Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 4:17
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
17. Herein is our love made perfect ] Better, as the margin, Herein is love with us made perfect; or, as R. V., Herein is love made perfect with us. Most earlier English Versions agree with the latter collocation. The meaning seems to be that love, which is of God ( 1Jn 4:7), takes up its abode with us and is developed until it is perfected. ‘Love’ here evidently means our love towards God: His love towards us can have no fear about it ( 1Jn 4:18). ‘Herein’ may refer to either of the two clauses which follow. ‘Herein that’ ( ) occurs possibly in Joh 15:8, and ‘Herein because’ ( ) occurs 1Jn 3:16 ; 1Jn 4:9-10. But it is perhaps best to make ‘Herein’ refer to what precedes; to our abiding in God and God in us. This avoids the awkwardness of making perfection of love in the present depend upon our attitude at the Judgment, which though near (1Jn 2:18) according to S. John’s view, is still future. In this way we can give its full meaning to ‘that’ ( ): by close union with God our love is made perfect, in order that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. For ‘boldness’ see on 1Jn 2:28.
the day of judgment ] The full phrase here used, ‘ the day of the judgment’ occurs nowhere else: the usual form is ‘day of judgment’ (Mat 10:15; Mat 11:22; Mat 11:24; Mat 12:36; 2Pe 2:9; 2Pe 3:7). S. John elsewhere calls it ‘the last day’ (Joh 6:39-40; Joh 6:44; Joh 6:54), or ‘the great day’ (Rev 6:17; comp. Joh 16:14). Other Scriptural phrases are ‘the day of the Lord’, ‘the day of God’, ‘day of Christ’, ‘that day’, ‘the day’.
as he is, so are we in this world ] ‘He’ ( ) almost certainly is Christ, as probably always in this Epistle (1Jn 2:6, 1Jn 3:3; 1Jn 3:5; 1Jn 3:7; 1Jn 3:16). Our assurance with regard to the future Judgment is not presumption, because in this world we are in character like Christ. The resemblance is marked as close, ‘ even so are we’ ( ); comp. 1Jn 2:6 , 1Jn 3:3; 1Jn 3:7. In what does this close resemblance specially consist? In love: the whole context points to this. He need not fear the judgment of Christ who by loving has become like Christ.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Herein is our love made perfect – Margin, love with us. The margin accords with the Greek – meth’ hemon. The meaning is, the love that is within us, or in us, is made perfect. The expression is unusual; but the general idea is, that love is rendered complete or entire in the manner in which the apostle specifies. In this way love becomes what it should be, and will prepare us to appear with confidence before the judgment-seat. Compare the notes at 1Jo 4:12.
That we may have boldness in the day of judgment – By the influence of love in delivering us from the fear of the wrath to come, 1Jo 4:18. The idea is, that he who has true love to God will have nothing to fear in the day of judgment, and may even approach the awful tribunal where he is to receive the sentence which shall determine his everlasting destiny without alarm.
Because as he is, so are we in this world – That is, we have the same traits of character which the Saviour had, and, resembling him, we need not be alarmed at the prospect of meeting him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Jn 4:17
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment
The perfection of love
I.
Herein is our love made perfect. Love is like every other grace in the Christian bosom, susceptible of various degrees of intensity. It is our duty to aim at perfection in all things, and eminently in love. Our happiness is bound up in our attainment of it. Just as we advance in this grace we secure our growing peace and prosperity.
II. A blessed effect of evidence of such love. That we may have boldness in the day of judgment. What are we to understand by the day of judgment? We are certainly not to exclude from our thoughts days of trial, such as may come upon us in the course of life, or at death. Nor can we doubt that the perfection of love would greatly contribute to our boldness at such times. But the mind of the apostle is manifestly directed to the final judgment. In that dread hour they who have cultivated the grace of love shall be enabled to meet it with boldness. How so? This boldness cannot be said to arise out of love as the reason or ground of it. Were it so viewed, its deficiencies would fill us with terror and cover us with confusion. Neither our love nor any other grace can be pleaded for our acceptance at the bar of God. Yet there is an important sense in which boldness in the day of judgment is dependent on the cultivation of love. As love is cultivated, the evidence of our union with Christ is manifested.
III. How may love be so exercised and advanced as to lead us into this holy and happy boldness? Because as He is, so are we in this world. It is by studying conformity to Christ our love is strengthened, and the evidence of our union with Him is made clear.
IV. The argument by which the apostle confirms and illustrates his views (1Jn 4:18).
1. The nature of love–There is no fear in love.
2. More strongly the same view is presented in the operation of love–perfect love casteth out fear.
3. This view is farther confirmed by the very nature of fear. Fear hath torment. We avoid the person whom we fear.
4. Finally, the operation of fear is to destroy love. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. How powerful, then, is this argument for the cultivation of love. Would we be happy in God now, and would we meet Him at last with joy? Then let us love Him. (J. Morgan, D. D.)
Perfect love
1. Love is capable of many degrees; it is the same principle in its commencement as in its termination, the difference being not in the quality, but in the amount; and this must be ever borne in mind in our dealing with inquiring and awakened souls. The weak and just commencing child of God should not be cast down and believe that because he is imperfect in love he therefore has no love. In estimating of the condition of mens minds with regard to the degree of love which they possess, we take many things into account. There are some upon whom the consciousness of Christs sacrifice comes with such tremendous power that they are melted and subdued at once, and withal attracted to the One who displayed such wondrous love toward them. There are others who have attained this consciousness by slow degrees, and so gradually become acquainted with their Lord that from the very gentleness of the way in which they have been led on, they themselves realise more the simple fact that they love than that they are made to love. There are some who have naturally unloving hearts to be changed, and some who have loving hearts to be consecrated; and the processes of Gods actings are so different, and hearts are so varied in their constitution that we can scarce expect to find any two exactly alike. Be encouraged, but be not satisfied, ye who find some love within yourselves; pray and strive for an increase.
2. Love, then, may exist in different degrees; it is further capable of high attainment. Can anyone amongst us produce a reason why he should not be enabled to love as much as Peter, Paul, or John? Can anyone show us anything so supremely bad in his own natural disposition, or so supremely good in that of these apostles, that it is a moral impossibility that he can ever do as they did? or can any prove that the actings of the Spirit are more limited in our case than they were in theirs, and that assistances were given to them which by Gods decrees are withheld from us? There lies before you a glorious course, if only you will run upon it; a magnificent possession, if only you will lay hold of it; an exquisite state, if only you will enter on it. Allow yourselves to be carried on by the Spirit.
3. Thus we see that love may be of different degrees, and also that it is capable of high attainment; we would observe further that it is able to produce a great result. The songs of poets, the tales of real life, the stern records of history, are all full of the triumphs of love; and fallen though we be, love has won more victories than all else beside. When love is true, it is impregnable by assault, it is irresistible in attack, it is indestructible by time; it is not spent by its efforts, it is not wearied out by its vigils; firm in its grasp, yet tender in its touch, that which it lays hold of escapes not from it, that which it caresses is not injured by it. Love is a watcher and love is a warrior–love is a servant and love is a king. True love in things spiritual as well as in things temporal is omnipotent; he who loves most will believe most, and in his faith and love will win the highest goal. (P. B. Power, M. A.)
The triumph of Christ-like love
I. The description of spiritual attainment. Herein is our love made perfect. None can doubt that being as the Son of God is in this world is the only possible perfection, and the only ground of boldness in the day of judgment. The text shows–First. An attainment of affection to God. God wins our hearts by His love; we then love Him more and more. Secondly. An attainment of complete affection to God. In this asserted perfection of our love there is clearly a recognition of the supremacy of our affection.
II. The adduced evidence of that attainment. Because, etc. This clause seems to belong both to our being made perfect in love and our having boldness in the day of judgment. First. The meekness of Christ is reproduced in His followers. Secondly. The endurance of Christ characterises Christians. Who endureth such contradiction of sinners against Himself. Thirdly. The truth witnessing of Christ is seen in His disciples. I am the truth.
III. The divine design in our evidenced attainment in Christ-like love. That we may have boldness, etc. First: This is not an evil boldness, or a boldness in evil (Ecc 8:1). It is not–
(1) the boldness of ignorance;
(2) the boldness of self-sufficiency;
(3) the boldness of iniquity;
(4) the boldness of presumption.
Secondly. This is a holy boldness (Heb 10:19). It is–
(1) The boldness of fearlessness. Perfect love casteth out fear.
(2) The boldness of approving conscience. It is God that justifieth. St. Paul was bold in chains, because the Divine Judge approved him.
(3) The boldness of perfect sympathy and unity with the Judge. He that confesseth Me, etc. (Homilist.)
Boldness in the day of judgment
I. Examine the general conception of the day of the judgment, as given in the New Testament. But against one somewhat widely spread way of blotting the day of judgment from the calendar of the future–so far as believers are concerned–we should be on our guard. Some good men think themselves entitled to reason thus: I am a Christian. I shall be an assessor in the judgment. For me there is therefore no judgment day. The only appeal to Scripture which such persons make, with any show of plausibility, is contained in an exposition of our Lords teaching in Joh 5:21; Joh 5:29. But clearly there are three resurrection scenes which may be discriminated in those words. The first is spiritual, a present awakening of dead souls, in those with whom the Son of Man is brought into contact in His earthly ministry. The second is a department of the same spiritual resurrection. The Son of God, with that mysterious gift of life in Himself, has within Him a perpetual spring of rejuvenescence for a faded and dying world. A renewal of hearts is in process during all the days of time, a passage for soul after soul out of death into life. The third scene is the general resurrection and general judgment. The first was the resurrection of comparatively few; the second of many; the third of all.
1. General history points to a general judgment. If there is no such judgment to come, then there is no one definite moral purpose in human society. Progress would be a melancholy word, deceptive appearance, a stream that has no issue, a road that leads nowhere.
2. If there is to be no day of the general judgment, then the million prophecies of conscience will be belied, and our nature prove to be mendacious to its very roots.
II. The removal of that terror which accompanies the conception of the day of judgment, and of the sole means of that emancipation which St. John recognises. For terror there is in every point of the repeated descriptions of Scripture–in the surroundings, in the summons, in the tribunal, in the trial, in one of the two sentences. Boldness! It is the splendid word which denotes the citizens right of free speech, the masculine privilege of courageous liberty. It is the tender word which expresses the childs unhesitating confidence, in saying all out to the parent. The ground of the boldness is conformity to Christ. Because as He is, with that vivid idealising sense, frequent in St. John when he uses it of our Lord–as He is, delineated in the fourth Gospel, seen by the eye of the heart with constant reverence in the soul, with adoring wonder in heaven, perfectly true, pure, and righteous–even so (not, of course, with any equality in degree to that consummate idea, but with a likeness ever growing, an aspiration ever advancing)–so are we in this world, purifying ourselves as He is pure. (Bp. Wm. Alexander.)
Because as He is, so are we in this world—
Christs poverty in relation to our selfishness and luxury
It is too common to fix our thoughts almost exclusively on the Redeemers death, and to leave out of sight the nature and tenor of the life preceding. St. John gives us a corrective of this view. He says that in those who will not be afraid to meet Christ when He appears on His judgment throne, the spirit, character, and habit that belong to Jesus now in glory, as they belonged to Him when on earth, shall be in them. The outward manner of His life, the kind of circumstance which clothed Him here cannot, of course, be reproduced, but the way in which He behaved under those circumstances, the disposition with which He met them, must mark everyone of His disciples–as He is, so are we in this world. Now, Christs earthly life was distinctly one of poverty. House or property of His own He had none. Now, if our Lords poverty encourage the poor and the poor family to struggle against the lowering influence of their lot, to keep themselves respectable and orderly, consider with what earnest pleadings it seems to address all richer folk, especially in an age like our own. Society is fastidious and extravagant. Entertainments are reckoned, not by the pleasure which they are calculated to give, but by their variety and costliness. Turn upon these aspects of our modern civilisation the light of Jesus life in that noble endurance of poverty, that abiding sense of the real value of life, which consisteth not in the abundance of the goods which a man possesseth, that unswerving devotion to His Fathers will which constituted His very meat. His example may yet prove our safety, if we will follow it. (D. Trinder, M. A.)
The servant as his Lord
The connection of my text is quite as striking as its substance. John has been dwelling upon his favourite thought that to abide in love is abiding in God, and God in us. And then he goes on to say that Herein–that is, in such mutual abiding in love–is love made perfect with us.
