I John, 4:17-19
Roger Henderson · Apr 30, 2006
1 John, No. 30
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262350366136

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, today we're chapter 4 and verses 17 through 19. I guess I'll break with the tradition. I'll just read it today. It says, 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. 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. We love because he first loved us.

This is, yes, the American Standard. And yours is, I think King James is a slight bit different in some words. I didn't actually look at the King James that much. How does yours start? Herein is our love. OK. OK. OK. Well, actually, we're going to look at that a little by this, or herein, or we're going to look at that in just a second here. So that's good. OK. Yeah. OK. Actually, I found that, especially verse 17, really kind of a challenging verse. And hopefully, I'm going to try to convey my walk through that verse by faith. Anyway. OK. So let's move on here.

OK, I kind of this is my attempt at kind of putting that verse into the segments and the connecting words here are conjunctions between the different clauses here. So the so that and the because they're conjunctions. So in this verse, and what's kind of cool is I don't know whether you've picked up on this over the years. I know Hal mentions it all the time. Whenever you see that or sometimes so that, that introduces what they call a purpose clause.

The rest of that section of that verse tells you the purpose. the new American Standard updated, the one that Verne uses, they've they've added the word. So in there and the only this is just kind of you're in the new American Standard stuff. I mean, the only way I just had that. But the new the new updated standard has the other word.

So in there, maybe to emphasize this is introducing a purpose clause. And let's see what else. So we're basically going to go through each of these three sections here in this verse. It's kind of the plan. OK. OK, so I'll highlight the first one. OK, so now we're going to look at, by this, love is perfected with us. So one of the questions is, what is this by this referring to?

And what I found, one of the best, you know, I think we all do this, when you see something that, in this verse, you start looking back, right? You start backtracking, and you say, where can I find something that would explain this by this? And actually, some translations have in this. I didn't actually see the one in King James. OK, so let's go to the next page here. So what I believe, after looking at that, it looks to me like the previous verse really is in view here. And the previous verse, I kind of broke it into three little parts here.

The previous verse, which we covered last week, We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. So this by this seems to be referring back to say, and this is describing our Christian life, the life in Christ, right? We have come to know, this is this know in the perfect tense, both of these are perfect tense. We've known in the past, we continue to know, we believe in the past, we continue to believe, the love which God has for us. So that's really critical to having, let me just go back here, by this love is perfected with us, the fact that we have come to know Him and we believe Him, we're walking in Christ's life, love can then be perfected or brought to completion in us.

It's possible for that to happen given what verse 16 is telling us. Okay. And then basically verse 16, just, you know, God is love. His very essence is love. You can't, you know, God in his very nature is love. And then the wonderful statement here about this wonderful abiding relationship we have with God. God abides in, God abides in us and we abide in him.

This mutual relationship. Okay. So, so I think that's what kind of describes that by this. OK, so by this life of Christ living in us, love is perfected in us. And the verb here is perfected, which is teleos. And actually, it's in the perfect, and it's passive, which is interesting. So God is the one that's performing this. By this, love is perfected or brought to completion, that is, to bring to an end a sense of completing or perfecting. So things have been, because of God's work in our life, His love can be brought to completion in our life. It's possible for that to happen.

And one thing interesting to note, it says, with us. We're going to compare this with a verse we had maybe five verses ago, which used the phrase, in us. So we're told that his love is both perfected in us, and this verse says it's perfected with us. And so I kind of struggled with, well, what's that really telling me?

So then I attempted a little expanded translation here, based upon the perfect case. Love has been brought to completion. past completed action with a by-result up in the present with a love that's been brought to completion with us in the past and continues to be in that state of completion at the present time. As we walk by faith in Christ's life, that can be carried out.

Just tremendous statements here. But what's going to be cool is, We're going to have a purpose clause that follows this. It says, by this, love is perfected with us. And then we're going to have a purpose clause that follows that. So any comments or thoughts at this point? If not, we'll just move on. So actually what I did here, I tried to just do the...

Here's this verse I talked about we had back in verse 12. And this is a verse that says, no one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. And one thought I had in kind of looking at that is that, you know, in us speaks of Christ in us, the hope of glory, Christ's life in us, and with us possibly speaks of Christ's perfection in the body of believers. I mean, I'm trying to get in and with and trying to struggle. What is that really telling me? And I don't, you know, I was trying to say, is there a difference here? Is he communicating something else here?

