1st john 4.......creed and conduct
The charge has been laid against Christianity that it’s followers put their trust in the unseen, unknowable and unproven, a kind of “blind faith”. Nothing could be further from the truth as this epistle reveals that the Christian faith is based upon historical, incontrovertible facts and are the testimony of eyewitnesses called apostles whose words to all who believe are conclusive and life-changing and authoritative. The central theme is Christ the Son of God who was sent into the world (verses 9, 10, 14), and who came in flesh (verses 2, 3) about whose claims there can be no doubt, and faith in whom results in eternal life. This chapter then reveals the very heart of Christianity, exposes the doubters and fraudsters, and clarifies the true meaning of new life, expounding Christianity from both a doctrinal and a moral point of view. The verses can be summarised as follows:
Verses 1-6 The creed of the Christian as defined by the Spirit of truth.
Verses 7-21 The conduct of the Christian as defined by the God of love.
In the scope of this chapter, John goes to the origin of things spiritual, if we know the origin we can determine the character. Throughout the chapter he traces all things back to their source: 4 v1 “whether they are of God”; 4 v2 “Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh is of God”; 4 v3 “every spirit that confesses not Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God”; 4 v4 “Ye are of God, little children”; 4 v5 “They are of the world...”; 4 v6 “We are of God...”; 4 v7 “Love is of God...”. All things spiritual can be traced back to two sources either God or to the Satan- controlled world.
Verses 1-6 Christian creed as defined by the Spirit of truth
We are asked to put all things to the test. The word “try” (Greek dokimazo) is very strong and means to really put something to the test. The same word is used in 1st Corinthians 3 v13 for trying all service by fire at the judgment seat; and in 1st Thessalonians 2 v14 “...God which trieth the hearts.” There can be no more stringent trial than is indicated in these two verses, we have really to put to the test all spiritual communication, not all are speaking for God. The strange world of unseen spirits, nevertheless real, are constantly propagating error, mainly through the false prophets who claim to have further Divine revelation beyond what is written. “Many false prophets have gone out into the world”.....How can we know what is true and what is false? And the answer comes in verse 2 “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God”....here is the acid test. Before we proceed it must be said we must not view all teaching with an attitude of suspicion and thus cast shadows on sincere, if somewhat immature, teachings. The word “try” can have a positive as well as a negative application as per 1st Thessalonians 5 verses 19-21 “Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesyings, Prove (dokimazo) all things hold fast that which is good”. In testing all things we are to discard the bad and hold to the good. In 1st Corinthians 14 v29 the body of saints are encouraged to judge (discriminate) the words of the speaking prophets.
The answer to all false teaching is the Spirit of God through His written word, the principal revelation of which is the person of Jesus Christ. John Newton wrote “What think ye of Christ is the test, to try both your state and your scheme. You cannot be right in the rest, unless you think rightly of Him”. Any religion, any so-called prophet, any so-called preacher, which is wrong about the person of Christ is wrong in everything else! False teaching by it’s very nature must contain an element of truth to be plausible, but if it fails on this it is worthless and categorically not of God. Denial of the Holy Spirit inspired revelation of Christ renders any spirit invalid for God, in plain language “not of God”, worthless, of no account, false, of the world (inspired by satanic hosts-chapter 5 v19), and dangerous to all who will hear it. Nor is mechanical lip service to Jesus Christ of any value for John uses the word “confesses” which means to “speak the same thing”. That is, concerning the person of Christ as to His true humanity or His undiminished Deity, if we are not speaking the same about Him as the Holy Spirit does in the written word, we are not of God. Near enough will not be good enough, since these twin doctrines of the dual personality of Christ are clearly stated in scripture. Both were also being denied in John’s day and are being denied today. Nothing but the Spirit revealed truth of Christ is of God, the contrary is the figment of man’s imagination inspired by the demon world. We must understand this phrase “Jesus Christ come in flesh” for there is more in it than meets the eye.
• Jesus The man, the real man who was here and lived in Israel
• Christ The Messiah, the anointed of God on a mission to do the will of God
• Come in flesh The incarnation; assumes His pre-existence; only He came, only He was sent into the world; assumes a permanent change for He is still flesh and will be flesh forever (John 1 v14 “The Word became flesh-or the Word flesh became”, the invisible became visible, the intangible became tangible, God became man!! (Luke 24 v39; Revelation 20 v11-12).