I. A Christian is Christs living likeness. It is the Christ as He is, and not only–true as that is–the Christ as He was, who is the original of which Christian men are copies. Is there anything, then, within the glory to which I, in my poor, struggling, imperfect life here on earth, can feel that my character is being shaped? Surely there is. I have no doubt that, in the words of my text, the apostle is remembering the solemn words of our Lords high priestly prayer, I in Thee, and Thou in Me, that they also may be in us. Or, to put the whole thing into plainer words, it is the religious and the moral aspects of Christs being, and not any one particular detail thereof. And these, as they live and reign on the throne, just as truly as these, as they suffered and wept upon earth, it is these to which it is our destiny to be conformed. We are like Him, if we are His, in this, that we are joined to God, that we hold fellowship with Him, that our lives are all permeated with the Divine. And thus we, even here, bear the image of the heavenly, as we have borne the images of the earthly. But, then, I have another point that I desire to refer to. I have put an emphasis upon the is instead of the was, as it applies to Jesus Christ. I would further put an emphasis upon the are, as it applies to us–so are we. John is not exhorting, he is affirming. He is not saying what Christian men ought to strive to be, but he is saying what all Christian men, by virtue of their Christian character, are. Or, to put it into other words, likeness to the Master is certain. It is inevitably involved in the relation which a Christian man bears to the Lord. My text suggests that to us by its addition, So are we, in this world. The world–or to use the modern phraseology, the environment–conditions the resemblance. As far as it is possible for a thing encompassed with dust and ashes to resemble the radiant sun in the heavens, so far is the resemblance carried here. Now, you Christian people, does that plain statement touch you anywhere? So are we. Well! you would be quite easy if John had said, So may we be; so should we be; so shall we be. But what about the so are we? What a ghastly contradiction the lives of multitudes of professing Christians are to that plain statement! The world has for the illustrations of the gospel the lives of us Christian people. In the Book there are principles and facts, and readers should be able to turn the page and see all pictured in us. That is what you have got to do in this world. As the Father sent Me, even so I send you. As He is, so are we in this world. It may be our antagonist, but it is our sphere, and its presence is necessary to evoke our characters. Christ has entrusted His reputation, His honour, to us.
II. Such likeness to Jesus Christ is the only thing that will enable a man to lift up his head in the day of judgment. We have boldness, says John, because as He is, so are we. Now, that is a very strong statement of a truth that popular evangelical theology has far too much obscured. People talk about being, at the last, accepted in the beloved. It is true! But do not let us forget the other side, that the question put to every man will be, not what you believe, but what did you do, and what are you? And I want to lay that upon your hearts, because many of us are too apt to forget it, that whilst unquestionably the beginning of the salvation, and the condition of forgiveness here, and of acceptance hereafter, is laid in trust in Jesus Christ, that trust is sure to work out a character which is in conformity with His requirements and moulded after the likeness of Himself. The judgment of God is according to the truth, and what a man is determines where a man shall be, and what he shall receive through all eternity.
III. The process by which this likeness is secured. Our love is made perfect by dwelling in God, and God in us; in order that we may be thus conformed to Christs likeness, and so have boldness in that great day. To be like Jesus Christ, what is needed is that we love Him, and that we keep in touch with Him. But remember such abiding is no idle waiting, no passive confidence. It is full of energy, full of suppression, when necessary, of what is contrary to your truest self; and full of strenuous cultivation of that which is in accord with the will of the Father. Lie in the light, and you will become light. Abide in Christ, and you will get like Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. Herein is our love made perfect] By God dwelling in us, and we in him; having cast out all the carnal mind that was enmity against himself, and filled the whole heart with the spirit of love and purity. Thus the love is made perfect; when it thus fills the heart it has all its degrees; it is all in all; and all in every power, passion, and faculty of the soul.
May have boldness in the day of judgment] . Freedom of speech, and liberty of access; seeing in the person of our Judge, him who has died for us, regenerated our hearts, and who himself fills them.
As he is] Pure, holy, and loving; so are we in this world; being saved from our sins, and made like to himself in righteousness and true holiness. No man can contemplate the day of judgment with any comfort or satisfaction but on this ground, that the blood of Christ hath cleansed him from all sin, and that he is kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation. This will give him boldness in the day of judgment.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And by this means (viz. of our inwardness with God) doth our love grow to that perfection, that we shall have the most fearless freedom and liberty of spirit in the judgment day; our hearts no way misgiving to appear before him as a Judge, whose very image we find upon ourselves, he having beforehand, made us such even in this world, though in an infinitely inferior degree, as he is, compositions of love and goodness. Or, if
the day of judgment should mean, as some conceive, of our appearance before human tribunals for his sake, such a temper of spirit must give us the same boldness in that case also.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17, 18. (Compare 1Jo3:19-21.)
our loverather as theGreek, “LOVE(in the abstract, the principle of love [ALFORD])is made perfect (in its relations) with us.” Lovedwelling in us advances to its consummation “with us“that is, as it is concerned with us: so Greek. Lu1:58, “showed mercy upon (literally, ‘with’) her”: 2Jo2, the truth “shall be with us for ever.”
boldness“confidence”:the same Greek as 1Jo 3:21,to which this passage is parallel. The opposite of “fear,”1Jo 4:18. Herein is ourlove perfected, namely, in God dwelling in us, and our dwelling inGod (1Jo 4:16), involvingas its result “that we can have confidence (or boldness)in the day of judgment” (so terrible to all other men, Act 24:25;Rom 2:16).
because, &c.Theground of our “confidence” is, “because even asHe (Christ) is, we also are in this world” (and He will not, inthat day, condemn those who are like Himself), that is, we arerighteous as He is righteous, especially in respect to thatwhich is the sum of righteousness, love (1Jo3:14). Christ ISrighteous, and love itself, in heaven: so are we, His members,who are still “in this world.” Our oneness with Him evennow in His exalted position above (Eph2:6), so that all that belongs to Him of righteousness, &c.,belongs to us also by perfect imputation and progressive impartation,is the ground of our love being perfected so that we canhave confidence in the day of judgment. We are in, not of,this world.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Herein is our love made perfect,…. Or love with us; which some understand of the love of God towards his people, and which is shed abroad in them: this indeed removes all fear of an awful judgment, and renders that amiable and desirable; and such who are interested in it, shall stand in that day with intrepidity and boldness; and this sense may seem to be favoured by the Syriac version, which reads, “his love with us”; and especially by the Vulgate Latin version, which renders it, “the love of God with us”; but it is best to understand it agreeably to the context, of our love to God, which is with and in our hearts; and which is made, or made to appear to be perfect, true, and genuine, by our love to the brethren; since the love of God to us does not admit of degrees, nor does it, or the reality and sincerity of it, depend upon our love to the saints; [See comments on 1Jo 4:12];
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; not of men’s judgment, when brought before judges, governors, and kings, for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, and stand at their bar, where saints, who have true love to God and Christ and the brethren, have stood with great courage and intrepidity, and shown much boldness, and used great freedom of speech; nor of judgment in this life, which sometimes begins at the house of God, though the saints often have great boldness and presence of mind, and freedom of expression both to God and man in a day of affliction, as Job had; but of the future judgment, which, though it will be very awful and solemn, Christ the Judge will appear with great majesty and glory, and all men will stand before him, and the books will be opened, and the judgment will proceed with great strictness and justice, and will issue in the everlasting perdition of devils and wicked men, yet the saints will have boldness in it: while evil men and devils tremble at the thoughts of it now, they rejoice and are glad; they love it, look for it, long for it, and hasten to it; and will stand fearless, and without the least dread, while others will flee to the rocks, and into the holes of the earth; and they will use freedom of speech with Christ, as the word here signifies; they will sing his new song, and ascribe the glory of their salvation to him, and express their praises of him, and love to him, then and to all eternity: and this boldness the saints may be said to arrive at through a perfect, or sincere, and genuine love of the brethren; for by this they know they are born again, and are born to an inheritance incorruptible, which they have both a meetness for, and a right unto; and knowing hereby that they are passed from death to life, they justly conclude they shall not enter into condemnation, and therefore are not afraid of the awful judgment: hereby they know that their faith is right, and that therefore they are manifestly the children of God; and if children, then heirs, and so shall be saved, and have everlasting life:
because as he is, so are we in this world; which may be understood either of God, to whom the saints are like; for such who are born again, as those who love the brethren are, they are partakers of the divine nature, and bear a resemblance to God, even in this present state of things; and as it becomes them to be holy in all manner of conversation, as he is holy, and to be merciful to wicked men, as he is merciful, so to love the saints as he does, and to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgive one another, as he for Christ’s sake has forgiven them; for as God is love, they should be all love likewise; or of Christ, see 1Jo 3:3; and that with respect to God; as he is the Son of God, so are they the sons of God; he by nature, they by grace and adoption; as he is loved by God with an everlasting and unchangeable love, with a love of complacency and delight, so are they loved by him with the same kind of love, even while they are in this world; and as he is the chosen of God, and precious, so they are chosen in him, and unto salvation by him. The Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, render it, “as he was”: and the sense may be, as he was in this world, so are they; and which may regard not so much likeness in nature, though there is an agreement in that, excepting sin, but the sameness of state and condition; as he was a man of sorrows, attended with afflictions, loaded with reproaches, and followed with the persecutions of men, so are they; nor need they wonder that they are the objects of the world’s hatred and contempt, since he was also; as he was tempted by Satan, forsaken by his friends, and deserted by his God, so sometimes are they in this world; and as he went through a variety of sufferings, and death itself, to glory, so through many tribulations do they enter the kingdom: moreover, as he now is in heaven, so are they in this world; even as he is in heaven, so are they representatively in him, while in this world; and as he is righteous, being justified and acquitted from all the charge of sin he took upon him, and therefore will appear a second time without sin, so they are completely righteous in him: and once more, as he is, so they are, or should be in this world; they should be holy as he is holy, and be humble, meek, and patient, as he is, and walk as he walked; and particularly love the saints and one another, as he does; and which seems to be greatly intended here, and must be understood not of an equality, but of a likeness. The Arabic version reads the words conditionally, and as depending on the preceding clause, “if as he was, we are in this world”; and then the sense is, that the saints shall have boldness in the day of judgment, provided they are in this world as Christ was.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Divine Love. | A. D. 80. |
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
The apostle, having thus excited and enforced sacred love from the great pattern and motive of it, the love that is and dwells in God himself, proceeds to recommend it further by other considerations; and he recommends it in both the branches of it, both as love to God, and love to our brother or Christian neighbour.
I. As love to God, to the primum amabile–the first and chief of all amiable beings and objects, who has the confluence of all beauty, excellence, and loveliness, in himself, and confers on all other beings whatever renders them good and amiable. Love to God seems here to be recommended on these accounts:– 1. It will give us peace and satisfaction of spirit in the day when it will be most needed, or when it will be the greatest pleasure and blessing imaginable: Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, v. 17. There must be a day of universal judgment. Happy they who shall have holy fiducial boldness before the Judge at that day, who shall be able to lift up their heads, and to look him in the face, as knowing he is their friend and advocate! Happy they who have holy boldness and assurance in the prospect of that day, who look and wait for it, and for the Judge’s appearance! So do, and so may do, the lovers of God. Their love to God assures them of God’s love to them, and consequently of the friendship of the Son of God; the more we love our friend, especially when we are sure that he knows it, the more we can trust his love. As God is good and loving, and faithful to his promise, so we can easily be persuaded of his love, and the happy fruits of his love, when we can say, Thou that knowest all things knowest that we love thee. And hope maketh not ashamed; our hope, conceived by the consideration of God’s love, will not disappoint us, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that is given to us, Rom. v. 5. Possibly here by the love of God may be meant our love to God, which is shed abroad upon our hearts by the Holy Ghost; this is the foundation of our hope, or of our assurance that our hope will hold good at last. Or, if by the love of God be meant the sense and apprehension of his love to us, yet this must suppose or include us as lovers of him in this case; and indeed the sense and evidence of his love to us do shed abroad upon our hearts love to him; and thereupon we have confidence towards him and peace and joy in him. He will give the crown of righteousness to all that love his appearing. And we have this boldness towards Christ because of our conformity to him: Because as he is so are we in this world, v. 17. Love hath conformed us to him; as he was the great lover of God and man, he has taught us in our measure to be so too, and he will not deny his own image. Love teaches us to conform in sufferings too; we suffer for him and with him, and therefore cannot but hope and trust that we shall also be glorified together with him, 2 Tim. ii. 12. 2. It prevents or removes the uncomfortable result and fruit of servile fear: There is no fear in love (v. 18); so far as love prevails, fear ceases. We must here distinguish, I judge, between fear and being afraid; or, in this case, between the fear of God and being afraid of him. The fear of God is often mentioned and commanded as the substance of religion (1Pe 2:17; Rev 14:7); and so it imports the high regard and veneration we have for God and his authority and government. Such fear is constant with love, yea, with perfect love, as being in the angels themselves. But then there is a being afraid of God, which arises from a sense of guilt, and a view of his vindictive perfections; in the view of them, God is represented as a consuming fire; and so fear here may be rendered dread; There is no dread in love. Love considers its object as good and excellent, and therefore amiable, and worthy to be beloved. Love considers God as most eminently good, and most eminently loving us in Christ, and so puts off dread, and puts on joy in him; and, as love grows, joy grows too; so that perfect love casteth out fear or dread. Those who perfectly love God are, from his nature, and counsel, and covenant, perfectly assured of his love, and consequently are perfectly free from any dismal dreadful suspicions of his punitive power and justice, as armed against them; they well know that God loves them, and they thereupon triumph in his love. That perfect love casteth out fear the apostle thus sensibly argues: that which casteth out torment casteth out fear or dread: Because fear hath torment (v. 18) –fear is known to be a disquieting torturing passion, especially such a fear as is the dread of an almighty avenging God; but perfect love casteth out torment, for it teaches the mind a perfect acquiescence and complacency in the beloved, and therefore perfect love casteth out fear. Or, which is here equivalent, he that feareth is not made perfect in love (v. 18); it is a sign that our love is far from being perfect, since our doubts, and fears, and dismal apprehensions of God, are so many. Let us long for, and hasten to, the world of perfect love, where our serenity and joy in God will be as perfect as our love! 3. From the source and rise of it, which is the antecedent love of God: We love him, because he first loved us, v. 19. His love is the incentive, the motive, and moral cause of ours. We cannot but love so good a God, who was first in the act and work of love, who loved us when we were both unloving and unlovely, who loved us at so great a rate, who has been seeking and soliciting our love at the expense of his Son’s blood; and has condescended to beseech us to be reconciled unto him. Let heaven and earth stand amazed at such love! His love is the productive cause of ours: Of his own will (of his own free loving will) begat he us. To those that love him all things work together for good, to those who are the called according to his purpose. Those that love God are the called thereto according to his purpose (Rom. viii. 28); according to whose purpose they are called is sufficiently intimated in the following clauses: whom he did predestinate (or antecedently purpose, to the image of his Son) those he also called, effectually recovered thereto. The divine love stamped love upon our souls; may the Lord still and further direct our hearts into the love of God! 2 Thess. iii. 5.
