1 John 4:17

The apostle, having thus excited and enforced sacred love from the great pattern and motive of it, the love that is and dwells in God himself, proceeds to recommend it further by other considerations; and he recommends it in both the branches of it, both as love to God, and love to our brother or Christian neighbour.

I. As love to God, to the primum amabile - the first and chief of all amiable beings and objects, who has the confluence of all beauty, excellence, and loveliness, in himself, and confers on all other beings whatever renders them good and amiable. Love to God seems here to be recommended on these accounts: - 1. It will give us peace and satisfaction of spirit in the day when it will be most needed, or when it will be the greatest pleasure and blessing imaginable: Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, Jo1 4:17. There must be a day of universal judgment. Happy they who shall have holy fiducial boldness before the Judge at that day, who shall be able to lift up their heads, and to look him in the face, as knowing he is their friend and advocate! Happy they who have holy boldness and assurance in the prospect of that day, who look and wait for it, and for the Judge's appearance! So do, and so may do, the lovers of God. Their love to God assures them of God's love to them, and consequently of the friendship of the Son of God; the more we love our friend, especially when we are sure that he knows it, the more we can trust his love. As God is good and loving, and faithful to his promise, so we can easily be persuaded of his love, and the happy fruits of his love, when we can say, Thou that knowest all things knowest that we love thee. And hope maketh not ashamed; our hope, conceived by the consideration of God's love, will not disappoint us, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that is given to us, Rom 5:5. Possibly here by the love of God may be meant our love to God, which is shed abroad upon our hearts by the Holy Ghost; this is the foundation of our hope, or of our assurance that our hope will hold good at last. Or, if by the love of God be meant the sense and apprehension of his love to us, yet this must suppose or include us as lovers of him in this case; and indeed the sense and evidence of his love to us do shed abroad upon our hearts love to him; and thereupon we have confidence towards him and peace and joy in him. He will give the crown of righteousness to all that love his appearing. And we have this boldness towards Christ because of our conformity to him: Because as he is so are we in this world, Jo1 4:17. Love hath conformed us to him; as he was the great lover of God and man, he has taught us in our measure to be so too, and he will not deny his own image. Love teaches us to conform in sufferings too; we suffer for him and with him, and therefore cannot but hope and trust that we shall also be glorified together with him, Ti2 2:12. 2. It prevents or removes the uncomfortable result and fruit of servile fear: There is no fear in love (Jo1 4:18); so far as love prevails, fear ceases. We must here distinguish, I judge, between fear and being afraid; or, in this case, between the fear of God and being afraid of him. The fear of God is often mentioned and commanded as the substance of religion (Pe1 2:17; Rev 14:7); and so it imports the high regard and veneration we have for God and his authority and government. Such fear is constant with love, yea, with perfect love, as being in the angels themselves. But then there is a being afraid of God, which arises from a sense of guilt, and a view of his vindictive perfections; in the view of them, God is represented as a consuming fire; and so fear here may be rendered dread; There is no dread in love. Love considers its object as good and excellent, and therefore amiable, and worthy to be beloved. Love considers God as most eminently good, and most eminently loving us in Christ, and so puts off dread, and puts on joy in him; and, as love grows, joy grows too; so that perfect love casteth out fear or dread. Those who perfectly love God are, from his nature, and counsel, and covenant, perfectly assured of his love, and consequently are perfectly free from any dismal dreadful suspicions of his punitive power and justice, as armed against them; they well know that God loves them, and they thereupon triumph in his love. That perfect love casteth out fear the apostle thus sensibly argues: that which casteth out torment casteth out fear or dread: Because fear hath torment (Jo1 4:18) - fear is known to be a disquieting torturing passion, especially such a fear as is the dread of an almighty avenging God; but perfect love casteth out torment, for it teaches the mind a perfect acquiescence and complacency in the beloved, and therefore perfect love casteth out fear. Or, which is here equivalent, he that feareth is not made perfect in love (Jo1 4:18); it is a sign that our love is far from being perfect, since our doubts, and fears, and dismal apprehensions of God, are so many. Let us long for, and hasten to, the world of perfect love, where our serenity and joy in God will be as perfect as our love! 3. From the source and rise of it, which is the antecedent love of God: We love him, because he first loved us, Jo1 4:19. His love is the incentive, the motive, and moral cause of ours. We cannot but love so good a God, who was first in the act and work of love, who loved us when we were both unloving and unlovely, who loved us at so great a rate, who has been seeking and soliciting our love at the expense of his Son's blood; and has condescended to beseech us to be reconciled unto him. Let heaven and earth stand amazed at such love! His love is the productive cause of ours: Of his own will (of his own free loving will) begat he us. To those that love him all things work together for good, to those who are the called according to his purpose. Those that love God are the called thereto according to his purpose (Rom 8:28); according to whose purpose they are called is sufficiently intimated in the following clauses: whom he did predestinate (or antecedently purpose, to the image of his Son) those he also called, effectually recovered thereto. The divine love stamped love upon our souls; may the Lord still and further direct our hearts into the love of God! Th2 3:5.

II. As love to our brother and neighbour in Christ; such love is argued and urged on these accounts: - 1. As suitable and consonant to our Christian profession. In the profession of Christianity we profess to love God as the root of religion: "If then a man say, or profess as much as thereby to say, I love God, I am a lover of his name, and house, and worship, and yet hate his brother, whom he should love for God's sake, he is a liar (Jo1 4:20), he therein gives his profession the lie." That such a one loves not God the apostle proves by the usual facility of loving what is seen rather than what is unseen: For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen? Jo1 4:20. The eye is wont to affect the heart; things unseen less catch the mind, and thereby the heart. The incomprehensibleness of God very much arises from his invisibility; the member of Christ has much of God visible in him. How then shall the hater of a visible image of God pretend to love the unseen original, the invisible God himself? 2. As suitable to the express law of God, and the just reason of it: And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also, Jo1 4:21. As God has communicated his image in nature and in grace, so he would have our love to be suitably diffused. We must love God originally and supremely, and others in him, on the account of their derivation and reception from him, and of his interest in them. Now, our Christian brethren having a new nature and excellent privileges derived from God, and God having his interest in them as well as in us, it cannot but be a natural suitable obligation that he who loves God should love his brother also.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Jn_4:17

Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment

The perfection of love

I.

Herein is our love made perfect. Love is like every other grace in the Christian bosom, susceptible of various degrees of intensity. It is our duty to aim at perfection in all things, and eminently in love. Our happiness is bound up in our attainment of it. Just as we advance in this grace we secure our growing peace and prosperity.

II. A blessed effect of evidence of such love. That we may have boldness in the day of judgment. What are we to understand by the day of judgment? We are certainly not to exclude from our thoughts days of trial, such as may come upon us in the course of life, or at death. Nor can we doubt that the perfection of love would greatly contribute to our boldness at such times. But the mind of the apostle is manifestly directed to the final judgment. In that dread hour they who have cultivated the grace of love shall be enabled to meet it with boldness. How so? This boldness cannot be said to arise out of love as the reason or ground of it. Were it so viewed, its deficiencies would fill us with terror and cover us with confusion. Neither our love nor any other grace can be pleaded for our acceptance at the bar of God. Yet there is an important sense in which boldness in the day of judgment is dependent on the cultivation of love. As love is cultivated, the evidence of our union with Christ is manifested.

III. How may love be so exercised and advanced as to lead us into this holy and happy boldness? Because as He is, so are we in this world. It is by studying conformity to Christ our love is strengthened, and the evidence of our union with Him is made clear.

IV. The argument by which the apostle confirms and illustrates his views (1Jn_4:18).

1. The nature of love--There is no fear in love.

2. More strongly the same view is presented in the operation of love--perfect love casteth out fear.

3. This view is farther confirmed by the very nature of fear. Fear hath torment. We avoid the person whom we fear.

4. Finally, the operation of fear is to destroy love. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. How powerful, then, is this argument for the cultivation of love. Would we be happy in God now, and would we meet Him at last with joy? Then let us love Him. (J. Morgan, D. D.)

Perfect love

1. Love is capable of many degrees; it is the same principle in its commencement as in its termination, the difference being not in the quality, but in the amount; and this must be ever borne in mind in our dealing with inquiring and awakened souls. The weak and just commencing child of God should not be cast down and believe that because he is imperfect in love he therefore has no love. In estimating of the condition of mens minds with regard to the degree of love which they possess, we take many things into account. There are some upon whom the consciousness of Christs sacrifice comes with such tremendous power that they are melted and subdued at once, and withal attracted to the One who displayed such wondrous love toward them. There are others who have attained this consciousness by slow degrees, and so gradually become acquainted with their Lord that from the very gentleness of the way in which they have been led on, they themselves realise more the simple fact that they love than that they are made to love. There are some who have naturally unloving hearts to be changed, and some who have loving hearts to be consecrated; and the processes of Gods actings are so different, and hearts are so varied in their constitution that we can scarce expect to find any two exactly alike. Be encouraged, but be not satisfied, ye who find some love within yourselves; pray and strive for an increase.

2. Love, then, may exist in different degrees; it is further capable of high attainment. Can anyone amongst us produce a reason why he should not be enabled to love as much as Peter, Paul, or John? Can anyone show us anything so supremely bad in his own natural disposition, or so supremely good in that of these apostles, that it is a moral impossibility that he can ever do as they did? or can any prove that the actings of the Spirit are more limited in our case than they were in theirs, and that assistances were given to them which by Gods decrees are withheld from us? There lies before you a glorious course, if only you will run upon it; a magnificent possession, if only you will lay hold of it; an exquisite state, if only you will enter on it. Allow yourselves to be carried on by the Spirit.

3. Thus we see that love may be of different degrees, and also that it is capable of high attainment; we would observe further that it is able to produce a great result. The songs of poets, the tales of real life, the stern records of history, are all full of the triumphs of love; and fallen though we be, love has won more victories than all else beside. When love is true, it is impregnable by assault, it is irresistible in attack, it is indestructible by time; it is not spent by its efforts, it is not wearied out by its vigils; firm in its grasp, yet tender in its touch, that which it lays hold of escapes not from it, that which it caresses is not injured by it. Love is a watcher and love is a warrior--love is a servant and love is a king. True love in things spiritual as well as in things temporal is omnipotent; he who loves most will believe most, and in his faith and love will win the highest goal. (P. B. Power, M. A.)

