First John 4:17-19 God is Love pt 1
1 John 4:17-19 · Andrew Molloy · Sep 11, 2022
Letters of John (2022), No. 31
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192827910

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

Okay, 1 John chapter 4, 17 through 19 begins a two-part series on God is love. And we've, I want to read from verse 7 and then we'll get into our verses. From 4.7 through 15, this is it. Beloved, let us not, let us love one another. Let us do love one another, for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

And there is our subject. By this, the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. In this love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit. We have seen and testify that God, that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever or whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. We have come to know and we have believed the love which God has for us. God is love. And the one who abides in love abides in God. And God abides in him. That was verse 15 or 16, I'm sorry.

And then our new verse 17 through 19 this morning is, by this, love is perfected with us so that we might 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 all fear. because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love because he first loved us." So verse 17, the by this, and I thought, what is it referring to when he opens up verse 17 with by this? By what is love perfected with us? And I asked myself, is it verses 11 through 12?

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. Or is it this, the immediate context, which is verses 14 through 16, who whatsoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he in God. We have come to know and we have believed that the love which God has for us, God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God and God in him.

And I think that's it. That's the confession by our confession. of Jesus Christ and his work, God is free then to abide in us and we abide in him. He bids us there to remain in him where we are placed, in his love. And I think that's the by this that he starts out verse 17. So let's look at this love is perfected in us. Love, of course, is agape, agape love, God's love. God sources out this love. It's from his own essence. It's the type of love he has.

I counted up the use of love, the word love, in verses 7 through 21, and it occurs 26 times in 15 verses. One of our, abiding is one of our subjects, but what else is a big subject here? And that's probably love because it occurs 26 times in the context here.

Now, this meaning of the word perfected, telial. It's in the perfect tense. It's a passive voice and it's indicative mood. And it means to end or complete. And it's interesting, I've caught this kind of into the study, but the word perfected and perfect is in the perfect tense. Isn't that odd? You have the word perfected in the perfect tense. And it is in the perfect tense in all of these verses. And the perfect tense is something done in the past with abiding results, right? So if you do something in the past, its effects go on and on into the present and into the future. And I was wondering, I thought of is a good illustration of the perfect tense.

You know those things you put on your desk. It's a pendulum with those silver balls. And you take that one silver ball at the end and you lift it up and you drop it. That's one event that you do. And then it hits the other ball and it goes on. And it goes on forever and ever, doesn't it?

That pendulum, that little dust toy that people, and I think, oh, that's a kind of good real world illustration maybe of the perfect tense. But this word perfected is used in John 17, 23, 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. So that word, there's our word, perfected, unity, teleao, and that's in the perfect tense too there.

Or this one from Paul, and I'm paraphrasing at the beginning here, but he was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself, is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, 7 through 9. So Paul asks God three times that it be removed, this thorn in the flesh. And God comes back to him and says, Christ said to him, my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected. in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, Paul says, I will boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

And that word perfected is in the, I think that's in the present tense, the passive voice. So, and it's interesting that all these are in the passive voice too. So, this word perfected a little expanded means to end, ended, complete, finished, brought to a close. So God's love is one that has reached its end. It's finished. It's finished out and complete or closed out. So when we abide in him and he in us, and this love abides in us in a complete, finished manner. Why then, I asked myself during the study, why is love ended or complete or brought to a close?

And here's an observation from verse 10 and verse 14. In this love, not that we love God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And then verse 14, we have seen and testify that The father has sent the son to be the savior of the world. And I think the answer to this is God sent his only begotten son to save the world, to save it and us.

And that, his work there is a complete thing. It's essentially in the perfect, or it's a perfect thing too, or it's been perfected. It's totally complete. There's nothing in the universe that can be added to that work, which was a demonstration of his love.

And that, of course, you see the answer is basically John 3.16. And so I saw in the study that the word love connects to the work of Christ on the cross. They meet together and John is really getting at that.

And he's basically here in these verses, he's in John 3.16.