II. As love to our brother and neighbour in Christ; such love is argued and urged on these accounts:– 1. As suitable and consonant to our Christian profession. In the profession of Christianity we profess to love God as the root of religion: “If then a man say, or profess as much as thereby to say, I love God, I am a lover of his name, and house, and worship, and yet hate his brother, whom he should love for God’s sake, he is a liar (v. 20), he therein gives his profession the lie.” That such a one loves not God the apostle proves by the usual facility of loving what is seen rather than what is unseen: For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? v. 20. The eye is wont to affect the heart; things unseen less catch the mind, and thereby the heart. The incomprehensibleness of God very much arises from his invisibility; the member of Christ has much of God visible in him. How then shall the hater of a visible image of God pretend to love the unseen original, the invisible God himself? 2. As suitable to the express law of God, and the just reason of it: And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also, v. 21. As God has communicated his image in nature and in grace, so he would have our love to be suitably diffused. We must love God originally and supremely, and others in him, on the account of their derivation and reception from him, and of his interest in them. Now, our Christian brethren having a new nature and excellent privileges derived from God, and God having his interest in them as well as in us, it cannot but be a natural suitable obligation that he who loves God should love his brother also.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Herein ( ). It is not clear whether the clause (sub-final use) is in apposition with as in Joh 15:8 or the clause (because) with the clause as parenthesis. Either makes sense. Westcott argues for the latter idea, which is reinforced by the preceding sentence.
With us (‘ ). Construed with the verb (is perfected). In contrast to (verses 1John 4:12; 1John 4:16), emphasising cooperation. “God works with man” (Westcott). For boldness () in the day of judgment (only here with both articles, but often with no articles as in 2Pe 2:9) see 2:28.
As he is ( ). That is Christ as in 1John 2:6; 1John 3:3; 1John 3:5; 1John 3:7; 1John 3:16. Same tense (present) as in 3:7. “Love is a heavenly visitant” (David Smith). We are in this world to manifest Christ.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Herein [ ] . To what does this refer? Two explanations are given. (1.) To the following that we may have boldness. So Huther, who argues thus on the ground that ver. 18 shows that the drift of the writer’s thought is toward the fearlessness of love. According to this, therefore, love has its fulfillment in freeing us from fear, and inspiring us with boldness even in view of the final judgment. (2.) To what precedes, viz., our dwelling in God and He in us. So Westcott : “The fellowship of God with man and of man with God, carries with it the consummation of love.” I prefer the latter, principally on the ground that in such phrases as ejn toutw in this, dia touto on this account, therefore, the pronoun usually refers to something preceding, though more fully developed in what follows. See Joh 5:16, 18; Joh 6:65; Joh 8:47; Joh 10:17; Joh 12:18; Joh 16:1 5. Our love [ ] . The A. V. construes meq’ hJmwn with us, with love, making with us equivalent to our. In that case it might mean either the love which is between Christians, or the love which is between God and Christians. The Rev. construes with us with the verb : love is made perfect with us. The latter is preferable. I do not think it would be easy to point out a parallel in the New Testament to the expression ajgaph meq’ love that with us = our love. The true idea is that love is perfected in fellowship. The love of God is perfected with us, in communion with us, through our abiding in Him and He in us. “Love is not simply perfected in man, but in fulfilling this issue God works with man” (Westcott). Compare 2 John 3, “grace shall be with us” (true reading); and Act 25:4, “what things God had done with them.” See also Mt 1:23; 1Co 26:24; Gal 6:18. Meta with, is used constantly in the New Testament of ethical relations. See Mt 20:2; Mt 2:3; Luk 23:12; Act 7:9; Rom 12:15; 1Jo 1:6.
Boldness [] . See on 2 28.
The day of judgment [ ] . Lit., the day of judgment. The exact phrase occurs here only. Hmera krisewv day of judgment, without the articles, is found Mt 10:15; Mt 11:22, 24; Mt 12:36; 2Pe 2:9; 2Pe 3:7. The day is called the great day of their wrath (Revelation 6 17); the day of wrath and of revelation of the righteous judgement of God (Rom 2:5); the day of visitation (1Pe 2:12); the last day (Joh 6:39, 40, 44, 54); that day (Mt 7:22; Luk 6:23; Luk 10:12). The judgment is found Mt 12:41, 42; Luk 10:14; Luk 11:31, 32.
Because. Likeness to Christ is the ground of boldness.
As [] . Not absolutely, but according to our measure, as men in this world.
He is. The present tense is very significant. Compare 1Jo 3:7, “is righteous even as He is righteous.” The essence of out being as He is lies in perfected love; and Christ is eternally love. “He that abideth in love abideth in God and God in him.” Compare 1Jo 3:2.
In this world. This present economy, physical and moral. The phrase limits the conception of likeness.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Herein is our love made perfect.” If God loved, gave, and sacrificed His Son for believers, then believers who receive His gift of love must respond to this love in giving and sacrificing for those whom their God loved and progressively loves still. In pursuit or manifestation of this love the believer’s love is said to be made perfect or mature.
2) “That we may have boldness in the day of judgment.” (Greek hina) “In order that” we, as love practicing believers, may have, hold, or possess (Greek parresian) “bold confidence” in the day of judgment, at the judgment seat of Christ. 2Co 5:9-11; Heb 4:16.
3) “Because as he is”. God is or exists in recognized and recognizable love only thru His children, His Word, His Spirit and His Church. By love’s affections and deeds thru His children, His salvation is made known to the world. Mat 7:16-19.
4) “So are we in this world.” As His children are dependent on the daily, continuing love of God, blessings of God, and intercession of His Son, so is He dependent on the love of His children and their deeds of faithfulness to save the lost; Joh 20:21; Mat 28:16-20; Mar 16:15-16.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
17 Herein is our love made perfect There are two clauses in this passage, — that we are then partakers of divine adoption, when we resemble God as children their father; and, secondly, that this confidence is invaluable, for without it we must be most miserable.
Then in the first place, he shews to what purpose God has in love embraced us, and how we enjoy that grace manifested to us in Christ. Then, God’s love to us is what is to be understood here. He says it is perfected, because it is abundantly poured forth and really given, that it appears to be complete. But he asserts that no others are partakers of this blessing; but those who, by being conformed to God, prove themselves to be his children. It is, then, an argument taken from what is an inseparable condition.
That we may have boldness He now begins to shew the fruit of divine love towards us, though he afterwards shews it more clearly from the contrary effect. It is, however, an invaluable benefit, that we can dare boldly to stand before God. By nature, indeed, we dread the presence of God, and that justly; for, as he is the Judge of the world, and our sins hold us guilty, death and hell must come to our minds whenever we think of God. Hence is that dread which I have mentioned, which makes men shun God as much as they can. But John says that the faithful do not fear, when mention is made to them of the last judgment, but that on the contrary they go to God’s tribunal confidently and cheerfully, because they are assured of his paternal love. Every one, then, has made so much proficiency in faith, as he is well prepared in his mind to look forward to the day of judgment.
As he is By these words, as it has been already said, he meant that it is required of us at our turn to resemble the image of God. What God then in heaven is, such he bids us to be in this world, in order that we may be deemed his children; for the image of God, when it appears in us, is as it were the seal of his adoption.
But he seems thus to place a part of our confidence on works. Hence the Papists raise their crests here, as though John denied that we, relying on God’s grace alone, can have a sure confidence as to salvation without the help of works. But in this they are deceived, because they do not consider that the Apostle here does not refer to the cause of salvation, but to what is added to it. And we readily allow that no one is reconciled to God through Christ, except he is also renewed after God’s image, and that the one cannot be disjoined from the other. Right then is what is done by the Apostle, who excludes from the confidence of grace all those in whom no image of God is seen; for it is certain that such are wholly aliens to the Spirit of God and to Christ. Nor do we deny that newness of life, as it is the effect of divine adoption, serves to confirm confidence, as a prop, so to speak, of the second order; but in the meantime we ought to have our foundation on grace alone. (87) Nor indeed does the doctrine of John appear otherwise consistent with itself; for experience proves, and even Papists are forced to confess, that as to works they always give an occasion for trembling. Therefore no one can come with a tranquil mind to God’s tribunal, except he believes that he is freely loved.
But that none of these things please the Papists, there is no reason for any one to wonder, since being miserable they know no faith except that which is entangled with doubts. Besides, hypocrisy brings darkness over them, so that they do not seriously consider how formidable is God’s judgment when Christ the Mediator is not present, and some of them regard the resurrection as fabulous. But that we may cheerfully and joyfully go forth to meet Christ, we must have our faith fixed on his grace alone.
(87) What is love? It is as much a gift, a grace, as faith; it constitutes a fitness for heaven, but is in no way meritorious; and were it perfect, there would be nothing of merit in it; for the highest degrees of it come far short of what is due to God. To set up merit of any kind on the part of man, betokens extreme blindness, for salvation from first to last is altogether gratuitous. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CHAPTER XIV
RIGHTEOUSNESSDEMONSTRATION OF LOVE
1Jn. 4:17-21; 1Jn. 5:1-3
A.
The Text
Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as he is even so are we in this world. (18) There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love. (19) We love, because he first loved us. (20) If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen. (21) And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. (1Jn. 5:1) Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God and whosoever loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. (2) Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do his commandments. (3) For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
B.
Try to Discover
1.
What is the relationship of obedience to righteousness?
2.
What is the relationship of righteousness to love?
3.
Why do Christians love their brothers in Christ?
4.
Who is my brother in Christ?
5.
How may I know that I am fulfilling the commandment to love my brother?
C.
Paraphrase
Herein hath love with us been made perfect, In order that boldness we might have in the day of judgment, In that just as He is We also are in this world. (18) Fear existeth not in love, But perfect casteth fear outside; Because fear hath correction: He that feareth hath not been made perfect in love. (19) We love, because he first loved us: (20) If one should say I love God and should be hating his brother, false is he: For he that doth not love his brother whom he hath seen God whom he hath not seen he cannot love! (21) And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. (1Jn. 5:1) Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ Of God hath been born: And whosoever loveth him that begat Loveth him that hath been begotten of him. (2) Hereby perceive we that we love the children of God As soon as God we love And his commandments we are doing. (3) For this is the love of God That his commandments we are keeping, And his commandments are not burdensome;
D.
Comments
1.
Preliminary Remarks
Righteousness is obedience to Gods commands. Love is commanded. When we love we are obeying God and therefore are doing righteousness. Righteousness, in this sense, is seen as a manifestation of love.
2.
Translation and comments
a.
The perfection of love . . . 1Jn. 4:17-18
(1Jn. 4:17) In this love is being perfected with us, in order that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because just as that one, we are also in this world. (1Jn. 4:18) Fear is not in love, but perfect love is casting out fear, because fear is having punishment. The one fearing is not being perfected in love.
Just as Gods love for us reaches its intended end when we keep His commandments and love our brothers (see on 1Jn. 2:5), so our love is perfected when we no longer fear the judgment. The basis of boldness in the judgment is that we have lived as Jesus lived, by loving as Jesus loved.
No one has so lived who does not love his brother. To such a one the fear of judgment is well-founded!
Some have seen in the preaching of love a softening or watering down of the sternness of the Gospel. Not so! The reason we must obey the command to love is it is appointed to men once to die, and after this cometh judgment. (Heb. 9:27)
It is possible to counterfeit obedience to every other commandment of God; to deceive others and even ourselves. The only sure confidence in facing judgment comes in the unmistakable experience of sacrificing my life that others may live. When we love in deed and truth rather than in word . . . with the tongue, we may indeed assure our hearts before Him. (1Jn. 3:18-19)
The Hebrew writer informs us, . . . He also Himself in like manner partook of the same (flesh and blood), that through death He might . . . deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Heb. 2:14-15) In other words, the Word became flesh in order to die; and he died to free us from the fear of death. When we keep the commandments of God in His name, that divine demonstration of love reaches its end perfection. So also, our love, when it is perfected, (i.e. when it reaches its intended end) frees us from the fear of the judgment. We have the confidence which comes from knowing that we have lived as That One lived who overcame death and was seated at the right hand of God.
We shall never have the confidence which comes from being as good as He, but we may have confidence which comes from knowing our lives were motivated by the same life giving love.
b.
The motive of love . . . 1Jn. 4:19
(1Jn. 4:19) We are loving, because He first loved us.
The hymn writer has said.
I love Him because He first loved me,
and died on the cross of Calvary!