The triumph of Christ-like love

I. The description of spiritual attainment. Herein is our love made perfect. None can doubt that being as the Son of God is in this world is the only possible perfection, and the only ground of boldness in the day of judgment. The text shows--First. An attainment of affection to God. God wins our hearts by His love; we then love Him more and more. Secondly. An attainment of complete affection to God. In this asserted perfection of our love there is clearly a recognition of the supremacy of our affection.

II. The adduced evidence of that attainment. Because, etc. This clause seems to belong both to our being made perfect in love and our having boldness in the day of judgment. First. The meekness of Christ is reproduced in His followers. Secondly. The endurance of Christ characterises Christians. Who endureth such contradiction of sinners against Himself. Thirdly. The truth witnessing of Christ is seen in His disciples. I am the truth.

III. The divine design in our evidenced attainment in Christ-like love. That we may have boldness, etc. First: This is not an evil boldness, or a boldness in evil (Ecc_8:1). It is not--

(1) the boldness of ignorance;

(2) the boldness of self-sufficiency;

(3) the boldness of iniquity;

(4) the boldness of presumption.

Secondly. This is a holy boldness (Heb_10:19). It is--

(1) The boldness of fearlessness. Perfect love casteth out fear.

(2) The boldness of approving conscience. It is God that justifieth. St. Paul was bold in chains, because the Divine Judge approved him.

(3) The boldness of perfect sympathy and unity with the Judge. He that confesseth Me, etc. (Homilist.)

Boldness in the day of judgment

I. Examine the general conception of the day of the judgment, as given in the New Testament. But against one somewhat widely spread way of blotting the day of judgment from the calendar of the future--so far as believers are concerned--we should be on our guard. Some good men think themselves entitled to reason thus: I am a Christian. I shall be an assessor in the judgment. For me there is therefore no judgment day. The only appeal to Scripture which such persons make, with any show of plausibility, is contained in an exposition of our Lords teaching in Joh_5:21; Joh_5:29. But clearly there are three resurrection scenes which may be discriminated in those words. The first is spiritual, a present awakening of dead souls, in those with whom the Son of Man is brought into contact in His earthly ministry. The second is a department of the same spiritual resurrection. The Son of God, with that mysterious gift of life in Himself, has within Him a perpetual spring of rejuvenescence for a faded and dying world. A renewal of hearts is in process during all the days of time, a passage for soul after soul out of death into life. The third scene is the general resurrection and general judgment. The first was the resurrection of comparatively few; the second of many; the third of all.

1. General history points to a general judgment. If there is no such judgment to come, then there is no one definite moral purpose in human society. Progress would be a melancholy word, deceptive appearance, a stream that has no issue, a road that leads nowhere.

2. If there is to be no day of the general judgment, then the million prophecies of conscience will be belied, and our nature prove to be mendacious to its very roots.

II. The removal of that terror which accompanies the conception of the day of judgment, and of the sole means of that emancipation which St. John recognises. For terror there is in every point of the repeated descriptions of Scripture--in the surroundings, in the summons, in the tribunal, in the trial, in one of the two sentences. Boldness! It is the splendid word which denotes the citizens right of free speech, the masculine privilege of courageous liberty. It is the tender word which expresses the childs unhesitating confidence, in saying all out to the parent. The ground of the boldness is conformity to Christ. Because as He is, with that vivid idealising sense, frequent in St. John when he uses it of our Lord--as He is, delineated in the fourth Gospel, seen by the eye of the heart with constant reverence in the soul, with adoring wonder in heaven, perfectly true, pure, and righteous--even so (not, of course, with any equality in degree to that consummate idea, but with a likeness ever growing, an aspiration ever advancing)--so are we in this world, purifying ourselves as He is pure. (Bp. Wm. Alexander.)

Because as He is, so are we in this world--

Christs poverty in relation to our selfishness and luxury

It is too common to fix our thoughts almost exclusively on the Redeemers death, and to leave out of sight the nature and tenor of the life preceding. St. John gives us a corrective of this view. He says that in those who will not be afraid to meet Christ when He appears on His judgment throne, the spirit, character, and habit that belong to Jesus now in glory, as they belonged to Him when on earth, shall be in them. The outward manner of His life, the kind of circumstance which clothed Him here cannot, of course, be reproduced, but the way in which He behaved under those circumstances, the disposition with which He met them, must mark everyone of His disciples--as He is, so are we in this world. Now, Christs earthly life was distinctly one of poverty. House or property of His own He had none. Now, if our Lords poverty encourage the poor and the poor family to struggle against the lowering influence of their lot, to keep themselves respectable and orderly, consider with what earnest pleadings it seems to address all richer folk, especially in an age like our own. Society is fastidious and extravagant. Entertainments are reckoned, not by the pleasure which they are calculated to give, but by their variety and costliness. Turn upon these aspects of our modern civilisation the light of Jesus life in that noble endurance of poverty, that abiding sense of the real value of life, which consisteth not in the abundance of the goods which a man possesseth, that unswerving devotion to His Fathers will which constituted His very meat. His example may yet prove our safety, if we will follow it. (D. Trinder, M. A.)

The servant as his Lord

The connection of my text is quite as striking as its substance. John has been dwelling upon his favourite thought that to abide in love is abiding in God, and God in us. And then he goes on to say that Herein--that is, in such mutual abiding in love--is love made perfect with us.

I. A Christian is Christs living likeness. It is the Christ as He is, and not only--true as that is--the Christ as He was, who is the original of which Christian men are copies. Is there anything, then, within the glory to which I, in my poor, struggling, imperfect life here on earth, can feel that my character is being shaped? Surely there is. I have no doubt that, in the words of my text, the apostle is remembering the solemn words of our Lords high priestly prayer, I in Thee, and Thou in Me, that they also may be in us. Or, to put the whole thing into plainer words, it is the religious and the moral aspects of Christs being, and not any one particular detail thereof. And these, as they live and reign on the throne, just as truly as these, as they suffered and wept upon earth, it is these to which it is our destiny to be conformed. We are like Him, if we are His, in this, that we are joined to God, that we hold fellowship with Him, that our lives are all permeated with the Divine. And thus we, even here, bear the image of the heavenly, as we have borne the images of the earthly. But, then, I have another point that I desire to refer to. I have put an emphasis upon the is instead of the was, as it applies to Jesus Christ. I would further put an emphasis upon the are, as it applies to us--so are we. John is not exhorting, he is affirming. He is not saying what Christian men ought to strive to be, but he is saying what all Christian men, by virtue of their Christian character, are. Or, to put it into other words, likeness to the Master is certain. It is inevitably involved in the relation which a Christian man bears to the Lord. My text suggests that to us by its addition, So are we, in this world. The world--or to use the modern phraseology, the environment--conditions the resemblance. As far as it is possible for a thing encompassed with dust and ashes to resemble the radiant sun in the heavens, so far is the resemblance carried here. Now, you Christian people, does that plain statement touch you anywhere? So are we. Well! you would be quite easy if John had said, So may we be; so should we be; so shall we be. But what about the so are we? What a ghastly contradiction the lives of multitudes of professing Christians are to that plain statement! The world has for the illustrations of the gospel the lives of us Christian people. In the Book there are principles and facts, and readers should be able to turn the page and see all pictured in us. That is what you have got to do in this world. As the Father sent Me, even so I send you. As He is, so are we in this world. It may be our antagonist, but it is our sphere, and its presence is necessary to evoke our characters. Christ has entrusted His reputation, His honour, to us.

II. Such likeness to Jesus Christ is the only thing that will enable a man to lift up his head in the day of judgment. We have boldness, says John, because as He is, so are we. Now, that is a very strong statement of a truth that popular evangelical theology has far too much obscured. People talk about being, at the last, accepted in the beloved. It is true! But do not let us forget the other side, that the question put to every man will be, not what you believe, but what did you do, and what are you? And I want to lay that upon your hearts, because many of us are too apt to forget it, that whilst unquestionably the beginning of the salvation, and the condition of forgiveness here, and of acceptance hereafter, is laid in trust in Jesus Christ, that trust is sure to work out a character which is in conformity with His requirements and moulded after the likeness of Himself. The judgment of God is according to the truth, and what a man is determines where a man shall be, and what he shall receive through all eternity.

III. The process by which this likeness is secured. Our love is made perfect by dwelling in God, and God in us; in order that we may be thus conformed to Christs likeness, and so have boldness in that great day. To be like Jesus Christ, what is needed is that we love Him, and that we keep in touch with Him. But remember such abiding is no idle waiting, no passive confidence. It is full of energy, full of suppression, when necessary, of what is contrary to your truest self; and full of strenuous cultivation of that which is in accord with the will of the Father. Lie in the light, and you will become light. Abide in Christ, and you will get like Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 John

THE SERVANT AS HIS LORD

1Jn 4:17.

Large truths may be spoken in little words. Profundity is often supposed to be obscurity, but the deepest depth is clear. John, in his gospel and epistles, deals with the deepest realities, and with all things in their eternal aspects, but his vocabulary is the simplest in the New Testament. God and the world, life and death, love and hate, light and darkness, these are the favourite words round which his thoughts gather. Here are nine little monosyllables. What can be simpler than, ‘As He is, so are we in this world?’ And what can go beyond the thought that lies in it, that a Christian is a living likeness of Christ?

But the connection of my text is quite as striking as its substance. John has been dwelling upon his favourite thought that to abide in love is to abide in God, and God in us. And then he goes on to say that ‘Herein’--that is, in such mutual abiding in love--’is love made perfect with us’; and the perfection of that love, which is thus communion, is in order that, at the great solemn day of future trial, men may lift up their faces and meet His glance--which is not strange to them, nor met for the first time--with open-hearted and open-countenanced ‘boldness.’ But ‘love’ and ‘abiding’ are the source of confidence in the Day of Judgment, because love and abiding are the source of assimilation to Christ’s life. We have boldness, ‘because as He is, so are we in this world’; and we are as He is, because we love and abide in Him. So here are three thoughts, the assimilation of the Christian man to Christ; the frank confidence which it begets; and the process by which it is secured.

