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven (Ephesians 1:20; Hebrews 1:3, 8:1; Romans 8:34).

Something to Ponder

Are we always mindful of whether we are consistently residing in fellowship with God, in our personal sphere of His perfected love? Do we understand that any sins we might commit will fracture our abiding relationship with the Lord? If not, then all of our intended “good” works will be deemed by Our Lord in the day of judgment as fuel to be burned.

Therefore, in order to achieve our spiritual objective of walking in the Light that John advocates, we must resolve that Christ be central in our lives (Galatians 2:20), to be cleansed of our sins (1 John 1:9) and continually filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). By doing this, we will be able to have a spiritually productive life in the sphere of His perfected love and confidence in that day of judgment.

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[1] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: for the English Reader. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 13.169.

[2] Dana, H.E. & Mantey, Julius R. (1957). A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Co., p. 202-203.

[3] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 11.511.

[4] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1979). In A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 630.

[5] Van Ryn, August (1948). The Epistles of John, New York, NY: Loizeaux Brothers, p. 138.

 

© 2025 David M. Rossi 

IN THE SPHERE OF GOD'S LOVE - 1 JOHN 4:16

Verse 16: [And] We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

The translators again, just as in verse 14, have skipped over the word and which logically connects verse 16 with the previous verse. For by virtue of the fact of whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, we (John and his readers) have come to know and believe God’s love.

Here John’s phrase nearly mirrors the confession of Our Lord’s disciples as proclaimed by Peter in John 6:69: “We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.” Whereas Peter’s confession perceives the divine truth of the distinct nature of Christ, here John is referring to His divine love.

To Know and Believe

There are two parts to the opening phrase of this verse. First, the believer has come to know His love. This refers to our enduring intimate fellowship with Christ, of which Our Lord stated: “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me” (John 10:14).

Second, also we have believed God’s love. Stated by itself this seems strange. Since belief always has an object, the stated object of our steadfast belief is God’s love. How is it that we have believed in God’s love? Because, John tells us, He continually has an unfailing resource of divine love for us. A love that is the basis of our salvation (John 3:16) and that keeps us eternally secure as Our Lord stated: “I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28). This is the essence of the apostle Paul’s proclamation:

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38–39)

We have believed also in His love as demonstrated by His daily logistical provisions: food, shelter, and clothing. For the Psalmist tells us of His love for us:

            For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

          The Lord gives grace and glory;

  No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.                               (Psalm 84:11)

The apostle Paul substantiated this:

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

And elsewhere Paul states:

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

And of even greater importance, He has provided our spiritual necessities: Biblical truth and the Holy Spirit as our instructor (John 14:26; 16:13). The apostle Peter maintained this when he wrote:

Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. (2 Peter 1:3)

We ought to consider ourselves enormously rich, not by worldly standards, but by God’s supreme standard of grace, love and mercy as Paul proclaimed:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4–7)

 God is Love

God is love refers to one of His divine attributes. Matthew Henry aptly explained:

He is essential boundless love; he has incomparable incomprehensible love for us of this world, which he has demonstrated in the mission and mediation of his beloved Son.1

John repeats this phrase from 4:8 for emphasis, so that it will be ingrained in our thinking every minute throughout our days on earth. He obviously wanted to stress the point of how our Creator, the God of the universe, reached down into the chaotic quagmire of our world and provided salvation for sinful mankind at the great cost of His Son’s death on the cross—suffering in our place and bearing the payment for the sins of the entire world. That is the extent of how God so loved the world. It is not a sentimental, emotional love, but instead a judicial love that satisfies His righteous demands (1 John 2:2; 4:10).

It is of great misfortune that the Jesus Freak movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s  carelessly embraced this phrase, as do many in our culture today, not realizing that unless they believe in Christ for salvation they will never experience God’s love and regrettably will perish (John 3:16). John the baptizer summarized this truth:

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:36)

Therefore, to glibly state “God is love” without belief in Christ as commanded (1 John 3:23) is hollow and devoid of absolute truth; for they do not abide in God, neither does God abide in them.2

Abiding Love

The one who abides in love does not refer to abiding in just any kind of love; instead in love denotes a specific place where the believer resides—in the sphere of God’s divine love. All believers are invited (John 15:9) to this place of fellowship with God, where we walk in the Light (1:3, 7). While we are in this place of residence, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) enabling us to serve God; to obey His commands (John 15:10; 1 John 3:24); to love others (Matthew 22:39; John 15:12); to bear “much fruit” (John 15:5); to “grow in the grace and knowledge of Our Lord” (2 Peter 3:18); being motivated by our personal love for God, the Father (Matthew 22:37; 1 John 2:5)—this is the plan of God for our life.

Residing in God’s sphere of love is designed by Him to be our continuous status. However, when we sin, we no longer reside in His love relationship; instead we walk in darkness (1:6). And for our benefit, John has already provided the remedy for us to be restored to fellowship by confession of our sins (1:9).

The final phrase describes the intimacy of our fellowship with God while we reside in the sphere of His divine love: we abide in God and God abides in us. This should stagger our imagination and cause us to stand in awe that we are the objects of His mighty love (Romans 5:8). And that on the basis of His amazing love, God intentionally pursued us so that we might have an intensely powerful and personal relationship with the God of the universe.

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[1] Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 2451). Peabody: Hendrickson.

[2] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 11.510.