If we omit one word, Him, as the object of love in this poem, we shall have captured Johns inspired thought concerning the motive of Christian love. We do not love just Him, as John will soon show. The presence of love in our lives as His children is because He loved us first. Otherwise, we would have continued to prostitute our love on the things of the world and have perished as the consequence. (See on 1Jn. 2:15-17)
Again John echoes Paul at the heart of Christian life. The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again. Wherefore, we henceforth know no man after the flesh. (2Co. 5:14-16.)
Because it has burst upon us that God loves all men, regardless of their station, we no longer recognize the artificial distinctions imposed by men upon men. Because He loved us and bought us with His life, we are constrained to also lay down our lives for the brethren. (1Jn. 3:16, The love of Christ thus becomes the motivating force of love in our own lives.
c.
The object of love . . . 1Jn. 4:20
(1Jn. 4:20) If any one should say, I love God, and should hate his brother, he is a liar; for the one who goes on not loving his brother whom he has seen, does not have power to be loving God whom he has not seen.
The claim of love for God in the life of one who does not love his brother is a fraudulent claim. It is simply unreal.
Such unreal love offered to the real God is as useless as the real sacrifices offered to unreal gods. No one has the ability to love God without demonstrating that love in love of his brother. To attempt to do so it to . . . love in word and with the tongue. (1Jn. 3:18)
d.
Love demonstrates righteousness . . . 1Jn. 4:21
(1Jn. 4:21) And this is the commandment we are having from Him, that the one loving God also love his brother.
In attempting to maintain the perspective of the overall evidence of life presented in I John, it is a good idea to re-read 1Jn. 2:3-11 in connection with this verse.
In both passages there is a definite relationship between righteousness, considered as keeping Gods commandments, and love which is the first of those commandments. In short, no one can lay claim to righteousness who does not love his brother. The moral obligation to walk as He walked, Who kept the commandments perfectly, comes into its sharpest focus in love. Without love, all other righteousness is as filthy rags.
e.
Who is my brother? . . . 1Jn. 5:1
(1Jn. 5:1) Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten from God, and everyone loving the One Who begat loves the one having been begotten from Him.
The tests of life and fellowship presented by John are intended to be subjective. They are to tell the individual personally whether he himself is in fellowship with God and thereby possesses life eternal. In 1Jn. 5:1, we find the single exception. Here is the objective test by which we may know whether someone else is a child of God and so our brother. Since love of our brother is essential to our own life, this test is necessary.
The test is the same as was presented in 1Jn. 4:1 as the standard by which to prove the spirits whether they are of God. There the evidence was the confession of Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh. Here the same evidence is concerned with the belief which is the content of that confession. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God, and is, therefore, my brother as we share a common Father.
In the rather involved discussion below concerning the begetting and birth of Gods children, we must hold fast to Johns chief concern in this verse. He has just reminded us that we are commanded to love our brothers. The necessity is thus placed upon him to answer the very pertinent question, who is my brother? The answer to this question forms the only legitimate test of fellowship for the Christian.
The main emphasis of the verse is focused on the verb gegennetai, from germao. It is not an easy word to translate. Gennao is used by John for the first time in Joh. 1:12, where the American Standard Version renders it born, with the footnote, or begotten. The problem of the translator is to know which of these meanings to write down. It doesnt take a Ph.D. in zoology to recognize there is a difference between being begotten and being born.
Is John saying here that everyone who believes has been born from God or has been begotten? If born is intended, then being a child of God depends entirely on belief. If begotten is Johns intention here, then belief marks only the beginning of the process by which one becomes a child of God.
The problem of translation is complicated further by the diversity of renderings of gennao in the accepted English versions. Limiting ourselves to only two passages, both from Johns writings, we are confronted with no fewer than four different English words used to translate this single Greek word.
The King James Version has born in both Joh. 3:3; Joh. 3:5 and 1Jn. 5:1. However, in 1Jn. 5:1, when the word appears the second time, the King James Version has begotten. Here are two different meanings attributed to the same word in the same verse!
The American Standard Version (1901) was born in Joh. 3:1-36 and begotten in 1Jn. 5:1.
The Revised Standard Version has born in Joh. 3:1-36 but begs the issue by paraphrasing 1Jn. 5:1 with is a child.
Phillips follows the example of the Revised Standard by using born in Joh. 3:1-36 and one of Gods family in 1Jn. 5:1.
The New English Bible repeats the rendering of the Revised Standard Version.
Turning to the commentaries helps a little, but not much. Barnes notes the distinction between born and begotten and indicates a preference for the latter.
B. F. Wescott prefers born in commenting on Joh. 3:1-36. However, his interpretation includes the whole process of regeneration.
Turning to Abbott-Smiths Greek lexicon, we learn that gennao is to be translated beget when referring to a fathers contribution to new life. In reference to a mother, the same word means to bring forth.
Considered passively, from the standpoint of the child, it may be accurately rendered either born or begotten. However, even the lexicons seems rather arbitrary in their translations of this word when it refers to the means by which one becomes a child of God!
In our concern for the distinction between the begetting of God in the progeneration of spiritual life and the act of birth (re-birth), we are seeking to determine the point at which the individual is actually brought into the family of God as a brother.
From a purely linguistic view point, the preferred translation of gennao in its perfect passive form, (as in 1Jn. 1:5), is has been begotten, rather than has been born. However, John is not concerned with linguistics, but with the test by which one may know who his brother is. It would be tragic indeed to mislead some sincere seeker after salvation with a false rendering of so vital a word. How does one become a child of God?
Obviously, the fundamental answer to this question is faith. In Joh. 1:12, where the writer presents the idea of re-generation for the first time, he says it is accomplished when one receives the Incarnate Word.
This receiving is accomplished according to the terms set forth in the following verse. To translate again, without regard for theology, one who receives the Word is, the one begotten, not from bloods, nor from fleshly will nor of a mans will, but from God. (Joh. 1:13)
But, how is one begotten from the will of God. The question is as old as Nicodemus.
In Joh. 3:3 Jesus confronted Nicodemus with the necessity of being born (or begotten) from above. When Nicodemus asked how, Jesus answered . . . if one is not born (or begotten) from water and spirit, he does not have the power to enter into the kingdom of God. Here we are at the nub of the matter.
Obviously a begetting without subsequent birth is tragically futile. On the other hand, birth without begetting is impossible.
Perhaps the need for this entire discussion would have never arisen had the church not lost sight of the true nature of Christian baptism. Some have become so repelled at the sacerdotal doctrine of salvation by works that they have swung to the opposite extreme and said all that is necessary to become a child of God is to believe; that nothing else is involved in receiving Jesus.
That to which they are reacting is the sacramental holy water concept which treats baptism as a rite, a sacrament by which one is ushered into the family of God as if by magic, even in the absence of belief. (This is especially apparent in the practice of infant baptism)
The matter of Divine Sonship, with which John is concerned in I John, and entrance into the kingdom of God, which Jesus is concerned in Joh. 3:1-36, are much too vital to be settled on the basis of prejudice for or against baptismal regeneration.
Perhaps we can come to some conclusions concerning Johns meaning in his use of this term gennao by beginning with that upon which all are agreed. No one denies that John sets forth belief as absolutely necessary to regeneration. In Joh. 1:12, it is those who believe on His name who are given the power to become the sons of God. In 1Jn. 5:1, it is whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ.
Secondly, we need to understand that baptism is not a religious work, so far as the candidate is concerned. Baptism is not something he does; it is something done to him. He submits to it in the Name of Christ; he receives it. To say that baptism saves us, as indeed Peter does say (1Pe. 3:21), is not to say we are saved by works. Peters own comment on the matter is that we are saved . . . through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1Pe. 3:21)
The grammar of Joh. 3:5 will not allow a separation of water from spirit. In that verse, hudates (water) and pneumatos (spirit) are inseparably joined by the co-ordinating conjunction kai (and). Whatever Jesus says of the spirit in this verse, He also says of the water, and vice versa. This verse is vital, for it is Jesus own answer to our dilemma.
How can a man become a child of God? He must be begotten from above. How can this be? He must be born from (both) water and spirit. If we let spirit answer to faith, and water to the outward act of immersion, we have our answer. Faith is always obedient. John deals with obedience conclusively in the verses immediately following. Faith and love always submit, in full surrender, to be united with the life of the risen Lord. This is done for the first time in baptism (Cf. Rom. 6:3ff). From that point on, obedient faith becomes the hallmark of sonship for the child of God. Both belief and obedience constitute faith. They are two sides of the same coin where Christian faith is concerned.
In none of the references we have cited from John is the inspired author concerned with baptism per se. His concern is for the entire process of regeneration. Birth begins with begetting. Begetting issues in birth. When one has experienced the regeneration which takes its source in God, he is a child of God. The physical act involved is immersion in and resurrection from water.
The word except as it is employed by Jesus in Joh. 3:5 is too narrow for some today. To John it is trust in and obedience to the divine revelation which marked a person as a child of God. No one else is to be considered a brother in Christ.
Just as Divine Sonship depends upon divine regeneration, so divine brotherhood depends upon Divine Fatherhood. Ones relationship to a child of God is determined by mutual parentage. No one becomes a brother in Christ by blood, or of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
When a person is ones brother by right of common Fatherhood, one has no choice but to love him, just as one loves the common Father. Todays divisions in Christianity can only be divinely healed on this basis. Love is not of party, but of persons. Christian unity can only be had by every Christian recognizing every other Christian as a brother, and loving him for the Fathers sake. It cannot, however, be fostered by considering those to be Christian brothers who have not been begotten from God through obedient faith!
f.
Hereby we know we love . . . 1Jn. 4:2-3
(2) In this we are knowing that we are loving the children of God, when we are loving God and doing His commandments. (3) For this is the love of God, that we shall keep His commandments; and His commandments are not distressing.
The urgent necessity of loving our brother fairly glows in this passage! In 1Jn. 4:21, John re-emphasizes the vital necessity of loving our brother. In 1Jn. 5:1, he sets forth the test by which we may recognize our brother. Now he will tell us how we know we are keeping this commandment.
Divine love is not recognized in Gods children by feeling but by obedience, There are those who are children of God whose personalities clash with our own. It is absurd to think we will ever come to the place where we feel good toward them. Is this proof that we do not love them? Are such feelings contrary to the love which we must have for our brothers in Christ? John does not say so.
We are commanded to love every one who is a child of God. When we remember what love is, this is not as impossible as it might at first seem.
It is from the example of Jesus that we learn the true nature of such love. He gave His life not only for His friends, but for His enemies. He prayed between clenched teeth for those who drove the spikes in His hands and feet. When other men would have kicked and cursed, He voluntarily lay down to be nailed on the cross for those who accused Him falsely, who spit in His face, and who scoffed at His claim to be Gods Son.
If we love as He loved we will also lay down our lives willingly for those who treat us ill. Shortly, John will instruct us to pray for those Christians whom we see sinning. There is no greater sin than the failure of our brothers to lay down their lives for us, but we are to pray for the one who does this sin as well as other sins!
We know we love our brothers when we keep Gods commandments. If the habit of our life is to respond with instant obedience to any command of His, we will love those we cannot like before considering our feelings toward them. (See on 1Jn. 2:17 for the difference between phileo (like) and agape (love).)
Perhaps we should note here a favorite theme of the popular psychologist, Dr. George Crane. Dr. Crane is fond of saying that if we act like we love someone long enough and sincerely enough, we will learn to actually love them. In Johns language, we would paraphrase, if we love someone long enough and sincerely enough, we may even get to like them!
This, indeed, is the love of God! That the keeping of His commandments is not distressing to us. There is no other way to prove our love to anyone than to do that which is for his benefit. If we love God, we will do that by which His purpose is moved forward in man. This immediately necessitates the keeping of His command to love one another. Gods purpose in man is only accomplished when men are united in Christ by the bond of love.
John does not say that the keeping of Gods commands is easy. It is a cross, not a cushion, to which we are called! The idea is that the commandments of God do not seem unreasonable to one who loves Him.
Jesus expresses the same idea when He says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and then immediately invites; take my yoke upon you and learn of me . . . for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Mat. 11:28-30)
E.
Questions for Review
1.
How is righteousness said to be a demonstration of love?
2.
What is the intended end of our love for our brothers?
3.
Does one who loves his brother fear death? Explain.
4.
Is the preaching of love soft pedaling the Gospel? Explain.
5.
What is the one command of God which cannot be counterfeited?
6.
What is the difference between these two statements:
(a)
I love Him because He first loved me.
(b)
I love because He first loved me?
7.
How may I know who is my Christian brother?
8.
What is the difference between being begotten and being born, in terms of entrance into the family of God?
9.
Explain how regeneration covers both of these ideas.
10.
Explain why the teaching that baptism is essential to salvation is not the same as teaching salvation by works.
11.
Faith is always ________________.
12.
Divine love in Gods children is not recognized by feeling but by __________________.
13.
If we learn to love our brothers, and practice this love, we may even learn to ________________.
14.
Explain how Gods commandments are not distressing to one who loves Him.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
17. Love perfect It is carried to its proper completion.
Boldness Fearlessness. A calm assurance that our judge is our friend, and that for us there is no condemnation. And this boldness is not based on the idea that there is no punishment for the finally impenitent, but upon the consciousness, through the spirit of love bestowed upon us, that our reconciliation with him is perfect. Day of judgment. His parousia, or coming. See notes on 1Jn 2:28; 2Th 2:2 ; 2Th 2:8.
As he is, so are we Our moral conformity in love gives us a trusting sympathy. He is the holy Son of God, we, his reconciled children.