I. A Christian is Christ’s living likeness.

That is a startling thing to say, and all the more startling if you notice that John does not say ‘As He was,’ in this earthly life of humiliation and filial obedience, but ‘as He is,’ in His heavenly life and reign and glory. That might well repel us from all thought of possible resemblance, but the light, however brilliant it may be, is not blinding, and it is the Christ as He is, and not only--true as that is--the Christ as He was, who is the original of which Christian men are copies.

Now there is the difference between the teaching of such classes of religionists as represent Christ’s humanity as all in all, and preach to us that He, in His earthly life is the pattern to whom we are to seek to conform our lives, and the true evangelical teaching. That dead Man is living, and His present life has in it elements which we can grasp, and to which every Christian life is to be conformed.

Is there anything, then, within the glory to which I, in my poor, struggling, hampered, imperfect life here on earth, can feel that my character is being shaped? Yes, surely there is. I have no doubt that, in the words of my text, the Apostle is remembering the solemn ones of our Lord’s high-priestly prayer as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of his gospel, where the same antithesis of our being in the world, and His not being there, recurs; and where the analogy and resemblance are distinctly stated--’I in Thee, and Thou in Me, that they also may be in us.’

So, then, when we stand with our letter-writer in his Patmos island, and see the countenance ‘as the sun shining in his strength, and the eyes as a flame of fire,’ and the many crowns upon the head, and the many stars in the hand, though we may feel as if all resemblance was at an end, and aspiration after likeness could only fall at His feet and cover its face, yet there is within the glory something which may be repeated and reproduced in our lives, and that is, the indissoluble union of a Son with a Father, in all loving obedience, in all perfect harmony, in all mutual affection and outgoing of heart and thoughts. This is the centre of the life, alike of the Christ when He is glorified, and of the Christ when He was upon earth. So the very secret heart of the mysterious being of the Son is to be, and necessarily is, repeated in all those who in Him have received the adoption of sons.

Or to put the whole thing into plainer words, it is the religious and the moral aspects of Christ’s being, and not any one particular detail thereof; and these, as they live and reign on the Throne, just as truly as these, as they suffered and wept upon earth--it is these to which it is our destiny to be conformed. We are like Him, if we are His, in this,--that we are joined to God, that we hold fellowship with Him, that our lives are all permeated with the divine, that we are saturated with the presence of God, that we have submitted ourselves to Him and to His will, that ‘not my will, but Thine, be done’ is the very inmost meaning of our hearts and our lives. And thus ‘we,’ even here, ‘bear the image of the heavenly, as we have borne the images of the earthly.’ Now I am not going to dwell upon details; all these can be filled in by each of us for himself. The centre-point which I insist upon is this--the filial union with God, the filial submission to Him, and the consequent purity as Christ is pure, righteousness as Christ is righteous, and walking even as Christ walked, for ever in the light.

But then there is another point that I desire to refer to. I have put an emphasis upon the ‘is’ instead of the ‘was,’ as it applies to Jesus Christ. I would further put an emphasis upon the ‘are,’ as it applies to us--’So are we.’

John is not exhorting, he is affirming. He is not saying what Christian men ought to strive to be, but he is saying what all Christian men, by virtue of their Christian character, are. Or, to put it into other words, likeness to the Master is certain. It is inevitably involved in the relation which a Christian man bears to the Lord. There may be degrees in the likeness, there may be differences of skill and earnestness in the artist. We have to labour like a portrait painter, slowly and tentatively approaching to the complete resemblance. It is ‘a life-long task ere the lump be leavened.’ This likeness does not reach its completeness by a leap. It is not struck, as the image of a king is, upon the blank metal disc, by one stroke, but it is wrought out by long, laborious, and, as I said, approximating and tentative touches. My text suggests that to us by its addition, ‘So are we, in this world.’ The ‘world’--or, to use modern phraseology, ‘the environment’--conditions the resemblance. As far as it is possible for a thing encompassed with dust and ashes to resemble the radiant sun in the heavens, so far is the resemblance carried here. Some measure of it, and a growing measure, is inseparable from the reality of a Christian life.

Now, you Christian people, does that plain statement touch you anywhere? ‘So are we.’ Well! you would be quite easy if John had said: ‘So may we be; so should we be; so shall we be.’ But what about the ‘so are we’? What a ghastly contradiction the lives of multitudes of professing Christians are to that plain statement! ‘Like Jesus Christ’--would anybody say that about anything in me? ‘So are we’--no words of mine, dear brethren, can make the statement more searching, more impressive; but, I pray you, lay this to heart: ‘If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.’ You may take sacraments and profess Christianity, or, as we Nonconformists have it, ‘join churches,’ and do all manner of outward work for ever and a day; but if you have not the likeness of Christ, at least in germ, and growing to something more than a germ, in your characters, you had better revise your position, and ask whether, after all, you have not been walking in a vain show, and fancied yourselves the servants of Christ, while you bear the image of Christ’s enemy.

A very tiny gully on a hillside, made by showers of rain, may fall into the same slopes, and has been created by the very same forces, working according to the same laws, as have scooped out valleys miles broad, bordered by mountains thousands of feet high. And in my little life, poor as it is, limited as it is, environed as it is by the world, and therefore often hampered and stained, as well as helped and brightened, by its environment, there may be, and there will be, in some degree, if I am a Christian man, the very same power at work by which Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father shines as the sun on the throne of the universe.

But then, notice further, how that limitation to which I have referred in this world carries with it another message. There is Christ in the heavens, veiled and unseen. Here are you on earth, his representative. There is a rage at present for putting pictures into all books, and folk will scarcely read unless they get illustrated literature. The world has for its illustrations of the gospel the lives of us Christian people. In the book there are principles and facts, and readers should be able to turn the page and see all pictured in us.

That is what you are set to do in this world. ‘As the Father sent Me, even so send I you.’ ‘As He is, so are we in this world.’ It may be our antagonist, but it is our sphere, and its presence is necessary to evoke our characters. Christ has entrusted His reputation, His honour, to us, and many a man that never cares to look at Him as He is revealed in Scripture, would be wooed and won to look at Him and love Him, if we Christian people were more true to our vocation, and bore more conspicuously on our faces and in our characters the image of the heavenly.

II. Look for a moment at the second thought that is here: such a likeness to Jesus Christ is the only thing that will enable a man to lift up his head in the Day of Judgment.

‘We have boldness,’ says John, because ‘as He is, so are we.’ Now that is a very strong statement of a truth that popular, evangelical theology has far too much obscured. People talk about being, at the last, ‘accepted in the beloved.’ God be thanked, it is true. A sweet old hymn that a great many of us learned when we were children, though it is not so well known in these days, says:--

‘Bold shall I stand in that great day,

For who aught to my charge shall lay,

While through Thy blood absolved I am

From sin’s tremendous curse and shame?’

I believe that, and I try to preach it. But do not let us forget the other side. My text is in full accordance with the principles of our Lord’s own teaching; and who knows the principles of His own words so well as the judge, who tells us, in His pictures of that great day, that the question put to every man will be, not what you believe, but what did you do, and what are you?

But this truth of my text has been not only wounded in the house of the friends of Christianity, but it has been overlooked by one of the very frequent objections that we hear made to evangelical teaching, that, according to it, a man is judged according to his belief and not according to his deeds. A man is judged according to his--not belief--but according to his faith. But he is judged according also to--not his work--but according to his character.

And I wish, dear friends, to lay this upon your hearts, because many of us are too apt to forget it, that whilst unquestionably the beginning of salvation, and the condition of forgiveness here, and of acceptance hereafter, are laid in trust in Jesus Christ, that trust is sure to work out a character which is in conformity with His requirements and moulded after the likeness of Himself. ‘The judgment of God is according to truth,’ and what a man is determines where a man shall be, and what he shall receive through all eternity. Remember Christ’s own teaching. Remember the teaching of that other apostle than John, according to which the ‘wood, hay, stubble,’ built by a man upon the foundation shall be burned up, and the builder himself be saved, yet so as by fire. And lay this to heart, that it is only when faith works in us, through love and communion, characters like Jesus Christ’s, that we shall be able to stand--though even then we shall have to trust to divine and infinite mercy, and to the sprinkling of His blood--before the Throne of God. Lay up in store for yourselves a good foundation unto eternal life. And take this as the preaching of my text; character, and character alone, will stand the judgment of that great day.

There is no real antagonism between such truths and the widest preaching of salvation by faith. It is the same man who, in his gospel, says, as from the lips of the Lord Himself, ‘He that believeth is not judged,’ and in his letter says, ‘We may have boldness in that day, because, as He is, so are we in this world.’

III. One word about the last point; the process by which this likeness is secured.

That is contained, as I tried to show in my introductory remarks, in the earlier part of the verse. Our love is made perfect by dwelling in God, and God in us; in order that we may be thus conformed to Christ’s likeness, and so have boldness in that great day. To be like Jesus Christ, what is needed is that we love Him, and that we keep in touch with Him. What is it to ‘abide’ in Him?--to direct the continual flow of mind and love and will and practical obedience to Him, to bear Him ever in the secret place of my heart whilst my hands are occupied with daily business, and my feet are running the sometimes rough race that is set before me. Think of Him ever, love Him ever. Let His name be like a perfume breathed through the whole atmosphere of your lives. Keep your wills in the attitude of submission, of acceptance, of indecision when necessary, and of absolute dependence upon Him. Let your outward acts be such as shall not bring a film of separation between Him and you. When thus our whole being is steeped and drenched with Christ, then it cannot but be that we shall be like Him. Even ‘clouds themselves as suns appear, when the sun pierces them with light.’ ‘Abide in Me, and I in you.’ You cannot make yourselves like Christ, but you can fasten yourselves to Christ, and He will give you power which shall make you like Him.

