"GOD IS LOVE" - 1 John 4:16
“But whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” (1 John 2:5-6) “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:16-17) |
“Perfect Love” – (1 John 2:5, 4:12, 17-18) ---------------------------- “GOD IS LOVE; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16) |
Are you burdened to, by faith, “continue in the Son, and in the Father”, knowing exactly the grounds, laws, effects, and tests to know if “truly [your] fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3, 7)? “If we” know these truths, the question remains: are we “walking” in these truths? For, many are they which “saith I know Him” (1 John 2:4), “saith he abideth in Him” (1 John 2:6), and “saith he is in the Light,” (1 John 2:9) and yet, they walk contrary to these professions.
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RELATED SERMONS
“Perfect Love, Do You Have It?” – Sean Morris “The Secret of Boldness” – Sean Morris |
“It is the last time” (1 John 2:18), “and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:17), but do you “abide in Him; that when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” (1 John 2:28)? Are we worthy to “be called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1) and therefore walking “as He is in the Light” (1 John 1:7), in “the truth” or “of the truth” as He is the Truth (1 John 2:4, 3:19, John 14:6), in “His Word” as He is the Word (1 John 1:10, 14, 2:24, 28, John 1:1), in righteousness “even as He is righteous” (1 John 3:7), in love as “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16), to “lay down our lives for the brethren” even as “He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16)? If so, then “the world knoweth us not” as “it knew Him not” (1 John 3:1) and we have a holy “hope” that we may be purified “even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). We need this “understanding, that we may know Him that is true” (1 John 5:20). We must be sure we are walking in Him in all these specified ways, for, “herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:17-18).
“in him verily is the love of God perfected” (1 John 2:5)
“the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15) |
Perfect love is not describing how God perfectly loves you, but it is how you are perfectly abiding in the love of God which is in you, which must be perfectly formed in you, so then you are loving God and loving the brethren with a “perfect” degree of His love, and thus it can be said that your love is “as He is”. This perfect love does not describe God’s love toward you but your love, in Christ, toward God, and when a man is perfected so that he, in this way, does keep God’s commandments (1 John 2:3-6), the Christian man is living worthy of his profession (1 John 2:3-6), so to “walk even as He walked” (1 John 2:6), thence it will be said at Judgment Day, “as [Christ] is so [was] [he] in this world” (1 John 4:17). Here in 1 John 4:17, again, there is an exact comparison to 1 John 2:5-6 – perfection is declared as an eternal necessity, and without it one will not continue in the Son of God, wherein is eternal life, but will rather be cast forth into the torments of fire. 1 John 2:5-6 is John’s first introduction of the phrase, “perfect love”, and from here in chapter 2, and onward, the burden of perfect love and its need to be formed within the Christian is explained and applied. The apostle John expounds the very attributes of this love in its relationship to “the world”, self-sacrifice for the brethren regarding money and goods, and generally speaking, keeping the words of God with obedience. In 1 John 2:15-17, the world is the topic at hand, but not the world only, but, John explains, if a man loves the world then perfect love is not in him, or as John phrases it here, “the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). In the book of 1 John, this means GOD IS NOT IN YOU (1 John 2:5-6). In other words, you will be condemned in this judgment on the Final Day if you do not repent and change your ways! Do you see the burden? Is “the love of the Father” in you? This is the burden of perfect love.
“Hereby perceive we the love of God…” (1 John 3:16)
“…how dwelleth the love of God in him?” (1 John 3:17) |
In 1 John 3:16-17, the apostle John performs a more specified examination of perfect love. To discern the love of God in the Christian, he focuses on certain charitable deeds toward the brethren, but the same question is at hand – does the love of God dwell in you? If the author is explaining to the reader that “hereby perceive we the love of God” (1 John 3:16), and not in some other way, but “hereby”, then we ought to listen up and pay attention, because, in 1 John, the apostle is showing that if you don’t have the love of God in you, then you don’t have God or eternal life! John declares how the love of God is perceived, and it is within a man when he is laying down his life for the brethren like as Christ loved the Church and laid down His life for them (1 John 3:16, John 13:34, 15:12-14, Eph. 5:1-2). Then John applies an exact scenario at hand, of practical deeds relevant to us all, and by such deeds being present or absent, even so the love of God is present or absent from the soul of the man – “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him” (John 3:17)? This question, “how dwelleth the love of God in him?”, is to say, if a man does not give to the necessities of the brethren when he has goods to give, then the love of God is not in this man, which means that he is not “perfect in love”, and thus, he has no reason to be assured of salvation at the Judgment because God will judge him to be without God. Why?
“GOD IS LOVE” – 1 John 4:16
“If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12) “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:16-17) |
Why will a man be judged to be without God if he is without love? GOD IS LOVE! And if we are “as He is” in love, then we have perfected love. To be “as He is” is the foundational essence of what Christian perfection is. Whatever attribute of God is in focus, if we are “as He is” in that attribute, then, concerning that attribute in God we are savingly perfected in it, and thus, this is one of the evidences of our saving faith. Most people interpret 1 John 4:17 entirely out of context from 1 John 2:5-6, 15-17, 3:16-17, 4:12, & 16! Even so, people believe that God is teaching that Christians are never to fear the possibility of going to hell. Reader, if you don’t have “perfect love”, then you should not have “boldness”, which means fearlessness, to face the Judgment of God, because then you will surely be given over to eternal torments (1 John 4:18). However, if you do have perfect love, then you can have boldness and fearlessness that you are not going to perish. Nevertheless, you should still fear Him, namely God, because He is able to make you perish, even though you are not perishing (Lk. 12:5). This is as Christ said, “But I will forewarn you Whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear Him” (Lk. 12:5)! Therefore let us conclude this final statement – we are always to fear God, that He is able to cast us into hell, but we are only to fear that He will cast us into hell if we are not “perfect” in Him. So, how about you? Are you perfected in Christ? “Perfect Love – Do You Have It?”
We have seen Christian perfection with the attribute of God’s LOVE, but the doctrine of perfection is used to focus on many multifaceted attributes in God – like His ONENESS, HOLINESS, STRANGENESS, ILLUMINATING LIGHT, GLORY AND VIRTUE, ETERNALITY, and HEAVENLINESS. For now, let us move on to the next attribute at hand which would greatly help understand the doctrine of perfection.
We have seen Christian perfection with the attribute of God’s LOVE, but the doctrine of perfection is used to focus on many multifaceted attributes in God – like His ONENESS, HOLINESS, STRANGENESS, ILLUMINATING LIGHT, GLORY AND VIRTUE, ETERNALITY, and HEAVENLINESS. For now, let us move on to the next attribute at hand which would greatly help understand the doctrine of perfection.