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

Transcription

1 The First Epistle of John: Chapter Four [4:17] 193 God is love. Therefore, if God abides in His children through the His Spirit given to them, then it is also true that God s love abides in them and they in God s love. If this is the reality, then those who are children of God and who thus abide in Him, will seek to please Him and will be given divine assistance to do so. In like manner, they will love others after the same pattern as they have been loved by God. This is doubtlessly the high-water mark of the thought of this epistle, 1 for it encapsulates the heart of John s message. It is because of the love of God that He sent His Son (4:9 10) and thus through the work of Yeshua the love of God has guaranteed life to those who receive and confess Yeshua as their Savior. As such, they are given new life, a life that reveals itself in love. If selfishness or self-centeredness is a primary ingredient of all sin, then love, God s form of love, is that which characterizes a life of righteousness, for God s love is self-giving, not self-centered. the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him Thus John brings the conclusion full-circle, for once again he uses the concept of abiding. We abide in God and He in us, and therefore we likewise abide in God through His unfailing love manifest in His own Spirit Who abides in us. Therefore, the characteristic of all who are truly children of God is that their lives continue to manifest love for God in obeying His commandments and walking in His ways, and likewise manifesting love for each other. In this, love for God and love for one s neighbor is the hallmark of God s children. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. The opening words, By this (Εν τούτῳ, en toutō), grammatically can be referring either to that which has been stated in the previous context, or to that which John is stating in the present verse. It seems quite certain that John is referring to the previous context, 2 for it is the reality of God s abiding presence within the believer, and thus the believer s desire to love Him by keeping His commandments, which constitutes the unbreakable assurance of full acceptance by God and the eternal life which He grants. Here are Calvin s remarks: 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. 3 What is John s meaning when he writes that love is perfected with us (τετελείωται ἡ ἀγάπη μεθ ἡμῶν)? We may note first of all that the word love (ἀγάπη, agapē) is articular, literally, the love. This marks it clearly as God s 1 C. H. Dodd, The Johannine Epistles in The Moffatt New Testament Commentary (Harper and Row, 1946), p The majority of commentators agree. Cf. Yarbrough, 1John, p Calvin, 1John, p. 245.

2 194 [4:17] The First Epistle of John: Chapter Four love for us which has transformed us, brought us to faith in Yeshua, granted the abiding presence of God Himself by His Ruach, giving us a new heart and thus transforming us into the likeness of Yeshua Himself. For John (as the previous context makes clear), one of the sure proofs of God s love in us is that we are enabled to love others, and to do so with a love that is self-giving (i.e., the very characteristic of God s love for us). Secondly, this highlights the words John chooses when he writes that love is perfected with us. We might have expected him to use the preposition ἐν (en), in us, but he rather employs the preposition μετά (meta), with. According to Moule, meta followed by the genitive (as is the case here), denotes association with, and he uses our text as a prime example. So perhaps 1John iv. 17 τετελείωται ἡ ἀγάπη μεθ ἡμῶν, love is perfected among us (in our community). 1 For John, the norm for the disciple of Yeshua is that he or she be a regular and contributing part of a believing community, for it is in the context of community that the love for one another is both manifest and matured. Paul gives a similar emphasis on the necessity of being part of a believing community. Bear one another s burdens, and thereby fulfill the Torah of Messiah. (Gal 6:2) Fulfilling the Torah of Messiah therefore requires regular life-to-life association with other believers. This, then, is the meaning of John s words when he states love is perfected with us. He is revealing to us the very goal of God s elective love, which is that we will have confidence in the day of judgment (ἵνα παρρησίαν ἔχωμεν ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς κρίσεως). The word here translated as confidence is παρρησία (parrēsia), which could just as well be understood as boldness, 2 i.e., a boldness which comes from having sure confidence in what one knows to be true and which applies to oneself personally. John has used this word twice in the previous contexts of this epistle: Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. (2:28) Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; (3:21) And he will use it yet one more time in the final chapter of this epistle: Now this is the confidence we have before Him: Whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (5:14) 1 C. F. D. Moule, An Idiom-Book of New Testament Greek (Cambridge, 1971), p. 61. Note also A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament (Broadman, 1934), pp Cf. the KJV uses boldness here in 1Jn 4:17 as it does in Heb 4:16. The HCSB likewise uses boldness to translate παρρησία in Heb 4:16. Note BDAG on παρρησίαq 3. a state of boldness and confidence, courage, confidence, boldness, fearlessness. (p. 781).