But, remember, such abiding is no idle waiting, no passive confidence. It is full of energy, full of suppression, when necessary, of what is contrary to your truest self, and full of strenuous cultivation of that which is in accord with the will of the Father, and with the likeness of the ‘first-born among many brethren.’

Dear friends, lie in the light and you will become light. Abide in Christ, and you will get like Christ; and, being like Him, you will be able to lift up your heads, and rejoice when you front Him on the Throne, and you are at the bar. Then, when you are no more in the world, the likeness will be perfected, because the communion is complete. ‘We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 14

BOLDNESS IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT

1Jn_4:17

IT has been so often repeated that St. Johns eschatology is idealised and spiritual, that people now seldom pause to ask what is meant by the words. Those who repeat them most frequently seem to think that the idealised means that which will never come into the region of historical fact, and that the spiritual is best defined as the unreal. Yet, without postulating the Johannic authorship of the Apocalypse-where the Judgment is described with the most awful accompaniments of outward solemnity {Rev_20:12-13} -there are two places in this Epistle which are allowed to drop out of view, but which bring us face to face with the visible manifestations of an external Advent. It is a peculiarity of St. Johns style (as we have frequently seen) to strike some chord of thought, so to speak, before its time; to allow the prelusive note to float away, until suddenly, after a time, it surprises us by coming back again with a fuller and bolder resonance. "And now, my sons," {1Jn_2:28} (had the Apostle said) "abide in Him, that if He shall be manifested, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed, shrinking from Him at His coming." In our text the same thought is resumed, and the reality of the Coming and Judgment in its external manifestation as emphatically given as in any other part of the New Testament.

We may here speak of the conception of the Day of Judgment: of the fear with which that conception is encompassed; and of the sole means of the removal of that fear which St. John recognises.

I We examine the general conception of "the Day of the Judgment," as given in the New Testament.

As there is that which with terrible emphasis is marked off as "the Judgment," "the Parousia," so there are other judgments or advents of a preparatory character. As there are phenomena known as mock suns, or halos round the moon, so there are fainter reflections ringed round the Advent, the Judgment. Thus, in the development of history, there are successive cycles of continuing judgment; preparatory advents; less completed crises, as even the world calls them.

But against one somewhat widely spread way of blotting the Day of the Judgment from the calendar of the future-so far as believers are concerned-we should be on our guard. Some good men think themselves entitled to reason thus-"I am a Christian. I shall be an assessor in the judgment. For me there is, therefore, no judgment day." And it is even held out as an inducement to others to close with this conclusion, that they "shall be delivered from the bugbear of judgment."

The origin of this notion seems to be in certain universal tendencies of modern religious thought.

The idolatry of the immediate-the prompt creation of effect-is the perpetual snare of revivalism. Revivalism is thence fatally bound at once to follow the tide of emotion, and to increase the volume of the waters by which it is swept along. But the religious emotion of this generation has one characteristic by which it is distinguished from that of previous centuries. The revivalism of the past in all Churches rode upon the dark waves of fear. It worked upon human nature by exaggerated material descriptions of hell, by solemn appeals to the throne of Judgment. Certain schools of biblical criticism have enabled men to steel themselves against this form of preaching. An age of soft humanitarian sentiment-superficial and inclined to forget that perfect Goodness may be a very real cause of fear-must be stirred by emotions of a different kind. The infinite sweetness of our Fathers heart-the conclusions, illogically but effectively drawn from this, of an Infinite good nature, with its easy going pardon, reconciliation all round, and exemption from all that is unpleasant-these, and such as these, are the only available materials for creating a great volume of emotion. An invertebrate creed; punishment either annihilated or mitigated; judgment, changed from a solemn and universal assize, a bar at which every soul must stand, to a splendid, and-for all who can say I am saved-a triumphant pageant in which they have no anxious concern; these are the readiest instruments, the most powerful leverage, with which to work extensively upon masses of men at the present time. And the seventh article of the Apostles Creed must pass into the limbo of exploded superstition.

The only appeal to Scripture which such persons make, with any show of plausibility, is contained in an exposition of our Lords teaching in a part of the fifth chapter of the fourth Gospel. {Joh_5:21; Joh_5:29} But clearly there are three Resurrection scenes which may be discriminated in those words. The first is spiritual, a present awakening of dead souls, (Joh_5:21) in those with whom the Son of Man is brought into contact in His earthly ministry. The second is a department of the same spiritual Resurrection. The Son of God, with that mysterious gift of Life in Himself, (Joh_5:26) has within Him a perpetual spring of rejuvenescence for a faded and dying world. A renewal of hearts is in process during all the days of time, a passage for soul after soul out of death into life. The third scene is the general (Joh_5:24) Resurrection and general Judgment. (Joh_5:28-29) The first was the resurrection of comparatively few; the second of many; the third of all. If it is said that the believer "cometh not into judgment," the word in that place plainly signifies condemnation.

Clear and plain above all such subtleties ring out the awe inspiring words: "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment;" "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ."

Reason supplies us with two great arguments for the General Judgment. One from the conscience of history, so to speak; the other from the individual conscience.

1. General history points to a general judgment. If there is no such judgment to come, then there is no one definite moral purpose in human society. Progress would be a melancholy word, a deceptive appearance, a stream that has no issue, a road that leads nowhere. No one who believes that there is a Personal God, Who guides the course of human affairs, can come to the conclusion that the generations of man are to go on forever without a winding up, which shall decide upon the doings of all who take part in human life. In the philosophy of nature, the affirmation or denial of purpose is the affirmation or denial of God. So in the philosophy of history. Society without the General Judgment would be a chaos of random facts, a thing without rational retrospect or definite end-i.e., without God. If man is under the government of God, human history is a drama, long drawn, and of infinite variety, with inconceivably numerous actors. But a drama must have a last act. The last act of the drama of history is "The Day of the Judgment."

2. The other argument is derived from the individual conscience.

Conscience, as a matter of fact, has two voices. One is imperative; it tells us what we are to do. One is prophetic, and warns us of something which we are to receive. If there is to be no Day of the General Judgment, then the million prophecies of conscience will be belied, and our nature prove to be mendacious to its very roots. There is no essential article of the Christian creed like this which can be isolated from the rest, and treated as if it stood alone. There is a solidarity of each with all the rest. Any which is isolated is in danger itself, and leaves the others exposed. For they have an internal harmony and congruity. They do not form a hotchpot of credenda. They are not so many beliefs, but one belief. Thus the isolation of articles is perilous. For, when we try to grasp and to defend one of them, we have no means left of measuring it but by terms of comparison which are drawn from ourselves, which must therefore be finite, and, by the inadequacy of the scale which they present, appear to render the article of faith thus detached incredible. Moreover, each article of our creed is a revelation of the Divine attributes, which meet together in unity. To divide the attributes by dividing the form in which they are revealed to us, is to belie and falsify the attribute; to give a monstrous development to one by not taking into account some other which is its balance and compensation. Thus, many men deny the truth of a punishment which involves final separation from God. They glory in the legal judgment which "dismisses hell with costs." But they do so by fixing their attention exclusively upon the one dogma which reveals one attribute of God. They isolate it from the Fall, from the Redemption by Christ, from the gravity of sin, from the truth that all whom the message of the Gospel reaches may avoid the penal consequences of sin. It is impossible to face the dogma of eternal separation from God without facing the dogma of Redemption. For Redemption involves in its very idea the intensity of sin, which needed the sacrifice of the Son of God; and further, the fact that the offer of salvation is so free and wide that it cannot be put away without a terrible wilfulness.

In dealing with many of the articles of the creed, there are opposite extremes. Exaggeration leads to a revenge upon them which is, perhaps, more perilous than neglect. Thus, as regards eternal punishment, in one century ghastly exaggerations were prevalent. It was assumed that the vast majority of mankind "are destined to everlasting punishment"; that "the floor of hell is crawled over by hosts of babies a span long." The inconsistency of such views with the love of God, and with the best instincts of man, was victoriously and passionately demonstrated. Then unbelief turned upon the dogma itself, and argued, with wide acceptance, that "with the overthrow of this conception goes the whole redemption plan, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the grand climax of the Church scheme, the General Judgment." But the alleged article of faith was simply an exaggeration of that faith, and the objections lay altogether against the exaggeration of it.

II We have now to speak of the removal of that terror which accompanies the conception of the Day of the Judgment, and of the sole means of that emancipation which St. John recognises. For terror there is in every point of the repeated descriptions of Scripture-in the surroundings, in the summons, in the tribunal, in the trial, in one of the two sentences.

"God is love," writes St. John, "and he that abideth in love abideth in God: and God abideth in him. In this [abiding], love stands perfected with us, and the object is nothing less than this," not that we may be exempted from judgment, but that "we may have boldness in the Day of the Judgment." Boldness! It is the splendid word which denotes the citizens right of free speech, the masculine privilege of courageous liberty. It is the tender word which expresses the childs unhesitating confidence, in "saying all out" to the parent. The ground of the boldness is conformity to Christ. Because "as He is," with that vivid idealising sense, frequent in St. John when he uses it of our Lord-"as He is," delineated in the fourth Gospel, seen by "the eye of the heart" {Eph_1:18} with constant reverence in the soul, with adoring wonder in heaven, perfectly true, pure, and righteous-"even so" (not, of course, with any equality in degree to that consummate ideal, but with a likeness ever growing, an aspiration ever advancing)-"so {Cf. Mat_5:48} are we in this world," purifying ourselves as He is pure.