In this world Equally opposed to us both.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment, and he who is afraid is not made perfect in love.’
The one who knows the love of God in Christ in him and abides in Him finds that that love is made perfect within him (see 1Jn 4:12). He is aware of that love as revealed in the giving of a Saviour, and the suffering of a Saviour. He is aware that that love has provided a propitiation for his sins. He is aware that that love has set him apart and will one day present him holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable before God (Col 1:22), that it has perfected for ever those who are sanctified (Heb 10:14). Thus he is filled with love for God, and for his brothers in Christ who are all within the sphere of that love. Thus he has boldness with regard to the day of judgment. He is unafraid because through the cross and through Jesus Christ he knows that God’s true love, His saving love, His accepting love, surrounds him. He is accepted as righteous in Christ, and that righteousness produces responsive love and acceptance of love. Of what then is he to be afraid? He will stand in the Judgment day in the love of Christ and of God. For he even walks in this world in the love of God, surrounded and sustained by that love, that holy love, so that he himself is ‘as Christ Jesus’. The love wherewith He loves His Son, such is His love for us who are His.
This love casts out all fear. The one who is safe in the love of God cannot be afraid. For there is no fear in love. To be within God’s love in Christ is to be free from fear. Love removes all fear, especially perfect love, which can only signify God’s love perfected in us (1Jn 4:12). The one who has God’s love so perfected in him will not fear. It is only those who are to be punished who need fear, and we know that in His love He has been punished for our sin, He has been made a propitiation for our sin, and there is therefore no further punishment to come for us. Thus those who are afraid demonstrate by that fact that they have not been made perfect in love, they are not enjoying the full benefits of the Gospel. There is a lack of faith and trust and obedience and of walking in the light.
‘Fear has punishment, and he who is afraid is not made perfect in love.’ This may suggest that these ones who fear punishment are the false teachers whose end is destruction. They have cause to be afraid because their end is certain. But some fear because they do not trust. They are afraid of punishment when what they should be doing is being made perfect in love. They need to dwell more in His presence and absorb His love, especially as it is revealed through the cross.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Jn 4:17. Herein is our love made perfect, Herein is love perfected in us (so it should be rendered), even by our thus dwelling in love, and thereby dwelling in God: and having this plain token of God’s love to us, wemay assuredly hope to appear with humble confidence before him in the awful day of judgment: because as he is all love to us, so we in resemblance of him, and in consideration of his love, are filled with a supreme love to him, and with a sincere and ardent love to the brethren for his sake, even whilewe live in this tempting and ensnaring world. The phraseday of judgment, does not appear ever to signify in the New Testament (as some assert) the day of trouble, or the time of those calamities by which the faith and patience of God’s servants are often tried in this world; or the day in which the primitive Christians should be brought before the tribunal of the unbelieving Jews or Heathens: but it is well known to every reader of the Scripture, that it frequently signifies the day in which Jesus Christ will judge the world with the most perfect justice and equity. See 2Th 2:2.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Jn 4:17 . After the apostle has said in 1Jn 4:16 that he that dwelleth in love (and therefore no one else) has fellowship with God, he now indicates wherein love shows itself as perfected; the thought of this verse is accordingly connected with the preceding: .
] Several commentators, Luther, Calvin, Spener, Grotius, Hornejus, Calovius, Semler, Sander, Besser, Ewald, etc., understand by “the love of God to us,” interpreting = , and as referring to the perfect manifestation of the love of God; Grotius: hic est summus gradus delectionis Dei erga nos. [272] This interpretation, however, has the context against it, for in 1Jn 4:16 : , as well as in 1Jn 4:18 : , by is meant the love of man, the love that dwells in us; comp. also 1Jn 4:12 . Here also, therefore, must be understood of this love, with Estius, Socinus, Lange, Lcke, de Wette, Neander, Gerlach, Dsterdieck, Braune, etc.; is used in the same sense as , 1Jn 4:12 ; comp. also 1Jn 4:18 : .
It is not the object of the love that is described by , for is not = , but it means “in;” [273] it either belongs to the verb: “therein is love made perfect in us” (Lcke, de Wette, Dsterdieck, Braune, etc.; Erdmann, who explains = ), or to : “the love which exists (prevails) in us is,” etc. With the first construction, the addition appears rather superfluous; besides, its position would then be more natural before . The underlying idea is that the love which has come from God (for all love is ) has made its abode with believers. Here, also, is used without more particular definition, as in 1Jn 4:16 , and is therefore not to be limited to a specific object (so also de Wette, Dsterdieck, Braune); it is therefore neither merely “love to the brethren ” (Socinus, Lcke, [274] etc.), nor merely “love to God ” (Lange, Erdmann); Baumgarten-Crusius not incorrectly explains the idea by “the sentiment of love; ” only it must not be forgotten that true love is not merely sentiment , but action also; comp. chap. 1Jn 3:18 .
does not refer to the preceding, nor to dwelling in love, nor to fellowship with God, but to what follows; not, however, to , as Beza, [275] Grotius, etc., assuming an attraction, think, but to . From 1Jn 4:18 it is clear that the chief aim of the apostle is to emphasize the fact that perfect love ( , 1Jn 4:18 ) is free from fear, or that he who is perfect in love ( ) experiences no fear, but has confident boldness ( ). The thought of this verse is no other than this, that love has its perfection in the fact that it fills us with such ; the clause beginning with therefore contains the leading thought, to which the following is subordinated. It is true, the combination (instead of , 1Jn 4:9-10 , and frequently) is strange, but it is quite John’s custom to use the particle of purpose, , not seldom as objective particle; the same combination is found in the Gospel of Joh 15:8 (Meyer, indeed, differently on this passage); comp. chap. 1Jn 3:10 , 1Jn 3:23 : (Gospel of Joh 17:3 ); by , is indicated as the goal, not “which God has in view in the perfecting of love in us” (Braune), but which the in its perfection attains (Dsterdieck). With , comp. chap. 1Jn 2:28 . [276]
The is the day , 1Jn 2:28 . The preposition is not to be interpreted = , and is not to be taken as a future (Ewald: “that we shall have”) the difficulty that anything future (behaviour on the judgment-day) should be taken as the evidence of perfect love in the present ( is not to be taken as future complete, but as perfect: “has been made perfect,” or “has become perfect” = “is perfected”), is removed if we take it that in the , which the believer will have at the judgment-day, and which he already has when he thinks of the judgment, is included, which could the more easily occur in John, as in his view the judgment-day did not lie in far-off distance, but was already conceived as begun (chap. 1Jn 2:18 ). The future is to him in his love already present: similarly de Wette, Sander, Besser. [277]
The following words: , serve to establish the foregoing thought. By we are not to understand, with Augustine, Bede, Estius, Lyranus, Castalio, etc., God , but, with most commentators, Christ , who is also suggested by the idea: .
The comparison ( ) does not refer to , so that the sense would be: “as Christ is in this world, so are we also in this world,” for (1) Christ is no longer in this world (comp. Gospel of Joh 17:11 ), and (2) in the fact that we are in this world lies no reason for at the day of judgment. By it is rather the similarity of character that is brought out, as in 1Jn 2:16 , where does not refer to the idea of in itself, but to the character of the walk, so that it is to be interpreted: “as the character of Christ is, so is our character also;” in the second clause is to be supplied, as in 1Co 8:2 ; Eph 4:17 ; Eph 4:21 . What sort of character is meant must be inferred from the context; it is entirely arbitrary to find the similarity in the temptation (Rickli) or in the sufferings of Christ (Grotius), or in the fact that Christ was in the world but not of it (Sander), for there is no such reference in the context. But it is also inadmissible to regard as the more particular definition of the (Dsterdieck), or the Sonship of God (Lcke: “as Christ is the Son of God, so are we also children of God”), for neither do these ideas appear in the context. We are rather to go back to , and accordingly to refer to love (so Lorinus: “reddit nos charitas Christo similes et conformes imagini filii Dei;” Bengel, de Wette, Ewald, Myrberg, Braune, etc. [278] ), so that the sense is: “if we live in love, then we do not fear the judgment of Christ, because then we are like Him, and He therefore cannot condemn us.” [279] The present is to be retained as a present, and not to be turned into the preterite (Oecumenius: ). Love is the eternal nature of Christ, comp. 1Jn 3:7 : . In the concluding words: , which belong, not to , but only to , it is brought out that we are still in the earthly world ( is not an ethical idea), whereas Christ has already ascended from it into heaven.
[272] Sander: “That it is made perfect must only mean: this love of God which was manifested in the sending of His Son is manifested in its might and glory in this, that, as overcoming everything, it brings us so far that we,” etc. Calovius: Perficitur dilectio Dei in nobis, non ratione sui, sic enim absolute perfecta est, sed ratione nostri, non quoad existentiam, sed quoad experientiam.
[273] Hence . is neither = . ( ) , nor = ( ) , as Lcke in his 1st ed. interprets (“our love among ourselves, i.e. our mutual love”); still less justifiable is the interpretation of Rickli: “the mutual love between God and the believer;” for John never includes God and men in . When Ebrard, admitting this, nevertheless accepts the interpretation of Rickli as far as the sense is concerned, explaining “the love of God with us” by “the love which exists between God and us,” this is purely arbitrary, for even though is frequently used to denote a reciprocal action (see Winer, p. 336; VII. p. 352 ff.), yet this reference is here unsuitable, for it is not God and we , but love and we , that are placed together. Moreover, to supply with is at the best only defensible if in the subject to which the love refers is stated; but this is grammatically impossible. If, as Ebrard thinks, denotes not love, but the love- relationship , then may only mean “the loving-relationship that exists among us;” this idea, however, as Ebrard with justice says, does not suit the context.
[274] According to Bertheau’s note in the 3d ed. of Lcke’s Commentary (p. 364), Lcke has, however, in the edition of 1851 interpreted : “brotherly love combined with love to God.”
[275] Beza’s interpretation runs: Charitas adimpletur in nobis per hoc quod qualis ille est, tales et nos simus in hoc mundo, ut fiduciam habeamus in die judicii.
[276] In Luther’s version, is here, as elsewhere frequently, translated by “ Freudigkeit; ” this is not a word derived from “Freude” (joy), but the old German word “Freidikeit” (from “freidic, fraidig”) = haughtiness, boldness, confidence (comp. Vilmar’s pastoral-theol. Bltter , 1861, vols. I. and II. p. 110 ff.); in the older editions it is written sometimes “freydickeyt” (Wittenb. ed. 1525), sometimes freydigkeit (Nrnberg ed. 1524), but in 1537 (in a Strasburg ed.) “freudigkeit.” In what sense Luther understood the word is clearly seen from a sermon on 1Jn 4:16-21 (see Plochmann’s ed. XIX. 383), in which he says: “he means that faith should thus show itself, so that when the last day comes, you may have boldness and stand firm.” It is to be observed also that such Hebrew and Greek words as contain the idea of joy Luther never translates by that word (“boldness”), but by “joyous,” “joy.”
[277] Braune, though he explains correctly the particular thought, denies that these two elements are here to be regarded as combined; but without entering into the difficulty which lies in the expression. Ebrard states the meaning of the words incorrectly thus: “In the fact that the will of God, that we should have boldness in the day of judgment, is internally revealed to us, and manifests itself as a power (of confidence) in us (even now), the loving relationship of God with us is shown to be perfect.” How many elements foreign to the context are here introduced!
[278] The reference of to love is the only one demanded by the context, so that it is not suitable to regard love only as a single element in the likeness of believers to Christ which is here spoken of, as is the case with Lcke, for instance. Erdmann lays the chief emphasis not so much on love as on fellowship with God, which exists in love; but by it is not a relationship, but a quality that is indicated.