All of the above is implicit in the phrase “come in flesh”. This involves His death burial resurrection ascension coming again and future kingdom all as revealed by the Spirit concerning Jesus Christ. Speaking the same thing (confessing who He really is in all His person and offices and works) is the only thing that is true. All are explicit in o/t prophecy and n/t doctrine; all are implicit in types and shadows; all are exhibit in the gospels. It is impossible for mankind to be saved if one or all of these are lacking, so the perpetrators of alternative doctrines are of the antichrist, and the spirit of it is already in the world.
He now in verses 4-6 considers three groups who are defined by this measure;
a) “Ye are of God little children because ye have overcome them....”. The evidence is there, these little ones have been confronted with error, and they resisted it by the power of God within. The power of demon spirits who dictate and occupy the thinking of this world is great, but we have a greater power within.
b) “They are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world hears them...” Their origin is the world, their oratory is of the world and their followers are of the world. Countless millions are being deluded by the “counsel of the ungodly”.
c) “We are of God; he that knoweth God heareth us and he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error”. The “we”, here, refers to the apostles (see chapter 1 verses 1-5). The test of reality is in the words of the apostles (the new testament) and they define truth and error, and are those who accurately transmitted to the world the truth of God in Jesus Christ. The importance of apostolic teaching cannot be overstated.
Verses 7-21 Christian conduct as defined by the God of love.
John encourages that their belief in the truth would be more than intellectual and should issue in real love for the family; “Beloved, let us love one another....”. But what does he mean by love? There are all kinds of love in the world, mostly emotional, sentimental and often very shallow. There is a human love common to all. since we have a portion of the image of God by creation and generation. Love is a human characteristic given by God, but there is a love beyond this, so what is this? Anything we have of God has been tarnished with sin, so how can we share a love that is supernatural and pure and comes from God? The rest of the verses explore the meaning of true love, God’s love, love that is unique, we have here the doctrine of Divine love.
The origin of Divine love(7-8) “Love is of God....”. There exists no love but what emanates from God. He is the essence of love, twice in this context he writes “God is love” (verses 8&16). Love is not only what God does, love is what God is! He is in Himself love, He cannot do other than love for that is what He is. Knowledge of God will cause us to act the same way, for if He is essentially love, and we, as born again, have His life within us we will act in the same way. In the letter we learn that “God is light”; “He is faithful”; “He is just”; “He is righteous”; “He is pure”; “He is truth”, so when we say “He is love”, that love is displayed in harmony with all His other characteristics. No room then for a soppy, prejudiced, unbalanced kind of love, a love always in line with His perfect Being.
The extent of Divine love(9-10) “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. What is said here is almost indescribable in human language. First of all it was God who moved toward us, because we were dead, therefore helpless to move toward Him. The salvation of helpless man was initiated by God, He did not need us, we could offer Him nothing, He moved to us “that we might live through Him”. This initiation, this movement toward us is described in two ways; a) “He sent His Son into the world”, at the incarnation, the second person of the Godhead became a man! He sent Him from heaven to earth, one of the tiniest planets in the universe that He had created! It was His “only begotten Son” He sent, that is the dearest object of His heart’s affection, more valuable to Him than anything or anyone else in existence; the uncreated Son of His bosom in all eternal ages. God’s love to the world involved giving up all that He had. b) “He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins". He was sent with the express purpose of dying for as He was, in heaven, He could not die. This death involved satisfying Divine righteousness in respect of human sin. Sin is abhorrent to God, He will not accept it, He will eradicate it from all existence, yet in love He sent His Son, who was sinless, to take upon Him the judgment of God upon sin. He sent His Son to remove sin by becoming sin in place of us. The extent of this is awesome “..propitiation for our sins”, the preposition “for” is “peri” from which we get our word perimeter, meaning all-encompassing, all-inclusive, totally encircling the offending sins, every one, and taking for them individually and collectively the judgment of God upon them. In summary the love of God can only be understood in terms of Calvary, where God sent the one whom He most loved, to deal with the thing that He most hated, and all for us!! God’s love is therefore defined in these terms and must be understood at all times in this way, and will be henceforward referred to in this way....Love that gives all and goes to any length for the object of love.
