By this, love is perfected with us

1 John 4 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. ² By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; ³ and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. ⁴ You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. ⁵ They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. ⁶ We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ 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 abides in him. 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. ¹⁸ 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. ¹⁹ We love, because He first loved us. ²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹ And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

In today’s text John says:  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. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.   It is vital that we understand the importance of what it says:  We love, because He first loved us.  It is not our love for each other that casts out fear, but rather the perfect love of God. Since fear involves punishment it is only the perfect love of God, demonstrated and given to us in the cross that casts out fear. Fear is removed by the cross because there is no longer punishment for sin. It is important that we love others, but that love is a response to the perfect love of God and not something we are capable of without Him. In Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus says:  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”    We can only love others if we first love God with all of our heart, soul and mind. We love God in response to His perfect love for us demonstrated in the cross. Then Jesus says we are to love others as ourselves. So we are to love them not with imperfect human love, but with a love that flows from the perfect love of God. If we truly love others then, we will not want them to remain in their sin, just as we have been loved by Christ on the cross, we will want them also to know the perfect love of God which casts out fear. In 1 Corinthians 4-7, Paul describes love saying:  Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.   It is vital that we understand first that Paul speaks of love as a gift of the Spirit. True love is not an emotion. It is not a thing. It is not natural, but rather it is supernatural. Second while even the world will embrace much of what Paul describes to suit their own agenda, they will usually leave out that love:  does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.  True love seeks first to love God completely and so seeks His will and His righteousness and His truth.

In the text John says:  Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.  Love rejoices in truth. God is both love and truth. Love and truth are inseperable. Without acknowledging that Jesus is the Christ, love cannot be perfect or true. The love that does not acknowledge Jesus is not of the Spirit of God and so is imperfect. James 1:17 says:  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  John says:  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 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 abides in him. 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.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for the gift of Your love demonstrated in the cross. Thank You for the gift of love given to me through the Holy Spirit, that I might love as I have been loved. May I be perfected in and by Your love and may my love for others be like Your love. May I be:  patient, kind and is not jealous. May Inot brag and  not be arrogant. May I not act unbecomingly; seek my own, not be provoked, not take into account a wrong suffered. May I not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoice with the truth;  I bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things as I abide in Your love.  Amen.