So that's kind of a thought there. Then here's a really powerful verse here. Let's look at these other verses on perfected, brought to completion. Let's look in John 17. I wanted to read a little bit more than what I have up there. In John 17, and can I get someone to read verses 20 through 23 in John 17? And you can read that if you want.

I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, just as we are one. And 23, I'm sorry. I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know you sent me, and love them even as you have loved me. This whole passage talks about this relationship between the Father and the Son and also between the believer and Jesus Christ. So when we get down to 23 here, it says that I in them, you know, speaking of Christ, and you in me, that's the Father, that they, believers, may be perfected, brought to completion in unity.

So, very similar idea, you know, we're brought together in the unity that we have, that unity is lived out, brought together, that they may be perfected or brought to completion in unity, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them, believers, even as I loved you. So I thought it was kind of neat, you know. And these were the kind of thing. In John's writing, these were the major occurrences of perfected. And I think, actually, there's more than two. I think there's only two maybe.

And then 1 John 2.5 says, but whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.

By this we know that we are in him. So, you know, John seems to come back on the same themes, you know, repetitively that, you know, these things come out of the life of Christ. The love of God, as Christ's life is lived out, His love comes out through us, is brought to completion. And that tells us, and by this we know, we know that we are in Him as we see that life being lived out. And actually, I'm not going to cover it, we're going to get to 4.18 here in just a little bit. But it occurs there, too, as well. So here comes the interesting part. So here's our little division of this verse.

By this, love is perfected, brought to completion in us, with a purpose that, or so that, we may have confidence in the day of judgment. So let me just ask this question here. And why do we have having confidence in the Day of Judgment, the way that's stated? Does that seem unusual or interesting in what you know about your life in Christ and the security that you have? Now, some people, you know, if you talk to people that doubt their salvation, that's a big deal. I mean, that could be a big deal. They're concerned. We have relatives that are not sure of their salvation. We ask them, how do you live that way? How can you live as a Christian that way? I know myself. I know I wouldn't be untrue to the Lord. So anyway, you look at that and you say, this is the purpose, that we may have confidence in the Day of Judgment. Boy, I mean, it's just, you know. What judgment is it on?

That's a key question. That's coming. Hold that thought. Hold that thought. That's a key part of this. So let's look at the word... Let me make another observation here. Actually, let's go on so I can make an observation. So that we may have confidence in the day of judgment. Okay, so we as an implied subject, we may have, echo to have. What's interesting here is, this is in the present tense. And doesn't it seem interesting to you that this is in the present tense? So it's saying, let me get my thought trained here.

This is not telling us you have confidence in the future. It's telling you have confidence right now. And so, and you look at the little preposition in, which we're going to look at a lot here, and you say, boy, I'm to have confidence now. And it says in the day of judgment, which kind of implies we're in that judgment.

So, I mean, I, man. And that's one of the things. Yes, there's there's a. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and actually, well, I mean, you know that now that you probably you can always have something that tells us that those tents wouldn't voice. I mean, we can find that if we want.

But and the other thing is it's subjunctive, which is a probability mode. You may have confidence or you may not have confidence. And this confidence word is paresia. Confidence or boldness of speech. I think the King James has boldness. I think he has boldness in the King James. Or freedom of speech. So this is actually supposed to be, this is a wonderful thing.

I mean, he's telling us good news here, but there's some, I think there's some stumbling blocks in this translation. And hopefully we can resolve those. So, we're to have confidence, this freedom of speech, and we can say to our brothers and sisters, you know, judgment is not for me. And we're going to see that. Judgment is not for me. But how does it play out in this verse here?

All right. And we may or may not. Well, yeah. And actually, yeah, you may exercise confidence. It's a faith process, right? You may, by faith, trust the Lord, that what his word says, you know, and therefore now there is their nation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Thank you. Thank you.

It's all relative, right? You know, I have a friend. He's actually moved down to Texas on the coast and he's living the retirement life he claims. Anyway, he says, you may not like how you look so much, but 10 years from now, you look great in those pictures. And he's right. Those pictures, wow. Look how good I look 10 years ago. We get older. Cookies? These bodies are not made for eternity. Thank you, Lord. I have to have this body and keep patching it up all the time? No thanks.