The obligation of Divine love(11-12). “Beloved if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another”. This is presented in the form of a debt, “we ought”, we owe it! We are the recipients of Divine love, we are debtors to shew it to one another. This is mandatory for the Christian and was one of Jesus’ first commandments. Paul uses the same language in Romans 13 v8 “Owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law”. It was implicit in the law that love to another human being (your neighbour) was a legal requirement, now as recipients of a love beyond description we owe it to the saints to love them in this same sacrificial way. As God has so loved us we also are to love others that is we will give up everything for them and go to any length to help them. God is invisible but we have around us His very visible and tangible children upon whom we can bestow our love. Love to them is the same as love to God. God dwells with those who shower love on His people, and although it is an obligation there are compensations, the abiding presence of the Lord. The smallest act of love to His beloved people is appreciated by Him. The practical aspects of love to one another are outlined in 1st Corinthians 13.
The operation of Divine love(13-16) How can this be done, how can we love other people, even God’s people in this way, give our all and go to any length? Indeed it requires supernatural help and we have it, he simply says “He has given us of His Spirit”. Only by the powerful inward presence of the Spirit God operating can this be done. In these verses we have a threefold way indicated of how we can make this practical;
• Verse 13 we have the internal witness of the Spirit who constantly affirms that we are God’s children. “We dwell in Him and He in us” by the Spirit who bears witness within us. Paul says in Romans 8 v16 “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God”. This is a constant and permanent activity while we are here.
• Verse 14 we have the external witness of the apostles who have interpreted the presence of Jesus in the world. “We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world”. They saw Him, lived with Him, followed Him, and what they beheld was no less than the Son of God on a world-saving mission. We have their records, the written word of the gospels and the epistles, giving us an eyewitness account of their observations. Acquaintance with these records will furnish us with the necessary incentive to follow their example.
• Verses 15-16 we have our own personal testimony and it is amazing how public confession of our faith in Christ will enhance our love for the brethren, particularly when we experience the opposition of a hostile world. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him and He in God”. This enhances our concept of mutual fellowship with God and a greater understanding of His love, and a greater sharing of His love as we are in contact with one another. As we abide in His love, He in us and we in Him, as we grow in understanding of the greatness of it, we can do no other than spread it abroad for it is the most compelling love of all.
The perfection of Divine Love(17-19) Clearly the vast measure of the love of God is such that we can only take it in gradually and we are to grow in it. This is the meaning of “perfect love”, love that is maturing with time and experience. Our understanding of the love of God must increase to maturity, as much as it can within us in this life. He wants us to understand the depth of His love and this will have an effect for the future. We will have “boldness in the day of judgment”, that is we will understand perfectly the meaning of propitiation, that God’s judgment against us was answered to His satisfaction at Calvary. All people will stand before God in the day of judgment and those whose hearts are in tune with God will have no fears for “there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus”. Abiding in God and He in us is the ultimate assurance. No child of God should live in fear of future judgment. John introduced this thought first in chapter 2 v29 that we should be living such that we will not be ashamed before Him at His coming”, we will not shrink before Him in fear of reprisals at the judgment seat. In chapter 4 v12 he says "God’s love is perfected in us", therefore we do not hate; here in verse 17 he says God’s love is perfected with us, therefore we do not fear. There is God’s work within us and there is our perception of it and He does not want us to fear but to trust and be calm as we wait for His coming. He well knows the traumas of this world and He constantly said to His disciples “Fear not”. This was His first word to John in Revelation 1 v17, when he saw the vision of the exalted glorified Christ and was overcome with fear. Jesus first words to him were “Fear not”. We’re all going to see Him in the glory to see and hear awesome things, and John is preparing us now for that overwhelming experience. Perfect love casts out all fear, and the answer is in the growing maturing sense of the love of God within.
The reality of Divine love(20-21) God hates sham, there was nothing sham about His love for us, nor should there be about our love for Him. Profession to love God and to hate your brother is just a monstrous lie. John’s logic is inescapable. “How can we love God whom we have not seen, yet we don’t love the brethren whom we have seen. The only evidence of love to God is love to His people, it is too easy to say and not do. God’s love was demonstrated in the strongest of terms and with us the most unlovable people in mind, so should we be toward each other.