[279] Ebrard in his interpretation arrives at no definite result; as, on his supposition that the centre of the tertii comparationis lies in the words , the present is objectionable to him, he would prefer to conjecture “ ” instead of ; but “as a faithful attention to the requirements of Biblical exegesis would scarcely permit such a conjecture,” he thinks that nothing else remains but either to suppose that (in the sense of a historical present) “is added as an indifferent, colourless word,” or to refer . to the fact that Christ even now “still exists in the wicked world to a certain extent , namely, in the Church, which is His body.” Ebrard regards the second conjecture as the more correct, and in accordance with it thus states the sense: “We look forward to the judgment with boldness, for, as He (in His Church) is still persecuted by the wicked world (even at the present day), so are we also in this world (as lambs among wolves)” (!). Ebrard groundlessly maintains, against the explanation given in the text, “that with it an could not be omitted, nay, that even this would not suffice, but that it would have to read: , , and that even then the passage remains obscure enough;” and “that with this acceptation . . . almost appears quite superfluous and foreign.” Against the statement that “our confidence in view of the judgment could not possibly be founded on our likeness to Christ, but only on the love of God as manifested in Christ,” it is a decisive answer that John in other passages as well makes the dependent upon our character, comp. 1Jn 2:28 , 1Jn 3:21 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
Ver. 17. In the day of judgment ] Those that bear his image shall hear his euge; well done, he will own them and honour them, and their faith that worketh by love, “shall be found unto praise, honour, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ,”1Pe 1:71Pe 1:7 . He that was so willingly judged for them, shall give no hard sentence against them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
17, 18 .] These verses, which are parallel with ch. 1Jn 3:19-21 , set forth the confidence with which perfect love shall endow the believer in the great day of judgment. In this is love perfected with us (for , see below. , not, as Luther, Calv., Spener, Grot., Calov., Bengel, Sander, al., God’s love to us : this is forbidden by the whole context: our verse is introduced by , and continued by : it is love dwelling and advancing to perfection in us. And again, not love to God merely, nor love to our brethren merely; these are concrete manifestations of It: but love itself in the abstract the principle of love, as throughout this passage. This sense of will point out that of , which belongs not to but to the verb, as in 1Jn 4:12 . Love is considered as planted in us; its degrees of increase take place not merely “ bei uns ,” “ chez nous ,” , but as concerned with us ; in a sense somewhat similar to that in which , Luk 1:58 . See 2Jn 1:2 , where however the idea of dwelling with is more brought out than here), that we have confidence in the day of judgment ( gives not the purpose of the , but the apodosis to the , as in reff.: “in this love is perfected in us, viz. that we, &c.” So most, and nearly all the best Commentators. Beza (and E. V.), Socinus, Grot., Mayer, give its telic force, regarding as the apodosis (not so E. V.), and assuming a trajection: the objection to which is, not the transposition, but the sense so gained, as belonging to the context. On this view, the aim given by the comes in altogether disjointed from the context, and the perfection of love in us is stated to be found in a fact which is objective, not subjective. It is only necessary to cite Grotius’s exegesis to shew the incongruity, even in his understanding of . “Hic est summus gradus dilectionis Dei erga nos, si qualis in hoc mundo Christus fuit, i. e. mundi odiis et propterea plurimis malis expositus tales et nos simus (Joh 15:18 ; 1Pe 2:19 ; 1Pe 4:16 ). Ideo hoc Dens ita disponit, ut cum bona fiducia appareamus in die judicii. Nam constans perpessio malorum ad exemplum Christi efficit, ut a Christo optima exspectemus, quippe ipsi similes.” Can any thing be more broken and farfetched than such a connexion? to say nothing of its “si simus” for .
On the right interpretation, the confidence which we shall have in that day, and which we have even, now by anticipation of that day, is the perfection of our love; grounded on the consideration ( . . .) which follows: casting out fear, which cannot consist with perfect love, 1Jn 4:18 ): because even as He (Christ, see below) is, we also are in this world (this is the reason or ground of our confidence: that we, as we now are in the world, are like Christ: and in the background lies the thought, He will not, in that day, condemn those who are like Himself. In these words, the sense must be gained by keeping strictly to the tenses and grammatical construction: not, as e. g. c. , by changing the tenses (so also Thl., Tirin., Corn.-a-Iap., Mayer, Grot., Luther, Calov., Rickli, al.), nor by referring the words to Christ, as several of the above, and Socinus. And when we have adhered to tense and grammar, wherein is the likeness spoken of to be found? Clearly, by what has been above said, not in our trials and persecutions. Nor by our being not of the world as He is not of the world (Sander, who however adds, ‘clothed with His righteousness’): nor in that we, as sons of adoption through Him, are beloved of God, even as He is beloved (Tirinus, Neander); nor as Huther, in that we live in Love, as He lives in Love: but in that we are righteous as He is righteous, ch. 1Jn 2:29 , Joh 3:3 ff., Joh 3:10 ; Joh 3:22 ; this being evinced by our abiding in Love. And so mainly (c., Thl., with the mistake pointed out above), Beza, Corn.-a-lap., Mayer, Socinus, Lcke, De Wette, Rickli, Dsterd., al. Many indeed of these approach to Huther’s view impugned above, and make it to be love in which we are like Christ: but Dsterd. brings rightly this logical objection, that St. John does not say that Love is perfected in confidence in us, because we resemble Christ in Love; but he refers to the fundamental truth on which our Love itself rests, and says; because we are absolutely like Christ, because we are in Christ Himself, because He lives in us, for without this there cannot be likeness to Him; in a word, because we are, in that communion with Christ which we are assured of by our likeness to Him in righteousness, children of God, therefore our love brings with it also full confidence. Essentially, the reason here rendered for our confidence in the day of judgment is the same as that given ch. 1Jn 3:21 f. for another kind of confidence, viz., that we keep His commandments. This also betokens the , of which Christ is the essential exemplar and which is a necessary attribute of those who through Christ are children of God).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Jn 4:17 . , cf. 1Jn 4:12 . : love is a heavenly visitant sojourning with us and claiming observance. Love has been “carried to its end” when we are like Jesus, His visible representatives. resumes , being parenthetical: “herein because” (1Jn 3:16 , 1Jn 4:9-10 ). , see note on 1Jn 2:28 . , see note on 1Jn 2:6 . , “is,” not , “was”. Jesus is in the world unseen, and our office is to make Him visible. We are to Him what He was to the Father in the days of His flesh “Dei inaspecti aspectabilis imago”.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1 John
THE SERVANT AS HIS LORD
1Jn 4:17 .
Large truths may be spoken in little words. Profundity is often supposed to be obscurity, but the deepest depth is clear. John, in his gospel and epistles, deals with the deepest realities, and with all things in their eternal aspects, but his vocabulary is the simplest in the New Testament. God and the world, life and death, love and hate, light and darkness, these are the favourite words round which his thoughts gather. Here are nine little monosyllables. What can be simpler than, ‘As He is, so are we in this world?’ And what can go beyond the thought that lies in it, that a Christian is a living likeness of Christ?
But the connection of my text is quite as striking as its substance. John has been dwelling upon his favourite thought that to abide in love is to abide in God, and God in us. And then he goes on to say that ‘Herein’–that is, in such mutual abiding in love–’is love made perfect with us’; and the perfection of that love, which is thus communion, is in order that, at the great solemn day of future trial, men may lift up their faces and meet His glance–which is not strange to them, nor met for the first time–with open-hearted and open-countenanced ‘boldness.’ But ‘love’ and ‘abiding’ are the source of confidence in the Day of Judgment, because love and abiding are the source of assimilation to Christ’s life. We have boldness, ‘because as He is, so are we in this world’; and we are as He is, because we love and abide in Him. So here are three thoughts, the assimilation of the Christian man to Christ; the frank confidence which it begets; and the process by which it is secured.
I. A Christian is Christ’s living likeness.
That is a startling thing to say, and all the more startling if you notice that John does not say ‘As He was,’ in this earthly life of humiliation and filial obedience, but ‘as He is,’ in His heavenly life and reign and glory. That might well repel us from all thought of possible resemblance, but the light, however brilliant it may be, is not blinding, and it is the Christ as He is, and not only–true as that is–the Christ as He was, who is the original of which Christian men are copies.
Now there is the difference between the teaching of such classes of religionists as represent Christ’s humanity as all in all, and preach to us that He, in His earthly life is the pattern to whom we are to seek to conform our lives, and the true evangelical teaching. That dead Man is living, and His present life has in it elements which we can grasp, and to which every Christian life is to be conformed.
Is there anything, then, within the glory to which I, in my poor, struggling, hampered, imperfect life here on earth, can feel that my character is being shaped? Yes, surely there is. I have no doubt that, in the words of my text, the Apostle is remembering the solemn ones of our Lord’s high-priestly prayer as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of his gospel, where the same antithesis of our being in the world, and His not being there, recurs; and where the analogy and resemblance are distinctly stated–’I in Thee, and Thou in Me, that they also may be in us.’
So, then, when we stand with our letter-writer in his Patmos island, and see the countenance ‘as the sun shining in his strength, and the eyes as a flame of fire,’ and the many crowns upon the head, and the many stars in the hand, though we may feel as if all resemblance was at an end, and aspiration after likeness could only fall at His feet and cover its face, yet there is within the glory something which may be repeated and reproduced in our lives, and that is, the indissoluble union of a Son with a Father, in all loving obedience, in all perfect harmony, in all mutual affection and outgoing of heart and thoughts. This is the centre of the life, alike of the Christ when He is glorified, and of the Christ when He was upon earth. So the very secret heart of the mysterious being of the Son is to be, and necessarily is, repeated in all those who in Him have received the adoption of sons.
Or to put the whole thing into plainer words, it is the religious and the moral aspects of Christ’s being, and not any one particular detail thereof; and these, as they live and reign on the Throne, just as truly as these, as they suffered and wept upon earth–it is these to which it is our destiny to be conformed. We are like Him, if we are His, in this,–that we are joined to God, that we hold fellowship with Him, that our lives are all permeated with the divine, that we are saturated with the presence of God, that we have submitted ourselves to Him and to His will, that ‘not my will, but Thine, be done’ is the very inmost meaning of our hearts and our lives. And thus ‘we,’ even here, ‘bear the image of the heavenly, as we have borne the images of the earthly.’ Now I am not going to dwell upon details; all these can be filled in by each of us for himself. The centre-point which I insist upon is this–the filial union with God, the filial submission to Him, and the consequent purity as Christ is pure, righteousness as Christ is righteous, and walking even as Christ walked, for ever in the light.
But then there is another point that I desire to refer to. I have put an emphasis upon the ‘is’ instead of the ‘was,’ as it applies to Jesus Christ. I would further put an emphasis upon the ‘are,’ as it applies to us–’So are we.’
John is not exhorting, he is affirming. He is not saying what Christian men ought to strive to be, but he is saying what all Christian men, by virtue of their Christian character, are. Or, to put it into other words, likeness to the Master is certain. It is inevitably involved in the relation which a Christian man bears to the Lord. There may be degrees in the likeness, there may be differences of skill and earnestness in the artist. We have to labour like a portrait painter, slowly and tentatively approaching to the complete resemblance. It is ‘a life-long task ere the lump be leavened.’ This likeness does not reach its completeness by a leap. It is not struck, as the image of a king is, upon the blank metal disc, by one stroke, but it is wrought out by long, laborious, and, as I said, approximating and tentative touches. My text suggests that to us by its addition, ‘So are we, in this world.’ The ‘world’–or, to use modern phraseology, ‘the environment’–conditions the resemblance. As far as it is possible for a thing encompassed with dust and ashes to resemble the radiant sun in the heavens, so far is the resemblance carried here. Some measure of it, and a growing measure, is inseparable from the reality of a Christian life.
Now, you Christian people, does that plain statement touch you anywhere? ‘So are we.’ Well! you would be quite easy if John had said: ‘So may we be; so should we be; so shall we be.’ But what about the ‘so are we’? What a ghastly contradiction the lives of multitudes of professing Christians are to that plain statement! ‘Like Jesus Christ’–would anybody say that about anything in me? ‘So are we’–no words of mine, dear brethren, can make the statement more searching, more impressive; but, I pray you, lay this to heart: ‘If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.’ You may take sacraments and profess Christianity, or, as we Nonconformists have it, ‘join churches,’ and do all manner of outward work for ever and a day; but if you have not the likeness of Christ, at least in germ, and growing to something more than a germ, in your characters, you had better revise your position, and ask whether, after all, you have not been walking in a vain show, and fancied yourselves the servants of Christ, while you bear the image of Christ’s enemy.
A very tiny gully on a hillside, made by showers of rain, may fall into the same slopes, and has been created by the very same forces, working according to the same laws, as have scooped out valleys miles broad, bordered by mountains thousands of feet high. And in my little life, poor as it is, limited as it is, environed as it is by the world, and therefore often hampered and stained, as well as helped and brightened, by its environment, there may be, and there will be, in some degree, if I am a Christian man, the very same power at work by which Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father shines as the sun on the throne of the universe.
But then, notice further, how that limitation to which I have referred in this world carries with it another message. There is Christ in the heavens, veiled and unseen. Here are you on earth, his representative. There is a rage at present for putting pictures into all books, and folk will scarcely read unless they get illustrated literature. The world has for its illustrations of the gospel the lives of us Christian people. In the book there are principles and facts, and readers should be able to turn the page and see all pictured in us.
That is what you are set to do in this world. ‘As the Father sent Me, even so send I you.’ ‘As He is, so are we in this world.’ It may be our antagonist, but it is our sphere, and its presence is necessary to evoke our characters. Christ has entrusted His reputation, His honour, to us, and many a man that never cares to look at Him as He is revealed in Scripture, would be wooed and won to look at Him and love Him, if we Christian people were more true to our vocation, and bore more conspicuously on our faces and in our characters the image of the heavenly.
II. Look for a moment at the second thought that is here: such a likeness to Jesus Christ is the only thing that will enable a man to lift up his head in the Day of Judgment.
‘We have boldness,’ says John, because ‘as He is, so are we.’ Now that is a very strong statement of a truth that popular, evangelical theology has far too much obscured. People talk about being, at the last, ‘accepted in the beloved.’ God be thanked, it is true. A sweet old hymn that a great many of us learned when we were children, though it is not so well known in these days, says:–
‘Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay,
While through Thy blood absolved I am
From sin’s tremendous curse and shame?’
I believe that, and I try to preach it. But do not let us forget the other side. My text is in full accordance with the principles of our Lord’s own teaching; and who knows the principles of His own words so well as the judge, who tells us, in His pictures of that great day, that the question put to every man will be, not what you believe, but what did you do, and what are you?
But this truth of my text has been not only wounded in the house of the friends of Christianity, but it has been overlooked by one of the very frequent objections that we hear made to evangelical teaching, that, according to it, a man is judged according to his belief and not according to his deeds. A man is judged according to his–not belief–but according to his faith. But he is judged according also to–not his work–but according to his character.