3 The First Epistle of John: Chapter Four [4:17] 195 This reminds one of Hebrews 4:16, which puts forward the same truth: Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb 4:16) Indeed, this word confidence or boldness is one of John s favorite words. We find it a total of 13 times in the Johannine corpse. 1 And when we compare this to the times the word is found in the Synoptic Gospels (1x), in Acts (5x), in Paul s epistles (8x), or in Hebrews (4x), it becomes apparent that one of John s primary emphases is the confidence, even the boldness, a child of God can have as he or she walks the life of faith in this world. The humanistic, arminian notion that one could never be certain about how one will fare in the judgment day has no place in John s theology, nor in the united message of the Scriptures as a whole. And this is made explicit in the next phrase. in the day of judgment The confidence a child of God has through the abiding presence of the Ruach and the evidence of a life being conformed to righteousness and thus to Yeshua, is that when the judgment day comes, he or she will be welcomed into the very presence of God as one He has redeemed to Himself. The very idea of a coming day of judgment is more and more being jettisoned in our modern world, even among some who claim to accept the message of the Scriptures as God s divine revelation. Universalism, the belief that in the day of judgment, all will be saved and none punished, seems to be growing in popularity in spite of the fact that the Scriptures are consistent in giving the message that a day of judgment is coming, and that there will be those who are dismissed from the presence of God and judged eternally. Yeshua Himself taught this as did His Apostles. Many will say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. (Matt 7:22-23) When Yochanan HaBatbil first announced the arrival of Yeshua, he describe Him this way: His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matt 3:12) And John s Gospel is replete with references to the coming day of judgment, as Yarbrough notes: The Jesus of the Fourth Gospel is likewise no stranger to this doctrine. Far from it: the very context that harbors the beloved assurance of John 3:16 bristles with the conviction that the Father s love for the world through his Son is matched by a judgment of the world by his Son. The light of Jesus s first coming already amounts to a κρίσις (krisis, 1 John 7:4, 13, 26; 10:24; 11:14, 54; 16:25, 29; 18:20; 1 John 2:28; 3:21; 4:17; 5:14.

4 196 [4:17] The First Epistle of John: Chapter Four judging, judgment) of the world (3:19). The Father has delegated this judgment to the Son (5:22, 27). It can be averted through hearing the Son s message and trusting the God who sent him (5:24). But those who spurn the Son will be resurrected unto judgment just as surely as believers are resurrected unto life (5:29). The notion of eternal punishment is perennially unpalatable to those threatened by it, but Christ asserts that his judgment is just and true (5:30; 8:16). It is also necessary, because judgment is the means by which the ruler of this world is ultimately overthrown (12:31). because as He is, so also are we in this world. And it is in light of the coming judgment day that John so boldly gives the word of sure confidence to those who abide in God, i.e., who are children of God. For those who abide in Him, and in whom He abides, are assured and thus have great confidence that in the judgment day they need fear nothing but will be welcomed into the very presence of their Savior for all eternity. For the debt of their sins has been fully paid by the atoning death of Yeshua and they have been declared justified and righteous by the standards of God Himself. The phrase opens with the word because (ὅτι, hoti), marking the reason why the child of God has sure and immovable confidence in view of the coming day of judgment. For the next word, καθὼς (kathōs), carries the sense of comparison, but with the added idea of just as. 1 Just as He is, so are we in this world. How is it that those who are children of God are just as He is? The answer is not that we have reached some status of sinless perfection, for we continue to grow in our battle against sin and the flesh, ever becoming more and more conformed to the very image of our Messiah. But we are just as He is in that the Father has declared us righteous a righteousness that conforms to the very standard of Yeshua Himself. And this is a reality even though we continue to live in this fallen, sinful world. This is because God accepts us now for what He has determined we will be through the transforming work of His sovereign grace. Paul puts it this way: For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. o death, where is your victory? o death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Torah; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. (1Cor 15:53 57) As so the words of Yeshua Himself affirm: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. (John 5:24) 1 So BDAG, καθώς. p. 493.

5 The First Epistle of John: Chapter Four [4:18] 197 The hymn writer has put it this way: Christ s grave is vacant now, left for the throne above; His cross asserts God s right to bless, in His own boundless love. Twas there the blood was shed, twas there the life was pour d, There Mercy gain d her diadem, while Justice sheath d her sword. And thence the child of faith, sees judgment all gone by, Perceives the sentence fully met, The soul that sins shall die. Learns how that God in love gave Christ the sins to bear Of all who own His Lordship now, that they His place might share, And cries with wondering joy, As He is so am I, Pure, holy, loved as Christ Himself who shall my peace destroy? Reach my blest Saviour first, take Him from God s esteem, Prove Jesus bears one spot of sin, then tell me I m unclean! Nay! For He purged my guilt by His own precious blood, And such its virtue not a stain e er meets the eye of God There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. Once again, in the opening phrase of v. 18 (φόβος οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ), John makes the word love definite: There is no fear in the love. While it is true that the definite article can be used in Greek to denote a general category (i.e., the realm of love), given the fact that in the previous verse the love in the phrase the love is perfected in us surely refers to God s love, its being repeated here is best understood as likewise referring to God s love in saving sinners. Thus, when John writes that There is no fear in God s love, he means that those who possess saving faith fully rely upon God s love, for we accept the revelation of God as true. And the supreme expression of His love is that He sent His Son Yeshua to die in our place and thus to grant us eternal salvation. In this is the love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1Jn 4:10) As such those who have come into God s family through faith in Yeshua have nothing to fear in regard to the coming judgment day. Indeed, the love of God, as it comes to maturity in the life of the believer, leaves no room for fear that somehow God s condemning justice would fall upon any one of His beloved children. While the life of faith within the believer is ever maturing, and thus while there may be times when doubt and fears arise, the abiding Spirit will not allow such fears to persist but will, through the Scriptures, prayer, and the encouragement of the believing community, bring greater and greater confidence and assurance in the ever abiding love of God for His chosen ones. Thus, perfect love (ἡ τελεία ἀγάπη) in this verse repeats the similar phrase, love is perfected (τετελείωται ἡ ἀγάπη), in the previous verse. Though the child of God will experience times of trials and tribulation, the love of God is consistent, ever assuring His children that they need not fear God s wrath or punishment, for 1 W. N. Tompkins, Christ s Grave is Vacant Now First published in: J.C. Ryle, Hymns for the Church on Earth (Anson D. F. Randolph, 1866).