The charge has been laid against Christianity that it’s followers put their trust in the unseen, unknowable and unproven, a kind of “blind faith”. Nothing could be further from the truth as this epistle reveals that the Christian faith is based upon historical, incontrovertible facts and are the testimony of eyewitnesses called apostles whose words to all who believe are conclusive and life-changing and authoritative. The central theme is Christ the Son of God who was sent into the world (verses 9, 10, 14), and who came in flesh (verses 2, 3) about whose claims there can be no doubt, and faith in whom results in eternal life. This chapter then reveals the very heart of Christianity, exposes the doubters and fraudsters, and clarifies the true meaning of new life, expounding Christianity from both a doctrinal and a moral point of view. The verses can be summarised as follows:
Verses 1-6 The creed of the Christian as defined by the Spirit of truth.
Verses 7-21 The conduct of the Christian as defined by the God of love.
In the scope of this chapter, John goes to the origin of things spiritual, if we know the origin we can determine the character. Throughout the chapter he traces all things back to their source: 4 v1 “whether they are of God”; 4 v2 “Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh is of God”; 4 v3 “every spirit that confesses not Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God”; 4 v4 “Ye are of God, little children”; 4 v5 “They are of the world...”; 4 v6 “We are of God...”; 4 v7 “Love is of God...”. All things spiritual can be traced back to two sources either God or to the Satan- controlled world.
Verses 1-6 Christian creed as defined by the Spirit of truth
We are asked to put all things to the test. The word “try” (Greek dokimazo) is very strong and means to really put something to the test. The same word is used in 1st Corinthians 3 v13 for trying all service by fire at the judgment seat; and in 1st Thessalonians 2 v14 “...God which trieth the hearts.” There can be no more stringent trial than is indicated in these two verses, we have really to put to the test all spiritual communication, not all are speaking for God. The strange world of unseen spirits, nevertheless real, are constantly propagating error, mainly through the false prophets who claim to have further Divine revelation beyond what is written. “Many false prophets have gone out into the world”.....How can we know what is true and what is false? And the answer comes in verse 2 “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God”....here is the acid test. Before we proceed it must be said we must not view all teaching with an attitude of suspicion and thus cast shadows on sincere, if somewhat immature, teachings. The word “try” can have a positive as well as a negative application as per 1st Thessalonians 5 verses 19-21 “Quench not the Spirit, despise not prophesyings, Prove (dokimazo) all things hold fast that which is good”. In testing all things we are to discard the bad and hold to the good. In 1st Corinthians 14 v29 the body of saints are encouraged to judge (discriminate) the words of the speaking prophets.
The answer to all false teaching is the Spirit of God through His written word, the principal revelation of which is the person of Jesus Christ. John Newton wrote “What think ye of Christ is the test, to try both your state and your scheme. You cannot be right in the rest, unless you think rightly of Him”. Any religion, any so-called prophet, any so-called preacher, which is wrong about the person of Christ is wrong in everything else! False teaching by it’s very nature must contain an element of truth to be plausible, but if it fails on this it is worthless and categorically not of God. Denial of the Holy Spirit inspired revelation of Christ renders any spirit invalid for God, in plain language “not of God”, worthless, of no account, false, of the world (inspired by satanic hosts-chapter 5 v19), and dangerous to all who will hear it. Nor is mechanical lip service to Jesus Christ of any value for John uses the word “confesses” which means to “speak the same thing”. That is, concerning the person of Christ as to His true humanity or His undiminished Deity, if we are not speaking the same about Him as the Holy Spirit does in the written word, we are not of God. Near enough will not be good enough, since these twin doctrines of the dual personality of Christ are clearly stated in scripture. Both were also being denied in John’s day and are being denied today. Nothing but the Spirit revealed truth of Christ is of God, the contrary is the figment of man’s imagination inspired by the demon world. We must understand this phrase “Jesus Christ come in flesh” for there is more in it than meets the eye.
• Jesus The man, the real man who was here and lived in Israel
• Christ The Messiah, the anointed of God on a mission to do the will of God
• Come in flesh The incarnation; assumes His pre-existence; only He came, only He was sent into the world; assumes a permanent change for He is still flesh and will be flesh forever (John 1 v14 “The Word became flesh-or the Word flesh became”, the invisible became visible, the intangible became tangible, God became man!! (Luke 24 v39; Revelation 20 v11-12).