And I wish, dear friends, to lay this upon your hearts, because many of us are too apt to forget it, that whilst unquestionably the beginning of salvation, and the condition of forgiveness here, and of acceptance hereafter, are laid in trust in Jesus Christ, that trust is sure to work out a character which is in conformity with His requirements and moulded after the likeness of Himself. ‘The judgment of God is according to truth,’ and what a man is determines where a man shall be, and what he shall receive through all eternity. Remember Christ’s own teaching. Remember the teaching of that other apostle than John, according to which the ‘wood, hay, stubble,’ built by a man upon the foundation shall be burned up, and the builder himself be saved, yet so as by fire. And lay this to heart, that it is only when faith works in us, through love and communion, characters like Jesus Christ’s, that we shall be able to stand–though even then we shall have to trust to divine and infinite mercy, and to the sprinkling of His blood–before the Throne of God. Lay up in store for yourselves a good foundation unto eternal life. And take this as the preaching of my text; character, and character alone, will stand the judgment of that great day.
There is no real antagonism between such truths and the widest preaching of salvation by faith. It is the same man who, in his gospel, says, as from the lips of the Lord Himself, ‘He that believeth is not judged,’ and in his letter says, ‘We may have boldness in that day, because, as He is, so are we in this world.’
III. One word about the last point; the process by which this likeness is secured.
That is contained, as I tried to show in my introductory remarks, in the earlier part of the verse. Our love is made perfect by dwelling in God, and God in us; in order that we may be thus conformed to Christ’s likeness, and so have boldness in that great day. To be like Jesus Christ, what is needed is that we love Him, and that we keep in touch with Him. What is it to ‘abide’ in Him?–to direct the continual flow of mind and love and will and practical obedience to Him, to bear Him ever in the secret place of my heart whilst my hands are occupied with daily business, and my feet are running the sometimes rough race that is set before me. Think of Him ever, love Him ever. Let His name be like a perfume breathed through the whole atmosphere of your lives. Keep your wills in the attitude of submission, of acceptance, of indecision when necessary, and of absolute dependence upon Him. Let your outward acts be such as shall not bring a film of separation between Him and you. When thus our whole being is steeped and drenched with Christ, then it cannot but be that we shall be like Him. Even ‘clouds themselves as suns appear, when the sun pierces them with light.’ ‘Abide in Me, and I in you.’ You cannot make yourselves like Christ, but you can fasten yourselves to Christ, and He will give you power which shall make you like Him.
But, remember, such abiding is no idle waiting, no passive confidence. It is full of energy, full of suppression, when necessary, of what is contrary to your truest self, and full of strenuous cultivation of that which is in accord with the will of the Father, and with the likeness of the ‘first-born among many brethren.’
Dear friends, lie in the light and you will become light. Abide in Christ, and you will get like Christ; and, being like Him, you will be able to lift up your heads, and rejoice when you front Him on the Throne, and you are at the bar. Then, when you are no more in the world, the likeness will be perfected, because the communion is complete. ‘We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
our love = love with (App-104.) us.
made perfect. App-125.
boldness. Greek. parrhresia. See 1Jn 2:28.
judgment. App-177.
as He is. See 1Jn 2:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
17, 18.] These verses, which are parallel with ch. 1Jn 3:19-21, set forth the confidence with which perfect love shall endow the believer in the great day of judgment. In this is love perfected with us (for , see below. , not, as Luther, Calv., Spener, Grot., Calov., Bengel, Sander, al., Gods love to us: this is forbidden by the whole context: our verse is introduced by , and continued by : it is love dwelling and advancing to perfection in us. And again, not love to God merely, nor love to our brethren merely; these are concrete manifestations of It: but love itself in the abstract-the principle of love, as throughout this passage. This sense of will point out that of , which belongs not to but to the verb, as in 1Jn 4:12. Love is considered as planted in us; its degrees of increase take place -not merely bei uns, chez nous, , but as concerned with us; in a sense somewhat similar to that in which , Luk 1:58. See 2Jn 1:2, where however the idea of dwelling with is more brought out than here), that we have confidence in the day of judgment ( gives not the purpose of the , but the apodosis to the , as in reff.: in this love is perfected in us, viz. that we, &c. So most, and nearly all the best Commentators. Beza (and E. V.), Socinus, Grot., Mayer, give its telic force, regarding as the apodosis (not so E. V.), and assuming a trajection: the objection to which is, not the transposition, but the sense so gained, as belonging to the context. On this view, the aim given by the comes in altogether disjointed from the context, and the perfection of love in us is stated to be found in a fact which is objective, not subjective. It is only necessary to cite Grotiuss exegesis to shew the incongruity, even in his understanding of . Hic est summus gradus dilectionis Dei erga nos, si qualis in hoc mundo Christus fuit, i. e. mundi odiis et propterea plurimis malis expositus tales et nos simus (Joh 15:18; 1Pe 2:19; 1Pe 4:16). Ideo hoc Dens ita disponit, ut cum bona fiducia appareamus in die judicii. Nam constans perpessio malorum ad exemplum Christi efficit, ut a Christo optima exspectemus, quippe ipsi similes. Can any thing be more broken and farfetched than such a connexion? to say nothing of its si simus for .
On the right interpretation, the confidence which we shall have in that day, and which we have even, now by anticipation of that day, is the perfection of our love; grounded on the consideration ( …) which follows: casting out fear, which cannot consist with perfect love, 1Jn 4:18): because even as He (Christ, see below) is, we also are in this world (this is the reason or ground of our confidence: that we, as we now are in the world, are like Christ: and in the background lies the thought, He will not, in that day, condemn those who are like Himself. In these words, the sense must be gained by keeping strictly to the tenses and grammatical construction: not, as e. g. c. , by changing the tenses (so also Thl., Tirin., Corn.-a-Iap., Mayer, Grot., Luther, Calov., Rickli, al.), nor by referring the words to Christ, as several of the above, and Socinus. And when we have adhered to tense and grammar, wherein is the likeness spoken of to be found? Clearly, by what has been above said, not in our trials and persecutions. Nor by our being not of the world as He is not of the world (Sander, who however adds, clothed with His righteousness): nor in that we, as sons of adoption through Him, are beloved of God, even as He is beloved (Tirinus, Neander); nor as Huther, in that we live in Love, as He lives in Love: but in that we are righteous as He is righteous, ch. 1Jn 2:29, Joh 3:3 ff., Joh 3:10; Joh 3:22; this being evinced by our abiding in Love. And so mainly (c., Thl., with the mistake pointed out above), Beza, Corn.-a-lap., Mayer, Socinus, Lcke, De Wette, Rickli, Dsterd., al. Many indeed of these approach to Huthers view impugned above, and make it to be love in which we are like Christ: but Dsterd. brings rightly this logical objection,-that St. John does not say that Love is perfected in confidence in us, because we resemble Christ in Love; but he refers to the fundamental truth on which our Love itself rests, and says; because we are absolutely like Christ, because we are in Christ Himself, because He lives in us, for without this there cannot be likeness to Him; in a word, because we are, in that communion with Christ which we are assured of by our likeness to Him in righteousness, children of God, therefore our love brings with it also full confidence. Essentially, the reason here rendered for our confidence in the day of judgment is the same as that given ch. 1Jn 3:21 f. for another kind of confidence, viz., that we keep His commandments. This also betokens the , of which Christ is the essential exemplar and which is a necessary attribute of those who through Christ are children of God).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Jn 4:17. , with us) The love of God in itself is always the same, and perfect: but with us , it is brought to its consummation, rising more and more from its descent to us.-) to such a degree that.-, confidence) The opposite term is fear.-, in) Thus, in, Rom 2:16, note.-, the day) most terrible to others, more so than the day of death itself.- ) of the last judgment.-, because) The because has reference to , this.- , He is) Jesus Christ is love, in heaven; which is silently opposed to the world. By the words, in heaven, however, I suppose His previous dwelling in the world: the word is, on the other hand, shows certainly the present state of Jesus Christ.- , we are) who love God. See the next ver.; Joh 15:10.- , in this world) which is void of love, and fears judgment. The mention of the world is an argument that the word He denotes Jesus Christ. Comp. 1Jn 4:9.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
our love: Gr. love with us
made: 1Jo 4:12, 1Jo 2:5, Jam 2:22
we may: 1Jo 2:28, 1Jo 3:19-21, Jam 2:13
the day: Mat 10:15, Mat 11:22, Mat 11:24, Mat 12:36, 2Pe 2:9, 2Pe 3:7
as: 1Jo 3:3, Mat 10:25, Joh 15:20, Rom 8:29, Heb 12:2, Heb 12:3, 1Pe 3:16-18, 1Pe 4:1-3, 1Pe 4:13, 1Pe 4:14
Reciprocal: Isa 32:17 – quietness Mar 6:11 – in the day Heb 10:19 – Having Jam 1:4 – perfect and 1Jo 3:21 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Jn 4:17. Love made perfect means it is complete, and God made it Possible for man to have that perfect (or complete) love, to give them boldness in view of the judgment day. As he is. so arc we. To be confident with reference to the judgment, we must be on good terms with God in this world. That can be accomplished only by manifesting that unselfish love that was first shown by the Lord for us.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Jn 4:17-19. Here enters the second point of 1Jn 4:12 : His love is perfected in us. The His is omitted; herein is love made perfect with us, that is, in all that concerns our estate. Love is once more absolute and without object specified. Herein, in our living and moving and having our being permanently in love, and in God, is our love made perfect: before we had perfected, now made perfect, afterwards perfect. This is the design of the indwelling Spirit, in order that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: the same in order that and the same confidence as in chap. 1Jn 2:29, but His appearing is now the day of judgment.
Because as he is, even so are we in this world: this also goes back to chap. 1Jn 2:29, and its sequel: from the last day the apostle returns to our life in this world, not without emphasis on the wonder that we should be made through faith in Him working by love pure as He is, and righteous as He is, even in the midst of this present evil world. The next words are doubly linked with the preceding: first, they are the negative perfection of which being like Christ is the positive; and secondly, they refer to the great essential for confidence in the final day.
There is Do fear in love: this is true of the nature of love generally.
Butadmitting that the heart may accuse even lovers of God
perfect love casteth out fear. This is the only instance of perfect love, without any qualification or abatement. And the apostles condensed argument shows that he is speaking of its present triumph in the economy of grace. Because fear hath punishment: that pain of which it is said that these shall go away into everlasting punishment is already inherent in fear; and he that feareth hath not been made perfect in love: then he may in this world be as He is in holiness, and therefore without the least lingering vestige of fear to meet Him. Observe the change of phrase: as love is perfected in man, so he is perfected in love. The Holy Ghost, working by love, brings the believerwe have known and believed, chap. 1Jn 4:16to that permanent abode in the atmosphere of love to God and man from which fear is excluded because sin, the cause of fear, is excluded. Going back to in this world, and remembering that boldness in the day of judgment means confidence in the expectation of His appearing (chap. 1Jn 2:29), and further that it is not said of the heavenly city, there shall be no more sin, as if only there sin is absent, we are bound to understand St. Johns last testimony on this subjectfor he uses the word no morein its highest meaning.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Still our apostle proceeds by way of argument to enforce upon us the obligation of our duty to love one another; he assures us here, that if our love be made perfect, that is, heightened and improved by an exact corresponding with the divine pattern and precept; if we love one another in obedience to God’s command, and in conformity to Christ’s example, it will give us boldness in the day of judgment, and we may think and speak of, we may expect and look for, the approach of that day without fear and consternation of mind; the reason is added, because as Christ was, so are we in the world; that is, as he was full of holiness and purity, of love and charity, so have we endeavoured to be in imitation of his example, according to our measure, in some proportion and degree.
Learn hence, 1. That such as are sincerly gracious, and do excel in the grace of love, are in the word in some sort as Christ was in the world; such as walk in love, walk as Christ walked.
Learn, 2. That such as are in the world, as Christ was in the world, shall have boldness when Christ comes to judgment, and need not fear the condemnation of that dreadful day; Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; the reason of this freedom from the fear of wrath is added, There is no fear in love; 1Jn 4:18 that is, no slavish or distrustful fear, whereby we question the favour of God, but only a filial and reverential fear, whereby we stand in awe of offending him as a father; But perfect love casteth out fear; that is, either the actings of our perfect love to God, or the apprehensions of God’s perfect love towards us, do cast out all that fear which has torment in it.
Yet note, That although perfect love casteth out tormenting fear, it calls in obeying fear, Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man; Ecc 12:13 an awful fear of God is all duty, and every grace.
Note also, The true reason of our disquieting and tormenting fear is the imperfection and weakness of our love: fear may stand with faith and love, but not with perfect faith, nor perfect love: He that feareth is not made perfect in love, and because he is not made perfect in love, therefore he feareth.
Blessed be God, as there will be no torment, so no fear, in heaven; that is, no tormenting fear; yet there is a fear of reverence, which will undoubtedly remain with glorified saints in heaven; they shall have an everlasting awe of the majesty and holiness of God eternally fixed upon their hearts and spirits, even in the kingdom of glory in heaven, as well as in the kingdom of grace here on earth; the saints serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear;
Lord, hasten the perfecting of thy grace in us, particularly the perfection of our love, that perfect love may cast out tormenting fear, and cherish such a reverential fear as will both prepare us for heaven, and accompany us in heaven, to all eternity.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Mature Love Gives One Boldness in Judgment
In 1Jn 4:19 , the American Standard Version has the better rendering, “We love, because he first loved us.” The Christian’s love for God, neighbor, enemy and brother, is a direct response to the love God first had for His children. Some have tried to make God an angry creator whom Jesus appeased by dying on the cross. This verse, along with Joh 3:16 , and Rom 5:8 , proves God loved lost mankind first and sent Jesus to die to satisfy the requirements of justice.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Verse 17
The idea intended is, that by this may we know that our love to God is true and sincere, and such as will be our security in the day of judgment, namely, by seeing that our conduct and character here correspond with the image of God.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
4:17 {13} Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because {i} as he is, so are we in this world.