He's from verse, way back when I read in verse 7 through 19, he's basically expanding out John 3.16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That's what he's kind of blooming out here in these verses. Hebrews 10, 14, for by one offering, he has perfected for all time, those who are sanctified. And so there, Paul uses the word, teliao. That's a verb that's in the perfect tense as well. Active, indicative, active. Let's see, tense, voice, active voice, indicative. I lost my.

Another one, therefore, when Jesus had received the sour wine, here he's on the cross, he said, it is finished, and he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit from John 19 31. And it is finished, the word finished is, and this was really cool to just discover all these things, or rediscover them, or put them all together for the study. That word is teleo. finished is ended, completed, closed out. That's in Taleo when he says it is finished.

That's in the perfect tense as well. So he died on the cross in the past and that work has abiding results to today and the future. And it's in the passive words too. Indicative move. So the perfected or the finished out, completed, love is demonstrated by the perfected, finished work of the cross is kind of what I was finding out in this study.

It applies to us because it says it's perfected in us. So when we believe that that's the completed picture, right? I mean, he gave his life for us and when we put our trust in that, We complete the whole aim of his love. Yeah. And our love is finished and completed out. And as we abide in him, yeah, we live that out and we love the brethren.

Another thing that John really brings out. So it's really, yeah, it's really amazing. So here you go. Yeah. Is this working? Can you hear? One of the things that really strikes me here is what you just said, is that it comes to a goal in us. And I think, Roger, you said it.

The focus is that it is Christ-loving through us in these mortal bodies that we have. He's alive in us. And it comes to that goal here that He is expressed through us to one another. We love each other like He loves on the cross. It's that expression of Himself. I don't know how to say that. It isn't so much that it's complete or finished. It's more like it is actively going on. We love one another like he loved, because it's actually him loving through us. Yeah, and it could be completed and finished, but it's in the perfect tense, right? It's still alive and continuing. Yeah, it comes to a goal, right? Right.

It's kind of both. It's really an amazing little word. So John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Oh, I got to advance the slide here. Here we go. So as I said before, John is really expanding in verses 7 through 19, this John 3.16.

And that word, for God so loved, that's hoito, an adverb. And in my mind, I think of so as meaning so, so much, you know, as to volume or quality. Oh, he loved us so, so much. That's what we would say in English. But in Greek, it's hoito, and it just means in this manner. He loved us in this manner. Right. And yeah, the manor is an event. He gave his son over to be crucified for us on the cross. And that's God's propitiation for our sin. It's true that it was so, so much, but in Greek, here it is. And we had that back in 12 too. He so loved us in verse 12.

Put it in the context of the two commands. Believe on him whom he has sent and love one another as I have loved you. Those two things happen simultaneously. We begin, but They come to maturity, they come to expression fully in this way. When we're at home in Him, when we abide in Him, and we're just resting and letting Him live. Right. Yeah. Right. Great. And Paul says this just the same way, but God demonstrates his own love toward us.

That while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us from Romans 5a. So there's that demonstration of love is Christ's death and burial and resurrection on the cross. And that's a point I'm making too, is that the work is finished. The cross is just a complete thing. And that was done in God's love and that's complete in itself. And you can't expand on, you know, you can't expand on the cross and you can't, there's nothing more to be done with God's love. It's just, it's a perfect, complete thing. It's really amazing.

So, on to the next little phrase here of John 4, verse 17. Love is perfected in us so that we might have confidence in the day of judgment. And then I was thinking during the study, why does he all of a sudden kind of bring up judgment here, the day of judgment? So that's a new thing he's introducing here in verse 17. So I thought and I thought and I studied on it. So why does he bring up judgment here? And I think it's this.

John has addressed the world in 16 verses previously in this letter. So he's reconnecting things that he said about the world, do not love the world, nor the things in the world. And he said, the world is passing away. And also it's lusts. And there are more passages. You know, there's 16 references up there to judgment and the world here in 1 John. And this is just as Christ spoke himself of the same things. And this here's, for God did not send the world to judge the world, but that he might save the world through him. And this is judgment that light has come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light and their deeds were evil.

So that's John 3.17 and the gospel of John 3.19 there.