All of the above is implicit in the phrase “come in flesh”. This involves His death burial resurrection ascension coming again and future kingdom all as revealed by the Spirit concerning Jesus Christ. Speaking the same thing (confessing who He really is in all His person and offices and works) is the only thing that is true. All are explicit in o/t prophecy and n/t doctrine; all are implicit in types and shadows; all are exhibit in the gospels. It is impossible for mankind to be saved if one or all of these are lacking, so the perpetrators of alternative doctrines are of the antichrist, and the spirit of it is already in the world.
He now in verses 4-6 considers three groups who are defined by this measure;
a) “Ye are of God little children because ye have overcome them....”. The evidence is there, these little ones have been confronted with error, and they resisted it by the power of God within. The power of demon spirits who dictate and occupy the thinking of this world is great, but we have a greater power within.
b) “They are of the world therefore speak they of the world and the world hears them...” Their origin is the world, their oratory is of the world and their followers are of the world. Countless millions are being deluded by the “counsel of the ungodly”.
c) “We are of God; he that knoweth God heareth us and he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error”. The “we”, here, refers to the apostles (see chapter 1 verses 1-5). The test of reality is in the words of the apostles (the new testament) and they define truth and error, and are those who accurately transmitted to the world the truth of God in Jesus Christ. The importance of apostolic teaching cannot be overstated.
Verses 7-21 Christian conduct as defined by the God of love.
John encourages that their belief in the truth would be more than intellectual and should issue in real love for the family; “Beloved, let us love one another....”. But what does he mean by love? There are all kinds of love in the world, mostly emotional, sentimental and often very shallow. There is a human love common to all. since we have a portion of the image of God by creation and generation. Love is a human characteristic given by God, but there is a love beyond this, so what is this? Anything we have of God has been tarnished with sin, so how can we share a love that is supernatural and pure and comes from God? The rest of the verses explore the meaning of true love, God’s love, love that is unique, we have here the doctrine of Divine love.
The origin of Divine love(7-8) “Love is of God....”. There exists no love but what emanates from God. He is the essence of love, twice in this context he writes “God is love” (verses 8&16). Love is not only what God does, love is what God is! He is in Himself love, He cannot do other than love for that is what He is. Knowledge of God will cause us to act the same way, for if He is essentially love, and we, as born again, have His life within us we will act in the same way. In the letter we learn that “God is light”; “He is faithful”; “He is just”; “He is righteous”; “He is pure”; “He is truth”, so when we say “He is love”, that love is displayed in harmony with all His other characteristics. No room then for a soppy, prejudiced, unbalanced kind of love, a love always in line with His perfect Being.
The extent of Divine love(9-10) “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins”. What is said here is almost indescribable in human language. First of all it was God who moved toward us, because we were dead, therefore helpless to move toward Him. The salvation of helpless man was initiated by God, He did not need us, we could offer Him nothing, He moved to us “that we might live through Him”. This initiation, this movement toward us is described in two ways; a) “He sent His Son into the world”, at the incarnation, the second person of the Godhead became a man! He sent Him from heaven to earth, one of the tiniest planets in the universe that He had created! It was His “only begotten Son” He sent, that is the dearest object of His heart’s affection, more valuable to Him than anything or anyone else in existence; the uncreated Son of His bosom in all eternal ages. God’s love to the world involved giving up all that He had. b) “He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins". He was sent with the express purpose of dying for as He was, in heaven, He could not die. This death involved satisfying Divine righteousness in respect of human sin. Sin is abhorrent to God, He will not accept it, He will eradicate it from all existence, yet in love He sent His Son, who was sinless, to take upon Him the judgment of God upon sin. He sent His Son to remove sin by becoming sin in place of us. The extent of this is awesome “..propitiation for our sins”, the preposition “for” is “peri” from which we get our word perimeter, meaning all-encompassing, all-inclusive, totally encircling the offending sins, every one, and taking for them individually and collectively the judgment of God upon them. In summary the love of God can only be understood in terms of Calvary, where God sent the one whom He most loved, to deal with the thing that He most hated, and all for us!! God’s love is therefore defined in these terms and must be understood at all times in this way, and will be henceforward referred to in this way....Love that gives all and goes to any length for the object of love.