6 198 [4:19] The First Epistle of John: Chapter Four the punishment has already been laid upon Yeshua and His death for His own has paid the full price. because fear involves punishment The very point John is making is that if the believer, by faith, abides in God and God in them, then at the very foundation of this faith is the knowledge that God has paid the penalty for their sin through the death of His Son, Yeshua. And the resurrection on the third day seals that full acceptance of His death as payment in full. Therefore, when John speaks of fear in this verse, he is speaking of that which is opposite of saving faith. Saving faith clings to God and His word, confessing that what God has said is true and that it applies to each and every one who has come to Him in repentance and faith. By the very words of Yeshua Himself, the believer has eternal life and does not come into judgment (Jn 5:24). and the one who fears is not perfected in love. This is simply the clear and obvious conclusion of the previous statement, that fear involves punishment. Where punishment is no longer a possibility since it has already been enacted upon the Messiah, the one who lives in fear of God s condemning wrath is not one who has a maturing faith. The one who grows in the grace and knowledge of Yeshua as Lord and Savior will be enabled to live in the light of God s sovereign and saving love, and will therefore no longer be assaulted by fear of His wrath. And while this spiritual growth involves a cooperation between the believer and the Spirit of God, the promise of God is that what He has begun in us, He will finish (Phil 1:6). Therefore, we must give all diligence to grow in our faith, all the while knowing that God Himself has promised that, by His grace and power, we will be successful in this endeavor. Just as Peter exhorts us: You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Yeshua Messiah. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2Pet 3:17 18) And this is precisely what John emphasizes in the next verse. 19 We love, because He first loved us. The first verb, We love, is without an object in the NASB, and in nearly all other more modern English translations. The KJV and NKJV, however, following the reading of some manuscripts, add the word Him We love Him, because He first loved us. Some manuscripts have God as the object, thus, We love God, because He first loved us. But the majority of early manuscripts have no direct object for the opening verb We love, and, as Metzger notes, the other readings most likely came about when scribes sought to add a direct object to the opening verb because it seemed incomplete. 1 But the import of John in this final sentence of the paragraph is evident: 1 Feeling the need of an accusative object after the verb, especially when it was (wrongly) taken to be the hortatory subjunctive, some copyists added τὸν θεόν א) 614 syr p, h cop bo al) and others αὐτόν (K L Ψ most minuscules). Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaf, 1994), p. 645.

7 The First Epistle of John: Chapter Four [4:19] 199 God is the One Who initiates the whole enterprise of eternal salvation. If asked why we love one another, or why we are willing to give ourselves to the betterment of our brothers and sisters, or how we have come to experience and receive the saving love of God in His Son, Yeshua, then the answer begins with God Himself. For apart from His initiating love toward us, we, being dead in our sins, had neither the desire nor the ability to seek Him. In fact, in our flesh, we would find the whole idea of a righteous God to be contrary to our very nature, for apart from God s redeeming us, we would have nothing to do with affirming Him as our sovereign Lord and King. Paul makes this clear in his epistle to the Romans. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, there is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for god; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. there is no fear of god before their eyes. (Rom 3:9 18, quoting from Psalms 14:1-3; 53:1 3; 5:9; 140:3; 10:7; Is 59:7f; Ps 36:1) Indeed, it is the love of God made known through the giving of His only begotten Son, Yeshua, that is the initiating expression of God s love for sinners. And the promise of this infinite gift of His love was given to Adam and Chavah, and thus from the very beginning of Scripture, God s sovereign and infinite love is made known. Once the Ruach opens the eyes of the heart to receive the message of God s love in the Gospel, God s love compels the one being drawn to Him to repent and receive the unspeakable gift of eternal life.