Let us draw to a definite point our considerations upon the Judgment, and the Apostles sweet encouragement for the "day of wrath, that dreadful day." It is of the essence of the Christian faith to believe that the Son of God, in the Human Nature which He assumed, and which He has borne into heaven, shall come again, and gather all before Him, and pass sentence of condemnation or of peace according to their works. To hold this is necessary to prevent terrible doubts of the very existence of God; to guard us against sin, in view of that solemn account; to comfort us under affliction. What a thought for us, if we would but meditate upon it! Often we complain of a commonplace life, of mean and petty employment. How can it be so, when at the end we, and those with whom we live, must look upon that great, overwhelming sight! Not an eye that shall not see Him, not a knee that shall not bow, not an ear that shall not hear the sentence. The heart might sink and the imagination quail under the burden of the supernatural existence which we cannot escape. One of two looks we must turn upon the Crucified-one willing as that which we cast on some glorious picture, on the enchantment of the sky; the other unwilling and abject. We should weep first with Zechariahs mourners, with tears at once bitter because they are for sin, and sweet because they are for Christ. But, above all things, let us hear how St. John sings us the sweet low hymn that breathes consolation through the terrible fall of the triple hammer stroke of the rhyme in the "Dies irae." We must seek to lead upon earth a life laid on the lines of Christs. Then, when the Day of the Judgment comes; when the cross of fire (so, at least, the early Christians thought) shall stand in the black vault; when the sacred wounds of Him who was pierced shall stream over with a light beyond dawn or sunset; we shall find that the discipline of life is complete, that Gods love after all its long working with us stands perfected, so that we shall be able, as citizens of the kingdom, as children of the Father, to say out all. A Christlike character in an un-Christlike world- this is the cure of the disease of terror. Any other is but the medicine of a quack. "There is no fear in love; but the perfect love casteth out fear, because fear brings punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love." We may well close with that pregnant commentary on this verse which tells us of the four possible conditions of a human soul-"without either fear or love; with fear, without love; with fear and love; with love, without fear."

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

4:17 our love grows more perfect: The Greek word translated grows more perfect does not mean flawless, but mature and complete. We mature as our relationship with God grows, and God’s love makes our love complete. • Experiencing and expressing God’s love and doing what it requires does not make us acceptable to God, but it does give us the assurance that we have been accepted, and our fears of the final judgment melt away.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Jn 4:17. Μεθʼ ἡμῶν, with us) The love of God in itself is always the same, and perfect: but with us τετελείωται, it is brought to its consummation, rising more and more from its descent to us.—ἵνα) to such a degree that.—παῤῥησίαν, confidence) The opposite term is fear.—ἐν, in) Thus, in, Rom 2:16, note.—ἡμέρᾳ, the day) most terrible to others, more so than the day of death itself.—τῆς κρίσεως) of the last judgment.—ὅτι, because) The because has reference to τούτῳ, this.—ἐκεῖνός ἐστι, He is) Jesus Christ is love, in heaven; which is silently opposed to the world. By the words, in heaven, however, I suppose His previous dwelling in the world: the word is, on the other hand, shows certainly the present state of Jesus Christ.—ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν, we are) who love God. See the next ver.; Joh 15:10.—ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ, in this world) which is void of love, and fears judgment. The mention of the world is an argument that the word He denotes Jesus Christ. Comp. 1Jn 4:9.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Jn_4:17. After the apostle has said in 1Jn_4:16 that he that dwelleth in love (and therefore no one else) has fellowship with God, he now indicates wherein love shows itself as perfected; the thought of this verse is accordingly connected with the preceding: ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ.

ἐν τούτῳ τετελείωται ἡ ἀγάπη μεθʼ ἡμῶν] Several commentators, Luther, Calvin, Spener, Grotius, Hornejus, Calovius, Semler, Sander, Besser, Ewald, etc., understand by ἡ ἀγάπη the love of God to us, interpreting μεθʼ ἡμῶν = εἰς ἡμᾶς, and τετελείωται as referring to the perfect manifestation of the love of God; Grotius: hic est summus gradus delectionis Dei erga nos.[272] This interpretation, however, has the context against it, for in 1Jn_4:16 : ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ ἈΓΆΠῌ, as well as in 1Jn_4:18 : Ὁ ΦΌΒΟς ΟὐΚ ἜΣΤΙΝ ἘΝ Τῇ ἈΓΆΠῌ, by ἈΓΆΠΗ is meant the love of man, the love that dwells in us; comp. also 1Jn_4:12. Here also, therefore, ἈΓΆΠΗ must be understood of this love, with Estius, Socinus, Lange, Lücke, de Wette, Neander, Gerlach, Düsterdieck, Braune, etc.; ΤΕΤΕΛΕΊΩΤΑΙ is used in the same sense as ΤΕΤΕΛΕΙΩΜΈΝΗ ἘΣΤΙΝ, 1Jn_4:12; comp. also 1Jn_4:18 : Ἡ ΤΕΛΕΊΑ ἈΓΆΠΗ.

It is not the object of the love that is described by ΜΕΘʼ ἩΜῶΝ, for ΜΕΤΆ is not = ΕἸς, but it means in;[273] it either belongs to the verb: therein is love made perfect in us (Lücke, de Wette, Düsterdieck, Braune, etc.; Erdmann, who explains ΜΕΤΆ = ἘΝ), or to ἈΓΆΠΗ: the love which exists (prevails) in us is, etc. With the first construction, the addition appears rather superfluous; besides, its position would then be more natural before Ἡ ἈΓΆΠΗ. The underlying idea is that the love which has come from God (for all love is ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ) has made its abode with believers. Here, also, Ἡ ἈΓΆΠΗ is used without more particular definition, as in 1Jn_4:16, and is therefore not to be limited to a specific object (so also de Wette, Düsterdieck, Braune); it is therefore neither merely love to the brethren (Socinus, Lücke,[274] etc.), nor merely love to God (Lange, Erdmann); Baumgarten-Crusius not incorrectly explains the idea by the sentiment of love; only it must not be forgotten that true love is not merely sentiment, but action also; comp. chap. 1Jn_3:18.

ἐν τούτῳ does not refer to the preceding, nor to dwelling in love, nor to fellowship with God, but to what follows; not, however, to ὅτι, as Beza,[275] Grotius, etc., assuming an attraction, think, but to ἵνα παῤῥησίαν ἔχωμεν ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς κρίσεως. From 1Jn_4:18 it is clear that the chief aim of the apostle is to emphasize the fact that perfect love (ἡ τελεία ἀγάπη, 1Jn_4:18) is free from fear, or that he who is perfect in love (τετελειωμένος ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ) experiences no fear, but has confident boldness (παῤῥησία). The thought of this verse is no other than this, that love has its perfection in the fact that it fills us with such παῤῥησία; the clause beginning with ἵνα therefore contains the leading thought, to which the following ὅτι is subordinated. It is true, the combination ἐν τούτῳ … ἵνα (instead of ὅτι, 1Jn_4:9-10, and frequently) is strange, but it is quite Johns custom to use the particle of purpose, ἵνα, not seldom as objective particle; the same combination is found in the Gospel of Joh_15:8 (Meyer, indeed, differently on this passage); comp. chap. 1Jn_3:10, 23: αὕτη … ἵνα (Gospel of Joh_17:3); by ἵνα, παῤῥησίαν ἔχειν is indicated as the goal, not which God has in view in the perfecting of love in us (Braune), but which the ἀγάπη in its perfection attains (Düsterdieck). With παῤῥησίαν ἔχειν, comp. chap. 1Jn_2:28.[276]

The ἡμέρα τῆς ΚΡΊΣΕΩς is the day ὍΤΑΝ ΦΑΝΕΡΩΘῇ ἸΗΣΟῦς ΧΡΙΣΤΌς, 1Jn_2:28. The preposition is not to be interpreted = ΕἸς, and ἜΧΩΜΕΝ is not to be taken as a future (Ewald: that we shall have) the difficulty that anything future (behaviour on the judgment-day) should be taken as the evidence of perfect love in the present (ΤΕΤΕΛΕΊΩΤΑΙ is not to be taken as future complete, but as perfect: has been made perfect, or has become perfect = is perfected), is removed if we take it that in ἘΝ the ΠΑῤῬΗΣΊΑ, which the believer will have at the judgment-day, and which he already has when he thinks of the judgment, is included, which could the more easily occur in John, as in his view the judgment-day did not lie in far-off distance, but was already conceived as begun (chap. 1Jn_2:18). The future ΠΑῤῬΗΣΊΑ is to him in his love already present: similarly de Wette, Sander, Besser.[277]

The following words: ὅτι καθὼς … τούτῳ, serve to establish the foregoing thought. By ἘΚΕῖΝΟς we are not to understand, with Augustine, Bede, Estius, Lyranus, Castalio, etc., God, but, with most commentators, Christ, who is also suggested by the idea: ἡ ἡμέρα τῆς κρίσεως.

The comparison (ΚΑΘΏς) does not refer to ΕἾΝΑΙ ἘΝ Τῷ ΚΌΣΜῼ ΤΟΎΤῼ, so that the sense would be: as Christ is in this world, so are we also in this world, for (1) Christ is no longer in this world (comp. Gospel of Joh_17:11), and (2) in the fact that we are in this world lies no reason for ΠΑῤῬΗΣΊΑ at the day of judgment. By ΚΑΘῺς … ΚΑΊ it is rather the similarity of character that is brought out, as in 1Jn_2:16, where καθώς does not refer to the idea of ΠΕΡΙΠΑΤΕῖΝ in itself, but to the character of the walk, so that it is to be interpreted: as the character of Christ is, so is our character also; in the second clause ΟὝΤΩς is to be supplied, as in 1Co_8:2; Eph_4:17; Eph_4:21. What sort of character is meant must be inferred from the context; it is entirely arbitrary to find the similarity in the temptation (Rickli) or in the sufferings of Christ (Grotius), or in the fact that Christ was in the world but not of it (Sander), for there is no such reference in the context. But it is also inadmissible to regard as the more particular definition of ΚΑΘΏς the ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣΎΝΗ (Düsterdieck), or the Sonship of God (Lücke: as Christ is the Son of God, so are we also children of God), for neither do these ideas appear in the context. We are rather to go back to Ὁ ΜΈΝΩΝ ἘΝ Τῇ ἈΓΆΠῌ, and accordingly to refer ΚΑΘΏς to love (so Lorinus: reddit nos charitas Christo similes et conformes imagini filii Dei; Bengel, de Wette, Ewald, Myrberg, Braune, etc.[278]), so that the sense is: if we live in love, then we do not fear the judgment of Christ, because then we are like Him, and He therefore cannot condemn us.[279] The present ἐστί is to be retained as a present, and not to be turned into the preterite (Oecumenius: Ὡς ἘΚΕῖΝΟς ἮΝ ἘΝ Τῷ ΚΌΣΜῼ ἌΜΩΜΟς ΚΑῚ ΚΑΘΑΡΌς). Love is the eternal nature of Christ, comp. 1Jn_3:7 : ΚΑΘῺς ἘΚΕῖΝΟς ΔΊΚΑΙΌς ἘΣΤΙΝ. In the concluding words: ἘΝ Τῷ ΚΌΣΜῼ ΤΟΎΤῼ, which belong, not to ἘΣΤΙ, but only to ἐσμεν, it is brought out that we are still in the earthly world (κόσμος οὗτος is not an ethical idea), whereas Christ has already ascended from it into heaven.