(13) Again (as before) he commends love, seeing that by our agreement with God in this thing, we have a sure testimony of our adoption, it comes to pass by this that without fear we look for that latter day of judgment, so that trembling and torment of conscience is cast out by this love.
(i) This signifies a likeness, not an equality.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
E. Having Boldness at Christ’s Judgment Seat 4:17-19
John drew a conclusion from what he had written about the importance of believers abiding in God. It is the conclusion that he introduced in the theme verse of the body of the epistle: "And now, little children, abide in Him, so that whenever He should appear, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming" (1Jn 2:28).
"How can a believer know that his love for the Father is being perfected? This paragraph of 1 John [1Jn 4:17 to 1Jn 5:5] suggests four evidences [namely, confidence (1Jn 4:17-19), honesty (1Jn 4:20-21), joyful obedience (1Jn 5:1-3), and victory (1Jn 5:4-5)]." [Note: Ibid., p. 521.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Our love becomes complete in the sense that we can now have confidence as we anticipate our day of judgment (i.e., the evaluation of our works at Christ’s judgment seat; 1Co 3:12-15; 2Co 5:10; Rom 14:10-12). The characteristic of God and Christians in view here is our love. We do not need to fear the judgment seat of Christ if we have demonstrated love to others. By loving we become like Jesus Christ our Judge. Therefore to give love is to gain boldness (confidence).
Here John said God’s love reaches perfection "with us" (Gr. meth hamon) whereas in 1Jn 4:12 he wrote that His love reaches perfection "in us" (Gr. en hamin). When it reaches perfection in us, a proper relationship to other people exists, namely, no hate. When it reaches perfection with us, a proper relationship to God exists, namely, no fear.
As Jesus abode in His Father and consequently had confidence in the face of trials and death, so we can abide in Christ and have confidence in spite of the world’s hostility. Abiding in God gave Jesus confidence, and it gives us confidence too.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 14
BOLDNESS IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
1Jn 4:17
IT has been so often repeated that St. Johns eschatology is idealised and spiritual, that people now seldom pause to ask what is meant by the words. Those who repeat them most frequently seem to think that the idealised means that which will never come into the region of historical fact, and that the spiritual is best defined as the unreal. Yet, without postulating the Johannic authorship of the Apocalypse-where the Judgment is described with the most awful accompaniments of outward solemnity {Rev 20:12-13} -there are two places in this Epistle which are allowed to drop out of view, but which bring us face to face with the visible manifestations of an external Advent. It is a peculiarity of St. Johns style (as we have frequently seen) to strike some chord of thought, so to speak, before its time; to allow the prelusive note to float away, until suddenly, after a time, it surprises us by coming back again with a fuller and bolder resonance. “And now, my sons,” {1Jn 2:28} (had the Apostle said) “abide in Him, that if He shall be manifested, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed, shrinking from Him at His coming.” In our text the same thought is resumed, and the reality of the Coming and Judgment in its external manifestation as emphatically given as in any other part of the New Testament.
We may here speak of the conception of the Day of Judgment: of the fear with which that conception is encompassed; and of the sole means of the removal of that fear which St. John recognises.
I We examine the general conception of “the Day of the Judgment,” as given in the New Testament.
As there is that which with terrible emphasis is marked off as “the Judgment,” “the Parousia,” so there are other judgments or advents of a preparatory character. As there are phenomena known as mock suns, or halos round the moon, so there are fainter reflections ringed round the Advent, the Judgment. Thus, in the development of history, there are successive cycles of continuing judgment; preparatory advents; less completed crises, as even the world calls them.
But against one somewhat widely spread way of blotting the Day of the Judgment from the calendar of the future-so far as believers are concerned-we should be on our guard. Some good men think themselves entitled to reason thus-“I am a Christian. I shall be an assessor in the judgment. For me there is, therefore, no judgment day.” And it is even held out as an inducement to others to close with this conclusion, that they “shall be delivered from the bugbear of judgment.”
The origin of this notion seems to be in certain universal tendencies of modern religious thought.
The idolatry of the immediate-the prompt creation of effect-is the perpetual snare of revivalism. Revivalism is thence fatally bound at once to follow the tide of emotion, and to increase the volume of the waters by which it is swept along. But the religious emotion of this generation has one characteristic by which it is distinguished from that of previous centuries. The revivalism of the past in all Churches rode upon the dark waves of fear. It worked upon human nature by exaggerated material descriptions of hell, by solemn appeals to the throne of Judgment. Certain schools of biblical criticism have enabled men to steel themselves against this form of preaching. An age of soft humanitarian sentiment-superficial and inclined to forget that perfect Goodness may be a very real cause of fear-must be stirred by emotions of a different kind. The infinite sweetness of our Fathers heart-the conclusions, illogically but effectively drawn from this, of an Infinite good nature, with its easy going pardon, reconciliation all round, and exemption from all that is unpleasant-these, and such as these, are the only available materials for creating a great volume of emotion. An invertebrate creed; punishment either annihilated or mitigated; judgment, changed from a solemn and universal assize, a bar at which every soul must stand, to a splendid, and-for all who can say I am saved-a triumphant pageant in which they have no anxious concern; these are the readiest instruments, the most powerful leverage, with which to work extensively upon masses of men at the present time. And the seventh article of the Apostles Creed must pass into the limbo of exploded superstition.
The only appeal to Scripture which such persons make, with any show of plausibility, is contained in an exposition of our Lords teaching in a part of the fifth chapter of the fourth Gospel. {Joh 5:21; Joh 5:29} But clearly there are three Resurrection scenes which may be discriminated in those words. The first is spiritual, a present awakening of dead souls, (Joh 5:21) in those with whom the Son of Man is brought into contact in His earthly ministry. The second is a department of the same spiritual Resurrection. The Son of God, with that mysterious gift of Life in Himself, (Joh 5:26) has within Him a perpetual spring of rejuvenescence for a faded and dying world. A renewal of hearts is in process during all the days of time, a passage for soul after soul out of death into life. The third scene is the general (Joh 5:24) Resurrection and general Judgment. (Joh 5:28-29) The first was the resurrection of comparatively few; the second of many; the third of all. If it is said that the believer “cometh not into judgment,” the word in that place plainly signifies condemnation.
Clear and plain above all such subtleties ring out the awe inspiring words: “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment;” “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.”
Reason supplies us with two great arguments for the General Judgment. One from the conscience of history, so to speak; the other from the individual conscience.
1. General history points to a general judgment. If there is no such judgment to come, then there is no one definite moral purpose in human society. Progress would be a melancholy word, a deceptive appearance, a stream that has no issue, a road that leads nowhere. No one who believes that there is a Personal God, Who guides the course of human affairs, can come to the conclusion that the generations of man are to go on forever without a winding up, which shall decide upon the doings of all who take part in human life. In the philosophy of nature, the affirmation or denial of purpose is the affirmation or denial of God. So in the philosophy of history. Society without the General Judgment would be a chaos of random facts, a thing without rational retrospect or definite end-i.e., without God. If man is under the government of God, human history is a drama, long drawn, and of infinite variety, with inconceivably numerous actors. But a drama must have a last act. The last act of the drama of history is “The Day of the Judgment.”
2. The other argument is derived from the individual conscience.
Conscience, as a matter of fact, has two voices. One is imperative; it tells us what we are to do. One is prophetic, and warns us of something which we are to receive. If there is to be no Day of the General Judgment, then the million prophecies of conscience will be belied, and our nature prove to be mendacious to its very roots. There is no essential article of the Christian creed like this which can be isolated from the rest, and treated as if it stood alone. There is a solidarity of each with all the rest. Any which is isolated is in danger itself, and leaves the others exposed. For they have an internal harmony and congruity. They do not form a hotchpot of credenda. They are not so many beliefs, but one belief. Thus the isolation of articles is perilous. For, when we try to grasp and to defend one of them, we have no means left of measuring it but by terms of comparison which are drawn from ourselves, which must therefore be finite, and, by the inadequacy of the scale which they present, appear to render the article of faith thus detached incredible. Moreover, each article of our creed is a revelation of the Divine attributes, which meet together in unity. To divide the attributes by dividing the form in which they are revealed to us, is to belie and falsify the attribute; to give a monstrous development to one by not taking into account some other which is its balance and compensation. Thus, many men deny the truth of a punishment which involves final separation from God. They glory in the legal judgment which “dismisses hell with costs.” But they do so by fixing their attention exclusively upon the one dogma which reveals one attribute of God. They isolate it from the Fall, from the Redemption by Christ, from the gravity of sin, from the truth that all whom the message of the Gospel reaches may avoid the penal consequences of sin. It is impossible to face the dogma of eternal separation from God without facing the dogma of Redemption. For Redemption involves in its very idea the intensity of sin, which needed the sacrifice of the Son of God; and further, the fact that the offer of salvation is so free and wide that it cannot be put away without a terrible wilfulness.
In dealing with many of the articles of the creed, there are opposite extremes. Exaggeration leads to a revenge upon them which is, perhaps, more perilous than neglect. Thus, as regards eternal punishment, in one century ghastly exaggerations were prevalent. It was assumed that the vast majority of mankind “are destined to everlasting punishment”; that “the floor of hell is crawled over by hosts of babies a span long.” The inconsistency of such views with the love of God, and with the best instincts of man, was victoriously and passionately demonstrated. Then unbelief turned upon the dogma itself, and argued, with wide acceptance, that “with the overthrow of this conception goes the whole redemption plan, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the grand climax of the Church scheme, the General Judgment.” But the alleged article of faith was simply an exaggeration of that faith, and the objections lay altogether against the exaggeration of it.
II We have now to speak of the removal of that terror which accompanies the conception of the Day of the Judgment, and of the sole means of that emancipation which St. John recognises. For terror there is in every point of the repeated descriptions of Scripture-in the surroundings, in the summons, in the tribunal, in the trial, in one of the two sentences.
“God is love,” writes St. John, “and he that abideth in love abideth in God: and God abideth in him. In this [abiding], love stands perfected with us, and the object is nothing less than this,” not that we may be exempted from judgment, but that “we may have boldness in the Day of the Judgment.” Boldness! It is the splendid word which denotes the citizens right of free speech, the masculine privilege of courageous liberty. It is the tender word which expresses the childs unhesitating confidence, in “saying all out” to the parent. The ground of the boldness is conformity to Christ. Because “as He is,” with that vivid idealising sense, frequent in St. John when he uses it of our Lord-“as He is,” delineated in the fourth Gospel, seen by “the eye of the heart” {Eph 1:18} with constant reverence in the soul, with adoring wonder in heaven, perfectly true, pure, and righteous-“even so” (not, of course, with any equality in degree to that consummate ideal, but with a likeness ever growing, an aspiration ever advancing)-“so {Cf. Mat 5:48} are we in this world,” purifying ourselves as He is pure.
Let us draw to a definite point our considerations upon the Judgment, and the Apostles sweet encouragement for the “day of wrath, that dreadful day.” It is of the essence of the Christian faith to believe that the Son of God, in the Human Nature which He assumed, and which He has borne into heaven, shall come again, and gather all before Him, and pass sentence of condemnation or of peace according to their works. To hold this is necessary to prevent terrible doubts of the very existence of God; to guard us against sin, in view of that solemn account; to comfort us under affliction. What a thought for us, if we would but meditate upon it! Often we complain of a commonplace life, of mean and petty employment. How can it be so, when at the end we, and those with whom we live, must look upon that great, overwhelming sight! Not an eye that shall not see Him, not a knee that shall not bow, not an ear that shall not hear the sentence. The heart might sink and the imagination quail under the burden of the supernatural existence which we cannot escape. One of two looks we must turn upon the Crucified-one willing as that which we cast on some glorious picture, on the enchantment of the sky; the other unwilling and abject. We should weep first with Zechariahs mourners, with tears at once bitter because they are for sin, and sweet because they are for Christ. But, above all things, let us hear how St. John sings us the sweet low hymn that breathes consolation through the terrible fall of the triple hammer stroke of the rhyme in the “Dies irae.” We must seek to lead upon earth a life laid on the lines of Christs. Then, when the Day of the Judgment comes; when the cross of fire (so, at least, the early Christians thought) shall stand in the black vault; when the sacred wounds of Him who was pierced shall stream over with a light beyond dawn or sunset; we shall find that the discipline of life is complete, that Gods love after all its long working with us stands perfected, so that we shall be able, as citizens of the kingdom, as children of the Father, to say out all. A Christlike character in an un-Christlike world- this is the cure of the disease of terror. Any other is but the medicine of a quack. “There is no fear in love; but the perfect love casteth out fear, because fear brings punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love.” We may well close with that pregnant commentary on this verse which tells us of the four possible conditions of a human soul-“without either fear or love; with fear, without love; with fear and love; with love, without fear.”