So let's press on here. So here's confidence. as used in 1 John. And this is kind of interesting, too, because here's somewhat a similar verse in 1 John 2, 28. So I actually thought, I said, well, look at this. This is sort of a similar thing. This is shame. One's talking about judgment. They're all future, right? They're all future events.

And I thought, well, I wonder what the tense of this verb is. I went back and looked. We covered that in the past, but it turns out to be arist. So I'm interesting. I don't know. It's beyond my understanding zone there after a while. I don't know what that. So that happened to be error. We may have confidence. And I said, well, OK. Maybe it's one of these errors that goes the whole spectrum. I don't know. Anyway, so that was sort of a data point.

Then the next verse, 1 John 3.21, Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And this is basically, we have confidence before God. And we do. And we can, because as we walk by faith, And then 417 is what we're covering. And then 514, this is the confidence which we have before Him. That if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. So that's kind of a little snapshot of the ones on confidence. So that means there are Christians who will be ashamed at its coming. Because none of us abide in them all the time.

Well, you know, if you look at, actually, I'm almost getting ahead of here a little bit, if you look at the Bema, right? We're rewarded for things as we trust Him by faith. The Bema, the only judgment we have, which is not a judgment, is the Bema, right? That's rewards as you trust in Him, or the ones that are burned up.

So, I don't know. Well, and the thing about, you know, this is, I've heard, Hal's spoken a lot in this, I've listened to him a lot in this too, and I tend to agree with that. I can't see us, if we're going to feel guilty, it's not going to be a very nice eternity. It just may be momentary. Yeah. So anyway, there's a whole other study. 1 John is a fellowship book, not salvation. Could we be out of fellowship at His coming? That's very possible we could be out of fellowship.

Well, if you like, I can review what we did and kind of think about that a little. Why don't we press on here. Okay. So judgment, I think here's one of the keys in this thing. Judgment actually can be one of the stumbling blocks. You know, the day of judgment. This is what you got to ask, Doug. What day of judgment is this? And the word for judgment here is crisis, crisis, crisis. And, you know, it's a separating then a decision. and judgment.

And this is, if you look at the word bima, you know, if you look at scripture, there's this word bima, which is used about six or seven times. The bima is this raised platform that the ancients had. They put people on a raised platform and they give them rewards. I guess sometimes they might do something else, but it was a place of, in terms of believers, it's mentioned that it's a place of rewards, a place of, it's a reward ceremony. So this is not the word, this word for judgment is not Bema. The day of judgment is not the Bema judgment, it's a judgment.

So that's kind of a little, so the question is, you know, which one, which one is this referring to? Is it referring to the great white throne? Judgment of the nations? Others? It's interesting and looking through, I looked through some commentaries.

A lot of people had this, the Bema judgment, but even though it's not that word and I'm saying, boy, I don't know about that. How can that be the beam of judgment? But the problem you got is it says in the day of judgment. So and then that's what kind of a stumbling block there. OK. So let's press on here. OK. More on the day of judgment. Not finished. If you do a search on the day of judgment, I did this in the American Standard. I think it's pretty close. There's about five or six occurrences and the two of interest here.

The Day of Judgment is referring to the unrighteous, to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the Day of Judgment, and then a little farther in 2 Peter, kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction for ungodly men. So the Day of Judgment is linked with the ungodly, the unbeliever. It's not linked with believers.

In fact, judgment, as it says in the verse at the bottom, John 5.24, "...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 is passed out of death into life." So, judgment is not for the believer. So what I found was, this phraseology, the day of judgment, links to most likely the great white throne.

You know, that's why I thought. But then you got a problem with that in what's going on here. OK, so. So let's move on here. Now, this chart is at the back, and I'm not trying to overpower you with Greek stuff. This is a chart that that was passed out when I took the Greek class with how actually it came from Dave Durland. He found this in a Greek book from Dana and Manti. Which I haven't used. So I just, you know, but and actually I had some help with this. Actually, I called how and talk with him a little bit. So I achieved a little bit. I cheated. It was it was wonderful. I mean, talking with how anytime is wonderful. So.