[272] Sander: That it is made perfect must only mean: this love of God which was manifested in the sending of His Son is manifested in its might and glory in this, that, as overcoming everything, it brings us so far that we, etc.Calovius: Perficitur dilectio Dei in nobis, non ratione sui, sic enim absolute perfecta est, sed ratione nostri, non quoad existentiam, sed quoad experientiam.

[273] Hence ἡ ἀγ. μεθʼ ἡμῶν is neither = ἡ ἀγ. (τοῦ Θεοῦ) εἰς ἡμᾶς, nor = ἡ ἀγάπη (ἡμῶν) εἰς ἀλλήλους, as Lücke in his 1st ed. interprets (our love among ourselves, i.e. our mutual love); still less justifiable is the interpretation of Rickli: the mutual love between God and the believer; for John never includes God and men in ἡμεῖς. When Ebrard, admitting this, nevertheless accepts the interpretation of Rickli as far as the sense is concerned, explaining the love of God with us by the love which exists between God and us, this is purely arbitrary, for even though μετά is frequently used to denote a reciprocal action (see Winer, p. 336; VII. p. 352 ff.), yet this reference is here unsuitable, for it is not God and we, but love and we, that are placed together. Moreover, to supply τοῦ Θεοῦ with ἡ ἀγάπη is at the best only defensible if in μεθʼ ἡμῶν the subject to which the love refers is stated; but this is grammatically impossible. If, as Ebrard thinks, ἡ ἀγάπη denotes not love, but the love-relationship, then ἡ ἀγάπη μεθʼ ἡμῶν may only mean the loving-relationship that exists among us; this idea, however, as Ebrard with justice says, does not suit the context.

[274] According to Bertheaus note in the 3d ed. of Lückes Commentary (p. 364), Lücke has, however, in the edition of 1851 interpreted ἡ ἀγάπη: brotherly love combined with love to God.

[275] Bezas interpretation runs: Charitas adimpletur in nobis per hoc quod qualis ille est, tales et nos simus in hoc mundo, ut fiduciam habeamus in die judicii.

[276] In Luthers version, παῤῥησία is here, as elsewhere frequently, translated by Freudigkeit; this is not a word derived from Freude (joy), but the old German word Freidikeit (from freidic, fraidig) = haughtiness, boldness, confidence (comp. Vilmars pastoral-theol. Blätter, 1861, vols. I. and II. p. 110 ff.); in the older editions it is written sometimes freydickeyt (Wittenb. ed. 1525), sometimes freydigkeit (Nürnberg ed. 1524), but in 1537 (in a Strasburg ed.) freudigkeit. In what sense Luther understood the word is clearly seen from a sermon on 1Jn_4:16-21 (see Plochmanns ed. XIX. 383), in which he says: he means that faith should thus show itself, so that when the last day comes, you may have boldness and stand firm. It is to be observed also that such Hebrew and Greek words as contain the idea of joy Luther never translates by that word (boldness), but by joyous, joy.

[277] Braune, though he explains correctly the particular thought, denies that these two elements are here to be regarded as combined; but without entering into the difficulty which lies in the expression. Ebrard states the meaning of the words incorrectly thus: In the fact that the will of God, that we should have boldness in the day of judgment, is internally revealed to us, and manifests itself as a power (of confidence) in us (even now), the loving relationship of God with us is shown to be perfect. How many elements foreign to the context are here introduced!

[278] The reference of καθώς to love is the only one demanded by the context, so that it is not suitable to regard love only as a single element in the likeness of believers to Christ which is here spoken of, as is the case with Lücke, for instance. Erdmann lays the chief emphasis not so much on love as on fellowship with God, which exists in love; but by καθὼς … ἐστι it is not a relationship, but a quality that is indicated.

[279] Ebrard in his interpretation arrives at no definite result; as, on his supposition that the centre of the tertii comparationis lies in the words ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ, the present ἐστί is objectionable to him, he would prefer to conjecture οὕτως instead of ἐστί; but as a faithful attention to the requirements of Biblical exegesis would scarcely permit such a conjecture, he thinks that nothing else remains but either to suppose that ἐστί (in the sense of a historical present) is added as an indifferent, colourless word, or to refer καθὼς ἐκ. ἐστιν to the fact that Christ even now still exists in the wicked world to a certain extent, namely, in the Church, which is His body. Ebrard regards the second conjecture as the more correct, and in accordance with it thus states the sense: We look forward to the judgment with boldness, for, as He (in His Church) is still persecuted by the wicked world (even at the present day), so are we also in this world (as lambs among wolves) (!). Ebrard groundlessly maintains, against the explanation given in the text, that with it an οὕτως could not be omitted, nay, that even this would not suffice, but that it would have to read: ὅτι οἷος ἐκεῖνός ἐστι, τοιοῦτοι καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν, and that even then the passage remains obscure enough; and that with this acceptation ἐν τ. κ. τ. almost appears quite superfluous and foreign. Against the statement that our confidence in view of the judgment could not possibly be founded on our likeness to Christ, but only on the love of God as manifested in Christ, it is a decisive answer that John in other passages as well makes the παῤῥησία dependent upon our character, comp. 1Jn_2:28, 1Jn_3:21.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Jn 4:17 . τετελείωται , cf. 1Jn 4:12 . μεθʼ ἡμῶν : love is a heavenly visitant sojourning with us and claiming observance. Love has been “carried to its end” when we are like Jesus, His visible representatives. ὅτι resumes ἐν τούτῳ , ἵνα … κρίσεως being parenthetical: “herein … because” (1Jn 3:16 , 1Jn 4:9-10 ). παρρησίαν , see note on 1Jn 2:28 . ἐκεῖνος , see note on 1Jn 2:6 . ἐστιν , “is,” not ἧν , “was”. Jesus is in the world unseen, and our office is to make Him visible. We are to Him what He was to the Father in the days of His flesh “Dei inaspecti aspectabilis imago”.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Again (as a little before) he commendeth love, for that seeing that by our agreement with God in this thing, we have a certain testimony of our adoption, it cometh thereby to pass, that without fear we look for that latter day of judgment, so that trembling and that torment of conscience is cast out by this love.

This signifieth all likeness, not equality.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(Compare Jo1 3:19-21.)

our love--rather as the Greek, "LOVE (in the abstract, the principle of love [ALFORD]) is made perfect (in its relations) with us." Love dwelling in us advances to its consummation "with us" that is, as it is concerned with us: so Greek. Luk 1:58, "showed mercy upon (literally, 'with') her": Jo2 1:2, the truth "shall be with us for ever."

boldness--"confidence": the same Greek as Jo1 3:21, to which this passage is parallel. The opposite of "fear," Jo1 4:18. Herein is our love perfected, namely, in God dwelling in us, and our dwelling in God (Jo1 4:16), involving as its result "that we can have confidence (or boldness) in the day of judgment" (so terrible to all other men, Act 24:25; Rom 2:16).

because, &c.--The ground of our "confidence" is, "because even as He (Christ) is, we also are in this world" (and He will not, in that day, condemn those who are like Himself), that is, we are righteous as He is righteous, especially in respect to that which is the sum of righteousness, love (Jo1 3:14). Christ IS righteous, and love itself, in heaven: so are we, His members, who are still "in this world." Our oneness with Him even now in His exalted position above (Eph 2:6), so that all that belongs to Him of righteousness, &c., belongs to us also by perfect imputation and progressive impartation, is the ground of our love being perfected so that we can have confidence in the day of judgment. We are in, not of, this world.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 17. Herein is our love made perfect] By God dwelling in us, and we in him; having cast out all the carnal mind that was enmity against himself, and filled the whole heart with the spirit of love and purity. Thus the love is made perfect; when it thus fills the heart it has all its degrees; it is all in all; and all in every power, passion, and faculty of the soul.

May have boldness in the day of judgment] παρρησιαν. Freedom of speech, and liberty of access; seeing in the person of our Judge, him who has died for us, regenerated our hearts, and who himself fills them.

As he is] Pure, holy, and loving; so are we in this world; being saved from our sins, and made like to himself in righteousness and true holiness. No man can contemplate the day of judgment with any comfort or satisfaction but on this ground, that the blood of Christ hath cleansed him from all sin, and that he is kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation. This will give him boldness in the day of judgment.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17 Herein is our love made perfect There are two clauses in this passage, — that we are then partakers of divine adoption, when we resemble God as children their father; and, secondly, that this confidence is invaluable, for without it we must be most miserable.

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.

That we may have boldness He now begins to shew the fruit of divine love towards us, though he afterwards shews it more clearly from the contrary effect. It is, however, an invaluable benefit, that we can dare boldly to stand before God. By nature, indeed, we dread the presence of God, and that justly; for, as he is the Judge of the world, and our sins hold us guilty, death and hell must come to our minds whenever we think of God. Hence is that dread which I have mentioned, which makes men shun God as much as they can. But John says that the faithful do not fear, when mention is made to them of the last judgment, but that on the contrary they go to God’s tribunal confidently and cheerfully, because they are assured of his paternal love. Every one, then, has made so much proficiency in faith, as he is well prepared in his mind to look forward to the day of judgment.