 

 © 2025 David M. Rossi 

 

THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD - 1 JOHN 4:14-15

Verses 14-15: And 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. [ESV]

R.C.H. Lenski notes that the word and (omitted in most translations) “adds a still greater assurance of the knowledge”1 regarding our abiding relationship with God as John outlined in the previous verse. It is stated here that we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son. The we to whom John refers to includes himself, the apostles and all who lived and saw the Lord Jesus Christ while He ministered, died, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. From this collection of witnesses, some who were martyred for their belief having boldly preached about Him and those who were led by the Holy Spirit to write about Him—these with one voice testified that they were convinced beyond a shadow of doubt that God the Father indeed sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. These were all spectators of the grandest event; one that far exceeds anything else in any period or age in the history of the universe. It was as if what they witnessed and testified to had been permanently seared in their memory. For John declared “we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14; cf. John 2:11); for they beheld this at His transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-13).

Savior of the World

The phrase Savior of the world is unique to John’s writings, found only here and in John 4:42 (cf. John 3:17; 12:47; 1 John 2:2). No other writer of Scripture uses this phrase to express this truth. It should be noted how this phrase would have provoked great indignation with the Romans who controlled Palestine in the 1^st Century A.D. Adolf Deissmann explains:

This title “was bestowed with sundry variations in the Greek expression on Julius Caesar, Augustus, Claudius, Vespasian, Titus, Trajan, Hadrian...The exact Johannine term is specially common in inscriptions for Hadrian.2

The Apostle Paul proclaims Our Lord in a similar manner when he instructed Timothy of the virtue of striving for godliness:

 For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. (1 Timothy 4:10)

We are reminded by W.E. Vine, that Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, of all men, that the “scope of His mission was as boundless as humanity, and only man’s impenitence and unbelief put a limit to its actual effect.”3 This should be our motivation for implementing His love, if indeed it has been perfected in us (4:12). His divine love ought to lead us to spread the gospel of salvation to the unsaved, as well as to care for each other as Christians.4

Whoever Confesses

 John uses the word confess 5 times in this epistle, 3 times in this chapter. The prime meaning of confess is to “express openly one’s allegiance to a proposition or person.”5  Literally, the word means “to speak the same thing...to agree with.”6 In 1 John 1:9 when we confess our sins, we are agreeing with God that we have violated His command. Our passage is a parallel to 1 John 4:2-3 regarding those who confess Christ having come in the flesh from God (v.2) and exposes those who do not confess this truth (v.3; cf. 1 John 2:23). In our passage we agree with the testimony presented in verse 14 that Jesus is the Son of God. Whether we confess this verbally or silently, we concur that Jesus Christ is true deity—the God-man, the unique person of the universe.

Confessing this truth clearly depicts the results of an effective witness of the Gospel and the sincere response of one who trusts in the finished work of Christ. The theological significance of this confession is the embodiment of what it means to be saved, when a person believes in Christ alone for salvation, apart from any human effort. Therefore John is able to declare affirmatively that anyone who confesses this truth, God abides in him. To abide in him means “to continue in an activity or state.”7 But not only a continuous state, but a state that is continually active. For Paul maintains that even “if we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). And the writer of Hebrews also assures us: “for He Himself said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5b).

Abiding Truth

This last phrase God abides in him, and he in God John has stated this before in chapter 2, that if we abide in the truth of the apostolic declaration regarding the doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ “you also will abide in the Son and in the Father” (v.24; cf. 2:27). Here John illustrates the ultimate reality of our vital communion with the God—the Creator of the universe. This fact that God abides in us should cause us to be totally awestruck.

However, Chafer explains that our communion with God is conditional, being the explicit responsibility of the believer to maintain:

Communion is the believer’s undertaking—a specific plan of life which calls for an intelligent purpose and method of life, adapted to the precise will of God, on the part of the one who is saved.8 [Emphasis added]

Let us note these two emphasized points from Chafer’s quote. Our Lord spoke of this specific plan of life: that the believer should ensure that their communion with Him is continuously dynamic and productive. When Jesus declared that He is the true vine and that we are the branches in Him (John 15:1-2), He was describing our eternal union with Christ; proclaiming that the criterion for our spiritual union of abiding in Him was to bear (produce) fruit.

 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4)

The apostle Paul explained the fruit we should bear:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22–23)

Taken as a whole, the fruit of the Spirit depicts the characteristics of Jesus Christ. We are expected to produce “much fruit” as Our Lord stressed (John 15:5, 8); by doing so we emulate Christ and proclaim Him to the world. Thus, the effectiveness of our producing fruit is contingent upon whether we are walking in the Light and continuously cleansed from sin (1 John 1:7, 9). This is the intelligent purpose and method of life which Chafer contends is the responsible attitude that the believer should endeavour to maintain.

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[1] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 11.507

[2] Deissmann, Adolf (1997). Light From the Ancient East, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, p. 364.

[3] Vine, W. E. (1996). Collected Writings of W.E. Vine. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1 John 4:14.

[4] Van Ryn, August (1948). The Epistles of John, New York, NY: Loizeaux Brothers, p. 135.

[5] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). ὁμολογέω, In Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains. New York: United Bible Societies, 1.417.

[6] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). In Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.120.

[7] Louw, et.al, 1.655.

[8] Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1976). Systematic Theology, Dallas, TX: Dallas Seminary Press, 6.164-165.

 

© 2025 David M. Rossi