So anyway, the N, it's in the Greek, it's at the very top of the page here. Hopefully you can look at the screen if you can't read it on your handout at the very back. It's a Greek word N-E-N. And these are the possible renderings from Dana and Manti. I just copied this whole line across here. It can be translated into, in, on, at, among, within, besides, in, with, by means of, or with. So the question is, is in the best translation in this case. And I look through, I try to, you know, I start looking at all those Greeks, all the stuff. I was my head is spinning after a while. So I need to add some more instruction. But there's another helpful thing.

If you look at his account of the occurrences of in the King James and how many times is translated by different English words, about two thirds of the time. One thousand nine hundred and two times is translated in one hundred sixty three by one hundred and forty times with. So to kind of make a. So it's two thousand eight hundred and one. So to make a long story short.

And actually, if you go back, let me just go back here to this picture. So at the top here, it talks about what. Prepositional means classified. Sometimes it's indicating direction, position, relationship, agency, means, cause, association. This association right here, where it's rendered with, could it be in our verse that it's talking about the association with the Day of Judgment, and that's what's being spoken of here. So based upon that, A better translation might be so that we may have confidence with respect to the day of judgment. And the thought here is that if we know judgment's not for us, we can have wonderful confidence. We know that we'll not be in judgment. So the judgment that's coming is not a judgment for us.

So that seems to fit better. And I did one more thing. I looked in this book I have that has all these translations of the New Testament, and it rendered different ways. And I found a couple that actually seemed to pick up on this idea. This is Moffat, the Moffat translation of the New Testament.

Here is our love made perfect. with absolute confidence about the day of judgment. They use the word about. And then good speed, another one has, when we have perfect confidence about the day of judgment. So they use about, which wasn't one of our choices here. So I don't know. And I'm not going to go out and fight you about this, but it's interesting. It seems like that in is problematic.

You know, you have to decide which day of judgment it is. And if you take the end, I found people that believe that in was proper. They had the day of judgment being the Bema, which doesn't seem to wash. So you've got some choices here. If you take the end to be correct, then you've got to somehow make the day of judgment something that's not a real judgment. But that kind of goes contrary what the word says.

So the translators, they just, they have this whole choice. Well, the thing is that there are, you know, and I don't, I'm not the, you know, a really super duper Greek person, but, but they, there are certain, you know, N is the normal translation. Two thirds of the time you translate that word EN in the Greek, the transliteration N, but there are another two, another one third of the times you don't. And I don't know enough about, it'd be cool if that chart, if I could see what verses, where they had with, I could go through, I could trace, and I may try to do that at some point.

Because the prepositions are important. And we've seen in other verses, those prepositions can be real key and can change the whole meaning, the shift that can really affect how you render that verse. So this is a possibility. But don't you think the Day of Judgment is probably what influenced the prepositions in this case?

And I wonder about, and of course it comes back to what kind of person you are. Do you believe in, I mean, what's your theology? Right, exactly. And you might say, well, N's got to be that one, and you've, that's exactly right. You don't come to scripture, you know, I'm unbiased, I'll render this just like the Greek. I know the translators do. They do come with a bias. And that's why, that is the only reason why Greek is important. I mean, Greek is important to understand what God is saying. To just be a Greek geek is, you know, that's puffing yourself, I mean, you know, Greek has a purpose, to understand what God is saying. So, hopefully that's, it helped me out. I said, hey, well I think it's going to track well with the rest of the verses.

Look, this one guy was saying in rendering prepositions. One of the aspects is the context. What's the context of how that preposition is used in this context? I don't think in is the best translation. OK, so with all that, I spent a lot of time on this. You can see all my time. What's that proposition about? So anyway, hopefully that's helpful. OK, so let's go on.

So now we've, by this, love is perfected with us, so we may have confidence, and may not be the best, with respect to the day of judgment, because, and here's where it kind of, that with can really, because, why is that so? Because, and what I did here is, here's how the verse reads in the English, but if you look in the Greek, it's almost like, this is probably a better way to look at it, We are as He is, we are also in this world. And kind of separating the two statements, and the verb here, are, we are, is in the present tense. The reason we have confidence with the Day of Judgment, or with respect to the Day of Judgment, is because we are as He is. We are in Him. He is our life. And then also, we're also in this world. We're also in these bodies.