As he is By these words, as it has been already said, he meant that it is required of us at our turn to resemble the image of God. What God then in heaven is, such he bids us to be in this world, in order that we may be deemed his children; for the image of God, when it appears in us, is as it were the seal of his adoption.

But he seems thus to place a part of our confidence on works. Hence the Papists raise their crests here, as though John denied that we, relying on God’s grace alone, can have a sure confidence as to salvation without the help of works. But in this they are deceived, because they do not consider that the Apostle here does not refer to the cause of salvation, but to what is added to it. And we readily allow that no one is reconciled to God through Christ, except he is also renewed after God’s image, and that the one cannot be disjoined from the other. Right then is what is done by the Apostle, who excludes from the confidence of grace all those in whom no image of God is seen; for it is certain that such are wholly aliens to the Spirit of God and to Christ. Nor do we deny that newness of life, as it is the effect of divine adoption, serves to confirm confidence, as a prop, so to speak, of the second order; but in the meantime we ought to have our foundation on grace alone. Nor indeed does the doctrine of John appear otherwise consistent with itself; for experience proves, and even Papists are forced to confess, that as to works they always give an occasion for trembling. Therefore no one can come with a tranquil mind to God’s tribunal, except he believes that he is freely loved.

But that none of these things please the Papists, there is no reason for any one to wonder, since being miserable they know no faith except that which is entangled with doubts. Besides, hypocrisy brings darkness over them, so that they do not seriously consider how formidable is God’s judgment when Christ the Mediator is not present, and some of them regard the resurrection as fabulous. But that we may cheerfully and joyfully go forth to meet Christ, we must have our faith fixed on his grace alone.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

17. Herein is our love made perfect] Better, as the margin, Herein is love with us made perfect; or, as R. V., Herein is love made perfect with us. Most earlier English Versions agree with the latter collocation. The meaning seems to be that love, which is of God (1Jn_4:7), takes up its abode with us and is developed until it is perfected. ‘Love’ here evidently means our love towards God: His love towards us can have no fear about it (1Jn_4:18). ‘Herein’ may refer to either of the two clauses which follow. ‘Herein … that’ (ἵνα) occurs possibly in Joh_15:8, and ‘Herein … because’ (ὅτι) occurs 1Jn_3:16; 1Jn_4:9-10. But it is perhaps best to make ‘Herein’ refer to what precedes; to our abiding in God and God in us. This avoids the awkwardness of making perfection of love in the present depend upon our attitude at the Judgment, which though near (1Jn_2:18) according to S. John’s view, is still future. In this way we can give its full meaning to ‘that’ (ἵνα): by close union with God our love is made perfect, in order that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. For ‘boldness’ see on 1Jn_2:28.

the day of judgment] The full phrase here used, ‘the day of the judgment’ occurs nowhere else: the usual form is ‘day of judgment’ (Mat_10:15; Mat_11:22; Mat_11:24; Mat_12:36; 2Pe_2:9; 2Pe_3:7). S. John elsewhere calls it ‘the last day’ (Joh_6:39-40; Joh_6:44; Joh_6:54), or ‘the great day’ (Rev_6:17; comp. Joh_16:14). Other Scriptural phrases are ‘the day of the Lord’, ‘the day of God’, ‘day of Christ’, ‘that day’, ‘the day’.

as he is, so are we in this world] ‘He’ (ἐκεῖνος) almost certainly is Christ, as probably always in this Epistle (1Jn_2:6, 1Jn_3:3; 1Jn_3:5; 1Jn_3:7; 1Jn_3:16). Our assurance with regard to the future Judgment is not presumption, because in this world we are in character like Christ. The resemblance is marked as close, ‘even so are we’ (καθώς); comp. 1Jn_2:6, 1Jn_3:3; 1Jn_3:7. In what does this close resemblance specially consist? In love: the whole context points to this. He need not fear the judgment of Christ who by loving has become like Christ.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Herein is our love made perfect,.... Or love with us; which some understand of the love of God towards his people, and which is shed abroad in them: this indeed removes all fear of an awful judgment, and renders that amiable and desirable; and such who are interested in it, shall stand in that day with intrepidity and boldness; and this sense may seem to be favoured by the Syriac version, which reads, "his love with us"; and especially by the Vulgate Latin version, which renders it, "the love of God with us"; but it is best to understand it agreeably to the context, of our love to God, which is with and in our hearts; and which is made, or made to appear to be perfect, true, and genuine, by our love to the brethren; since the love of God to us does not admit of degrees, nor does it, or the reality and sincerity of it, depend upon our love to the saints; See Gill on Jo1 4:12;

that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; not of men's judgment, when brought before judges, governors, and kings, for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, and stand at their bar, where saints, who have true love to God and Christ and the brethren, have stood with great courage and intrepidity, and shown much boldness, and used great freedom of speech; nor of judgment in this life, which sometimes begins at the house of God, though the saints often have great boldness and presence of mind, and freedom of expression both to God and man in a day of affliction, as Job had; but of the future judgment, which, though it will be very awful and solemn, Christ the Judge will appear with great majesty and glory, and all men will stand before him, and the books will be opened, and the judgment will proceed with great strictness and justice, and will issue in the everlasting perdition of devils and wicked men, yet the saints will have boldness in it: while evil men and devils tremble at the thoughts of it now, they rejoice and are glad; they love it, look for it, long for it, and hasten to it; and will stand fearless, and without the least dread, while others will flee to the rocks, and into the holes of the earth; and they will use freedom of speech with Christ, as the word here signifies; they will sing his new song, and ascribe the glory of their salvation to him, and express their praises of him, and love to him, then and to all eternity: and this boldness the saints may be said to arrive at through a perfect, or sincere, and genuine love of the brethren; for by this they know they are born again, and are born to an inheritance incorruptible, which they have both a meetness for, and a right unto; and knowing hereby that they are passed from death to life, they justly conclude they shall not enter into condemnation, and therefore are not afraid of the awful judgment: hereby they know that their faith is right, and that therefore they are manifestly the children of God; and if children, then heirs, and so shall be saved, and have everlasting life:

because as he is, so are we in this world; which may be understood either of God, to whom the saints are like; for such who are born again, as those who love the brethren are, they are partakers of the divine nature, and bear a resemblance to God, even in this present state of things; and as it becomes them to be holy in all manner of conversation, as he is holy, and to be merciful to wicked men, as he is merciful, so to love the saints as he does, and to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgive one another, as he for Christ's sake has forgiven them; for as God is love, they should be all love likewise; or of Christ, see Jo1 3:3; and that with respect to God; as he is the Son of God, so are they the sons of God; he by nature, they by grace and adoption; as he is loved by God with an everlasting and unchangeable love, with a love of complacency and delight, so are they loved by him with the same kind of love, even while they are in this world; and as he is the chosen of God, and precious, so they are chosen in him, and unto salvation by him. The Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, render it, "as he was": and the sense may be, as he was in this world, so are they; and which may regard not so much likeness in nature, though there is an agreement in that, excepting sin, but the sameness of state and condition; as he was a man of sorrows, attended with afflictions, loaded with reproaches, and followed with the persecutions of men, so are they; nor need they wonder that they are the objects of the world's hatred and contempt, since he was also; as he was tempted by Satan, forsaken by his friends, and deserted by his God, so sometimes are they in this world; and as he went through a variety of sufferings, and death itself, to glory, so through many tribulations do they enter the kingdom: moreover, as he now is in heaven, so are they in this world; even as he is in heaven, so are they representatively in him, while in this world; and as he is righteous, being justified and acquitted from all the charge of sin he took upon him, and therefore will appear a second time without sin, so they are completely righteous in him: and once more, as he is, so they are, or should be in this world; they should be holy as he is holy, and be humble, meek, and patient, as he is, and walk as he walked; and particularly love the saints and one another, as he does; and which seems to be greatly intended here, and must be understood not of an equality, but of a likeness. The Arabic version reads the words conditionally, and as depending on the preceding clause, "if as he was, we are in this world"; and then the sense is, that the saints shall have boldness in the day of judgment, provided they are in this world as Christ was.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

17 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.

Ver. 17. In the day of judgment] Those that bear his image shall hear his euge; well done, he will own them and honour them, and their faith that worketh by love, "shall be found unto praise, honour, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ," 1Pe 1:7. He that was so willingly judged for them, shall give no hard sentence against them.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Herein is our love made perfect - Margin, “love with us.” The margin accords with the Greek - μεθ ̓ ἡμῶν meth' hēmōn. The meaning is, “the love that is within us, or in us, is made perfect.” The expression is unusual; but the general idea is, that love is rendered complete or entire in the manner in which the apostle specifies. In this way love becomes what it should be, and will prepare us to appear with confidence before the judgment-seat. Compare the notes at 1Jo 4:12.

That we may have boldness in the day of judgment - By the influence of love in delivering us from the fear of the wrath to come, 1Jo 4:18. The idea is, that he who has true love to God will have nothing to fear in the day of judgment, and may even approach the awful tribunal where he is to receive the sentence which shall determine his everlasting destiny without alarm.

Because as he is, so are we in this world - That is, we have the same traits of character which the Saviour had, and, resembling him, we need not be alarmed at the prospect of meeting him.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The charity of God (which may either signify the love by which we love God, or by which God loves us) perfected with us, or in us, and so possesseth our souls, as to give us an humble confidence of our salvation, when we shall appear before his tribunal at the day of judgment: because as he is, we also are in this world. These words are differently expounded. They may signify, that as this world by his grace are always loving him and our neighbour, and increasing in this love, which gives us a confidence of our salvation. Or they may bear this sense, that as Jesus Christ was suffering in this world for us, so we are suffering for his sake. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

And by this means (viz. of our inwardness with God) doth our love grow to that perfection, that we shall have the most fearless freedom and liberty of spirit in the judgment day; our hearts no way misgiving to appear before him as a Judge, whose very image we find upon ourselves, he having beforehand, made us such even in this world, though in an infinitely inferior degree, as he is, compositions of love and goodness. Or, if

the day of judgment should mean, as some conceive, of our appearance before human tribunals for his sake, such a temper of spirit must give us the same boldness in that case also.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. Love… perfect—It is carried to its proper completion.