The obligation of Divine love(11-12). “Beloved if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another”. This is presented in the form of a debt, “we ought”, we owe it! We are the recipients of Divine love, we are debtors to shew it to one another. This is mandatory for the Christian and was one of Jesus’ first commandments. Paul uses the same language in Romans 13 v8 “Owe no man anything but to love one another, for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law”. It was implicit in the law that love to another human being (your neighbour) was a legal requirement, now as recipients of a love beyond description we owe it to the saints to love them in this same sacrificial way. As God has so loved us we also are to love others that is we will give up everything for them and go to any length to help them. God is invisible but we have around us His very visible and tangible children upon whom we can bestow our love. Love to them is the same as love to God. God dwells with those who shower love on His people, and although it is an obligation there are compensations, the abiding presence of the Lord. The smallest act of love to His beloved people is appreciated by Him. The practical aspects of love to one another are outlined in 1st Corinthians 13.
The operation of Divine love(13-16) How can this be done, how can we love other people, even God’s people in this way, give our all and go to any length? Indeed it requires supernatural help and we have it, he simply says “He has given us of His Spirit”. Only by the powerful inward presence of the Spirit God operating can this be done. In these verses we have a threefold way indicated of how we can make this practical;
• Verse 13 we have the internal witness of the Spirit who constantly affirms that we are God’s children. “We dwell in Him and He in us” by the Spirit who bears witness within us. Paul says in Romans 8 v16 “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God”. This is a constant and permanent activity while we are here.
• Verse 14 we have the external witness of the apostles who have interpreted the presence of Jesus in the world. “We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world”. They saw Him, lived with Him, followed Him, and what they beheld was no less than the Son of God on a world-saving mission. We have their records, the written word of the gospels and the epistles, giving us an eyewitness account of their observations. Acquaintance with these records will furnish us with the necessary incentive to follow their example.
• Verses 15-16 we have our own personal testimony and it is amazing how public confession of our faith in Christ will enhance our love for the brethren, particularly when we experience the opposition of a hostile world. “Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him and He in God”. This enhances our concept of mutual fellowship with God and a greater understanding of His love, and a greater sharing of His love as we are in contact with one another. As we abide in His love, He in us and we in Him, as we grow in understanding of the greatness of it, we can do no other than spread it abroad for it is the most compelling love of all.
The perfection of Divine Love(17-19) Clearly the vast measure of the love of God is such that we can only take it in gradually and we are to grow in it. This is the meaning of “perfect love”, love that is maturing with time and experience. Our understanding of the love of God must increase to maturity, as much as it can within us in this life. He wants us to understand the depth of His love and this will have an effect for the future. We will have “boldness in the day of judgment”, that is we will understand perfectly the meaning of propitiation, that God’s judgment against us was answered to His satisfaction at Calvary. All people will stand before God in the day of judgment and those whose hearts are in tune with God will have no fears for “there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus”. Abiding in God and He in us is the ultimate assurance. No child of God should live in fear of future judgment. John introduced this thought first in chapter 2 v29 that we should be living such that we will not be ashamed before Him at His coming”, we will not shrink before Him in fear of reprisals at the judgment seat. In chapter 4 v12 he says "God’s love is perfected in us", therefore we do not hate; here in verse 17 he says God’s love is perfected with us, therefore we do not fear. There is God’s work within us and there is our perception of it and He does not want us to fear but to trust and be calm as we wait for His coming. He well knows the traumas of this world and He constantly said to His disciples “Fear not”. This was His first word to John in Revelation 1 v17, when he saw the vision of the exalted glorified Christ and was overcome with fear. Jesus first words to him were “Fear not”. We’re all going to see Him in the glory to see and hear awesome things, and John is preparing us now for that overwhelming experience. Perfect love casts out all fear, and the answer is in the growing maturing sense of the love of God within.
The reality of Divine love(20-21) God hates sham, there was nothing sham about His love for us, nor should there be about our love for Him. Profession to love God and to hate your brother is just a monstrous lie. John’s logic is inescapable. “How can we love God whom we have not seen, yet we don’t love the brethren whom we have seen. The only evidence of love to God is love to His people, it is too easy to say and not do. God’s love was demonstrated in the strongest of terms and with us the most unlovable people in mind, so should we be toward each other.
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