This part I still have a little, it doesn't quite track. And I'm not saying I have that part. Actually, I do have a verse for you. I do have a verse for you. Let's look at in terms of we are also in this world, you know, and that's true, right? We have Christ's life in us, but we're also in this world. So let's look at 2 Corinthians. Because I knew somebody would ask that question. And I didn't have a good answer for you. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. And, Bonnie, would you read that for us?

We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. So I guess the thought here is that we are as he is. We have his life in us, but it's in an earthen vessel. So I mean, I don't know. We are also in this world. I struggle with that, too. Now, the way it reads here, it says, because as he is, so also are we in this world. And this seemed to be a little bit better to me. You didn't mean, so also are we in him, even though we're in this world, we're still. I mean, we're in this world and we're in Him.

I mean, that's kind of the... Right. Well, that's very true. And that's what's cool. In my mind, that's why we can go back and have this confidence because we are in Him and we don't have to fear judgment, the Day of Judgment, the Great White Throne. We don't have to fear that day. We have confidence. We have confidence with respect to the Day of Judgment. And now we're going to go into the... Verse 18 is going to talk about this thing about fear.

And it kind of links in really well when you think, well, people could be not walking with the Lord out of fellowship and fearing a day of judgment. It seems to me you can do the same kind of work we all do. You wake up and you're kind of complying to that, but you haven't just came right out and stepped up for it. You said we as believers, because of our relationship with God, The day of God was there.

Right. Right. We're in the world, even though we're in the world. OK. OK. Reinforce the same concept. OK. Good. Thank you. That's where we're part of the people, but we're not part of that. OK. So hopefully. OK. There are, at least we read it, believers that kind of indicate that there's a rationale that even though we're saved, we're left in this world.

Yeah, I see your point. That's a good point. The thing is, we're left here, even though we're believers, and we're in Christ, we're left here. And that's a good point. We're in this world. And I wonder if that's how maybe, I don't know if I can read that, because if he is, so also are we. We're just as he is, even though we're in this world. I see your point. OK. OK. OK. I don't know if we can stick that in or not, but I'm thinking that's what it's about. We know we're in this world. Yeah. But even though we're just as he is. OK. All right.

Well, you know, what I try to do here, I try to put subject verb to actually those two phrase and those two phrases or phrases. We are ours, a verb as he actually as is a subordinating conjunction. So and then down here, this is this a prepositional phrase in the world. Also, also, those are prepositional phrases. So anyway. Okay, verse 18. I didn't put this chart in. I want to put it in so we can kind of go back.

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. This ties very much back to the previous verse. If you're not having this confidence, then there may be fear, fear of being judged, and that is fear of punishment, which is very much the case, very much what it's saying here. Okay. So this has some wonderful statements about God's love. In fact, actually this verse is sort of like going to tell us some of the ground rules or some of the conditions of God's love. There is no fear in love. And this is the word amy. There is not fear, phobos.

And it comes from, I guess originally it was the idea of being frightened and you ran, you took off, you started running because you were fearful. And it's rendered in pretty consistently fear, dread, or terror. And I put this in here, this is not referring to a reverential fear, which is like in this 1 and 1 Peter. If you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during this time of your stay on earth. So, this fear is not this conducting yourself in fear. You're not in dread of God. You realize that He is powerful and almighty, and He's to be reverenced. So, this fear as used in verse 18 is a true fear, and we're going to see it's fear of punishment, which the believer who's walking in Christ shouldn't be there. Okay, the B part.

But perfect love, so it says there's no fear in love. Now it says, it goes a step beyond that. It says, but perfect love casts out fear. So not only is there no fear in love, perfect love, God's love, God's love in us, it throws it out. And we're going to see it has these two, perfect is this word we've seen before, teleos, it's to bring to completion, perfect, bring to an end. So completed love, God's love, completed in us, casts out, throws out, hurls out, and out is outside without. So it casts out fear. Fear has no part in love. So just wonderful things about God's love here.

Okay, so now it tells us Fear, but because fear involves punishment. So if you're fearing, then you're fearing something's going to happen to you. If you have confidence that there's no punishment, then fear isn't in view. So punishment here is this word, colossus. Punishment refers to an immediate consequence of a sense of sin, not a holy awe.