And there are more, John 5.22 for even For not even the father judges anyone, but has given all judgment to the son. Truly, truly, I say unto 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 and into life."

That's John 5.24. John 16, 8 and 11, and he, when the Holy Spirit comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. And concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. So Christ, in the Gospel of John, that was That was stated a lot, the world and judgment. And I think John is wrapping this into these verses here.

Now this word confidence means a free and fearless confidence or free speech, you could say too. It's cheerful courage. Confidence means boldness, assurance. And I think that is confidence before the judge in the day of judgment. As Paul says in Hebrews 4.16, we can, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. So we can have confidence in this judgment that's being talked about. Okay, next phrase, and then we'll kind of put this all together. Because as he is, so are we in this world.

So the question is, so how is he in this world? How is Christ in this world? Does anyone want to take a stab at that? Andrew? Yeah. You're probably going to cover it, but how is he as present, this is his existence, who he is and how he is in reality.

We are also, but we're in this world. We are dwelling in this world. We're not dwelling physically in his world at this moment, but spiritually we are. So it's as he is existing, we are also existing in this world. Yeah, in the present tense, yeah. Yeah, it's like he has come to this goal. The Holy Spirit took the things of Christ and gave them to us. And the goal is that as he is, so we are. Yeah, right. I just I look at that now. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And the context is that of that what you said Roy is in this world, right? So let's look at that and see if you agree here. Rejected in this world when he was he was rejected by the world.

C. Austin Coates gives this really nice kind of narrative.

He says, the disciples left all to follow Jesus with the kingdom in prospect. They looked for righteousness to be established here and were much occupied with the thought of how they would stand in the new order of things. But instead of righteousness being established here on earth, the righteous one, Jesus Christ, whom they were walking with for three and a half years, was rejected and the Lord was crucified. And you just think of the disciples and how their confidence was probably shaken after he was crucified. They were probably crestfallen. So as to the world, the disciples had lost everything and gained nothing.

But to compensate for this, they got divine love. They were loved. In this world, Christ was also crucified. As he is, so are we in this world. And Paul says, but may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Did I write the, I didn't write the scripture reference down there, did I? That one. I'll have to go and add that in at the end of the study. Okay, on to verse 18. These, this was a, three little verses was just a, it was a big, it was a lot to chew here.

Amen. Yeah, so though with the groundwork done in verse 17 we go on to verse 18 and it becomes kind of simple in this interpretation because We laid the groundwork in verse 17, but the word fear is phobos or terror And is not the statement there's no fear in God's love that's that's a that's a self-evident truth, right? It just holds together. It's obvious that there's no fear in love, in God's love. We've discussed that a lot in this complete thing. And fear has no place now. But he says, perfect love casts out all fear.

And that word cast is balo. And that's to throw out. Sometimes with a destination in mind and sometimes just to throw with no destination in mind. And I just give a reference of Revelation 12, 9, that Satan was thrown out from heaven, the serpent of old, and he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. That's the same word, ballo, that is used here. And here it gets a little, it's, this is a tough little nut here in verse 18 to crack.

So he says, because fear involves punishment. And our context is the coming judgment day when the world will be judged. And this judgment involves, involves punishment and judgment leads to fear. And recall from verse 17 that John said, we have confidence, we have fearless, we are free of fear and we have cheerful courage in the day of judgment.

So you could say the one who was terrified by the coming judgment, and I think that's relating to the tribulation, the judgments in the tribulation period, where he judges the world. The world is judged there. There's many judgments. There's the trumpet judgment and things like that.

The one who is terrorized by the coming judgment resulting in punishment is not completed or ended or finished out in God's love. He's not perfected in God's love as he is left outside of the sphere of abiding God and his love. And he remains, this one remains in the world and which is to be judged and that's a fearful thing. So the tribulation is a terrifying thing.

But we are outside of that. Our grounding is in positionally and conditionally, if we abide, versus one who is not perfected in love, and that one, that person has reason to fear. Paul states in Romans 8 15, for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, But you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba Father. And I called a lifeline into Roger about this verse because I got done studying and Constable and Wiest relate this fear of judgment and involving punishment.

And one who fears this verse to the judgment of Christ. And when we think here of Holly Hill, at Holly Hills of the judgment of Christ, we think of the Bema seat judgment, the Bema, which is the rewards seat of Christ. So, yeah, it's called a judgment, but the word judgment at the Bema is the word Bema, right? B-E-M-A. But here, the Greek word that John uses is krisis, K-R-I-S-I-S. So a different word for judgment.

And then the context here is the world and Christ dying on the cross for the sins of the world. And that's And the coming judgment, and that's a fearful thing, but that the Bema judgment as Roger, if you go back and listen to his, what was that Roger? Second Corinthians 5? 5.10. 5.10. Right.

And he made the point that, yeah, you're going to be newly raptured and that's not a fearful thing. You're going to, it's a, it's a reward. ceremony and it's going to be a wonderful thing. So I'm making a, no pun intended, a judgment call. Which judgment we are in here. So, but yeah, read Constable and Wiest and you'll see that they go a different route. They relate this to the judgment seat of Christ. And they have a point because maybe because as we are abiding, we have the love of God. So they argue it from, well, either you're abiding or you're not abiding and you'll be judged at the behemoths for that. One of the things here that you might help, Andrew, is that the focus here is on us, not on God.

It's our confidence that has been highlighted. And in Christ, in fellowship with Him, we have confidence, don't we? So that the convicting work of the Holy Spirit is certainly true to us too. When we sin, he convicts us of that. And when we stand before him in the rewards judgment, if we go as sinners, out of fellowship into that, you know, we're raptured. There's a certain sense of, oh my goodness, from our perspective, you know, we're presenting ourselves out of fellowship. But does he look at us that way? No, because Christ finished it on the cross. So your statement is in agreement, and it's good, it's in agreement with the commentators least inconstable.

And I think, and that's good too. So you could go both ways on that. I just think in all this. Both are true. Yeah. Oh, that's, thank you, Roy. So we're both right. Yeah, that's good. Yeah. It's just, it's, and it's a huge thing. It's an amazing thing. Okay. So John 419, because we love, because he first loved us. And it's so simple, but so profound. Yes, thank you. But let me dwell on just the second part, because he first loved us.

Copes again says, and I like how this dovetails into 17 through 19, especially this verse 19, says, Jesus came from God into a world of sin, of man's ruin, of Satan's triumph, and of God's grief and dishonor. And he has secured everything for God. Christ has secured everything for God. so that he might go back to God as the one who has removed every hindrance to the full display and triumph of divine love. So, Coates says, let us seek to enter into what the death was for God and into the wondrous blessings of divine love for which it opens the way according to the counsel and the purpose of the heart of God. Coates then looks at John 10, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." That's from John 10, 11, and then it skips to John 10, 27 through 30.

So I reprinted up at the top that passage and Coates goes on to say, we rightly look at this as God's divine blessing for us or secured to us from our perspective. No one will snatch us from his hand. And that's comforting for us. That's good news for us. And it says that we are secure. And people, when you read those verses, you always think, oh, that's, and it's wonderful. You're secure, eternal security, right? A wonderful thing. But from a defined viewpoint, there's another side to it.

The good shepherd laid down his life for the sheep. that he might have the joy of securing them for himself and for the father. The father and the son wanted to keep the sheep for themselves. And the death of Christ is the righteous title of divine love to take possession and to keep possession of those sheep. The father and son wanted a company whom they might introduce into their circle of divine love. with a nature suitable to that circle, our new nature, and capable of appreciating and responding to it. The right to have such a company, and the company is the one's born of God, and we in Him and He in us, from 1 John 4, 7 and 1 John 4, 16, the right to have such a company, has been secured by God, to God, by Jesus. And none of those who compose it will ever be lost.

So that is that part B section of verse 19 there that I think is just, it really explains it out well. And it's just a wonderful thing. And I'll close it there. for this morning. So let me pray and then we can discuss. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your divine love and that we are secure in you and that we have salvation and that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we will be with you in glory someday. Thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.