It kind of reinforces this idea about, but it's a slavish fear. And then actually another occurrence of this is it uses it basically in terms of judgment, talking about this is the judgment of the nations. These will go away into eternal punishment with the righteous to eternal life. This is the judgment of the nations here. So it says fear involves punishment. So if you're fearing, you're assuming some consequence is going to happen, some punishment is going to happen.

And the one who fears is not perfected in love. So this makes a statement about the person who's fearing, or actually this is a participle, so the one fearing is not perfected in love. So in this case, and what's interesting is this not perfected, This person, and remember the perfect tense, it says this person in the past was not perfected in love and he continues up into the present not to be perfected in love. So this person is not relying upon Christ's love, not relying upon Him. He's not perfected. The one who fears is not perfected in love. So I think what it's telling us here is that we know our position in Christ is secure, but this is presently the case where a person is not having that confidence before God. He's allowing fear to drive him.

So therefore, Christ's love can't be brought to completion, brought to its full extent. We looked before at how he talked about the confidence we have with him back in verse 17. Confidence in the Day of Judgment. He talks about as we walk with Christ, perfect love casts out fear.

So now he's saying if you're not doing that, the one who fears is not perfected in love. Let's go to this next page here. This is kind of a little diagram that would be helpful. And this is kind of based upon the Greek. The first two-thirds of the verse, or first three-quarters of the verse, there's no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment. And there's no punishment in God's love. You're not being punished. Christ took our punishment. So the first part kind of talks about God's love and how there's no fear in love, love casted out, and there's no punishment.

And then it kind of says as a separate idea, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. So what does that mean? Well, you haven't been brought to completion in God's love, right? I think, you know, the problem is, We all wind up fearing sometimes when we need not fear, right? I think he's making a statement about that. When we're fearing, we're not allowing his love to be present in our life. We're not walking with him. We're out of fellowship.

But is that a... What's the tenet of that? Oh, the one who fears? This is an interesting one. This person has a problem. With a perfect tense, it means that this is just not, you know, it occurred in the past and it continues on in the future. It's interesting that this is a pretty severe statement. They weren't perfected in the past and they continue not to be perfected now. You know, conceivably, you could say that's speaking of an unbeliever.

Well, but, you know, with John, it's a toughie sometimes. I don't know. You see why I have fun with these verses. Would you like to? It is. It is. Anyway, well, actually, the diagram here, hopefully, you know, this kind of separation in that verse between things talking about How wonderful God's love is. There's no fear there. Perfect love casts out fear. And because fear has nothing to do with God's love. God's love has nothing about punishment. His love is about, He's provided salvation for us. But then it has a statement, and that's a person that is in the past and continues on into the present.

So that certainly could be unbeliever. I think it could be a believer, a fellowship to be pretty sad situation that's going on for. But but don't we see people that kind of are in that mode sometimes? But why? Sure. Right. Doesn't that imply that this person, you know, it happened in the past. It's going to continue that way. Well, and that's a and that's a question I, which is why John, John writes in a difficult manner. He does. And trying to try to discern what he's talking about, unbeliever or who is this guy? Right. Right. Well, I think the perfect tense, it certainly is up to the present. Alright, last verse. This is a wonderful one. We love because He first loved us. We've had similar verses before.

So the only reason we can love is because we didn't decide to love God someday. He loved us first. So I didn't, there's not, you know, we is, these two clauses here, we love because he first loved us. Actually what's interesting here, this is in the present, we love right now in the present. And then this is an aorist indicative, a past point fact, right? He loved us, past point fact, which has consequences for all eternity. He loved us.

And then here's a verse we had before back in 1 John 4.10. And this is love, not that we love God. So we didn't love Him first, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And then here's our verse, I'm sorry, 4.11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. And then here's our verse right here. We love because he first loved us.

OK, well, any last thoughts? You can meet me out in the parking lot. What are you saying? Hopefully, I'll think about the preposition. Those prepositions are really important, really important. All right, let's close in print. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for this day, Father. Thank you for your word, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have, Lord, that we can have confidence, Lord. We can have confidence about the day of judgment. We can have confidence in your love for us. We have confidence that your love casts out all fear, Lord. And we thank you for our Savior. We ask it in his name. Amen.