Boldness— Fearlessness. A calm assurance that our judge is our friend, and that for us there is no condemnation. And this boldness is not based on the idea that there is no punishment for the finally impenitent, but upon the consciousness, through the spirit of love bestowed upon us, that our reconciliation with him is perfect. Day of judgment. His parousia, or coming. See notes on 1Jn_2:28; 2Th_2:2; 2Th_2:8.

As he is, so are we—Our moral conformity in love gives us a trusting sympathy. He is the holy Son of God, we, his reconciled children.

In this world— Equally opposed to us both.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This verse raises various questions which can scarcely be answered with certainty. Does "herein" ejn toutw look back to verse 16? or forwards to "that" ina? or forwards to "because" oti? Again, does "with us" meq hJmwn belong to "is made perfect" teteleiwtai? or to "love" hJ ajgaph? Joh_15:8 inclines us to refer "herein" to "that" ina; and "with us" or "among us" goes better with the verb than with the subject: "Herein has love reached its perfection among us Christians, i.e., in the Church, that we have confidence in the day of judgment." This is the perfection of love to have no fear. The oti, introduces the reason for this confidence: its basis is our likeness to Christ. especially in being united to the Father. (Joh_17:21, Joh_17:23, Joh_17:26) Compare "even as he is pure", (1Jn_3:3) and "even as he is righteous": (1Jn_3:7) kaqwv ejkeinov in all three cases.

Verses 12) is perfecting itself in the soul that loves. "With us." With whom? "With us, as believers, one towards another?" or "with believers and God?" We adopt the latter view God"s own love consummating itself in working through believers; and their love consummating itself also in laying hold of God"s. "It is difficult not to feel that there is some subtle reference to the idea of God with us. "Love is not simply perfected in man by an act of Divine power, but in fulfilling this issue God works with man" (Westcott).

2. "Because as he is, so are we in this world." In what sense are believersin the world as Christ is? or rather, what is the sense in which it is so intended here by the apostle? Is it not this we are looking forward to the day of judgment as the consummation of our hope, and the Redeemer is working in the world with a view to the day of judgment as the consummation of his mediatorial work? In this view we are confirmed by a remark of Canon Westcott: world" as distinguished from "the world" emphasizes the idea of transitoriness." Just so, Christ, in his redeeming work, and we in our believing hope, are working with the same goal in view day of judgment." This world is but a passing phase of things.

3. "Fear hath punishment Authorized Version, "torment." There isnothing here to suggest that "fear" has any disciplinary effect in inducing love. The apostle views it simply as the ever-attendant penalty of unlovingness. He whose nature is out of harmony with God"s must dread him everywhere and always. Spirits in league with evil will seek rest in vain. They will tremble. But in the perfecting of love all this is done away.

I THE PRESENT PERIOD IS BUT A TRANSITION ONE. This is the day in which our Lord Jesus is carrying on his saving work in the world, and his educating process in the Church; and all with a view to "the great day." Believers, too, are only in the preliminary period of their training, and hence they too believe and hope and love with a view to "the great day." As their Lord is, so are they in this passing world, looking to and preparing for what lies above and beyond it. Hence such passages as these: Matthew Mar_13:35-37; Luk_13:24, 25 18:8 21:36; Joh_14:3; Act_2:20, Act_2:21; 2Co_5:10; Php_1:6, 10; Col_1:28; 1Th_5:23; 2Ti_1:12.

II THE DAY TO WHICH WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD IS "THE DAY OF JUDGMENT." It is the day of the Lord, when he shall be manifested. It may be as lengthened a period as the present one, which is "the day of salvation." As the day of judgment, it will close the probation of the race; while for those who are looking for our Lord it will bring in the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the last time. In the word "judgment," however, much more is included than at first sight appears. "Judgment" is indeed a rectification, an adjustment; but then what that may mean in detail depends on the person or thing to be judged. If, e.g., any one is unlawfully bound, judgment would be liberation. If any one be deprived of a right, his judgment would mean restoration. If unjustly accused, vindication. If misunderstood or misinterpreted, manifestation. If good and evil are mixed up together, judgment would be separation; and as the result, for the bad condemnation, and for the righteous glorification. Judgment is, in fact, the restitution of all things, not necessarily in the sense attributed to that phrase by advocates of universal restoration, but in a far higher sense, even that of rendering to every man according as his work shall be. (cf Act_17:31)

III IF THAT DAY BE DREADED ON OUR PART, IT IS EVIDENT THERE IS SOME DEFICIENCY IN OUR LOVE. That aught so solemn as the final destinies of a race can be contemplated without a feeling of awe an awe that is sometimes overwhelming is not desirable, even were itpossible. Reverence, indeed, forbids it otherwise. But this holy, reverent awe must not be confounded with the servile dread referred to in the text: eujlabeia (Heb_12:28) is very different from fobov. The fear which is inconsistent with perfect love is the fear of the slave dreading the lash, or the culprit dreading the verdict. But if the love of God is within us, sweetly subduing us with its tenderness, and if through that love sin is pardoned and destroyed, why, there is no lash to dread, there is no adverse verdict to fear; (Joh_5:24, Revised Version) for in such a case, to see the Judge upon the throne will be to look upon the face of an infinite Vindicator and Friend, in whose love we have lived here, and the enjoyment of whose love is the highest heaven for ever! And so far as the judgment will bear on others, the man of love will be more than content with the decisions of the Son of God and Son of man, and will desire nothing more than that the entire race should be dealt with by Christ as he sees fit. Evidently, if this be not our state of mind, there must be deficiency in love in exactly the same degree as there is any restless fear.

IV CONSEQUENTLY, OUR GREAT CONCERN SHOULD BE TO BE PERFECTED IN LOVE. We may take this in either or both of two ways.

1. Let it be our concern that God"s own love may be so richlycommunicated to us as to transform us to his likeness.

2. Let it be our concern to have so clear an apprehension and knowledge ofGod, that we shall see in him and in all his attributes only pure and perfect love. In the former case there can be nothing to dread for ourselves. In the latter case we shall dread nothing in him. Fobov has no door of entrance whatever.

V WHEN PERFECTED IN LOVE WE SHALL HAVE parjrJhsia IN THE DAY OF JUDGMENT. "Confidence," "boldness," "freedom of speech". (cf 1Jo 2:38 1Jn_3:21, Greek) Dread seals the lips. Love opens them (Luk_21:36; Rom_14:12; Mar_6:30) The "salvation" which will serve then is not an artificial plucking out of a burning ruin, irrespectively of character; it is being made perfect by Divine grace, even as our Father in heaven is perfect.

VI CONSEQUENTLY, as the apostle of love shows us here, EACH OF US MUST FACE THE SOLEMN QUESTION What will the judgment-day bring to me or "punishment"? One or the other must be. Which? There may be an attempt to lessen the weight of these thoughts by objections or pleas; e.g., it may be said:

1. The "punishment" is corrective. We suggest three replies.

(1) If it be, is that any reason for being content with needing correction, when we ought to be awaiting honour?

(2) It is folly to urge the plea, unless men are very sure of its accuracy. But are they?

1Co_11:32 is totally against any such plea. Or it may besaid:

2. There is no knowing when the judgment may come. (cf Eze_12:27) But men forget that the judgment is but the manifestation of that which is going on now and ever. A spirit out of harmony with God must be ill at ease always and everywhere. Fear hath torment, now; and can never be separated from it, any more than a man can flee from his own shadow. (Job_15:21-35)

Vers. 17, 18.

The victory of love over fear.

is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, etc. Our text authorizes the following observations.

I THAT A GREAT DAY OF JUDGMENT AWAITS US IN THE FUTURE. St. John speaks of "the day of judgment." The evidence for the coming of such a day is various and strong.

1. The administration of moral government in this world requires it. In this present state the distribution of good and evil, of prosperity and adversity, among men is not in harmony with their respective characters. We find St. Paul in prison, and Nero on the throne; the infamous Jeffreys on the bench, the sainted Baxter at the bar. This aspect of the Divine government occasioned sore perplexity to Asaph, (Psa_73:2-14) and from that perplexity he obtained deliverance by the recollection of the truth that a time of judgment and retribution awaits our race in the future. (Psa_73:16-20)

2. Conscience anticipates the coming of such a day. The "dread of something after death" has been felt by most men at some time or other. The voice within testifies to the solemn truth that after death cometh judgment.

3. The Bible declares the coming of such a day. (See Ecc_11:9; Mat_12:36 Mat_25:31-46; Act_17:31; Rom_2:16 Rom_14:10, Rom_14:12; 2Co_5:10 Jud_1:14, 15; Rev_20:11-13)

II THAT THE SOLEMN TRANSACTIONS OF THAT DAY ARE FITTED TO AWAKEN HUMAN FEARS. Very clearly is this implied in the text. The awakened conscience cries, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for before thee no man living is righteous." Two things in connection with the day of judgment are likely to lead to fear.

1. The consciousness of our sins. No human being can stand before the great tribunal and plead "Not guilty." In relation to man we may be guiltless; that is possible. But in relation to the holy God and his perfect Law, we have each sinned, and brought ourselves into condemnation, and merited punishment. Hence the prospect of the day of judgment may well awaken our fear.

2. The omniscience and holiness of the Judge. He knows our every sin. Even our sinful thoughts and feelings are manifest unto him. He has set our iniquities before him, our secret sins in the light of his countenance. (Psa_90:8) And he cannot excuse any sin. Sin is the abominable thing which he hates. (Jer_44:4) He is "of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity". (Hab_1:13) Who, then, can stand before him in that day?

III PERFECT LOVE WILL BANISH SUCH FEARS AND INSPIRE HOLY CONFIDENCE. "Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment," etc. "Love" here is not merely our love to God, or our love to our neighbour, but the principle of love, or, as Ebrard expresses it, "the love which subsists between God and us; thus that simple relation of love of which the apostle had spoken in verse 12, and just now again in verse 16." And its being perfected cannot mean that it is so fully developed as to be incapable of further increase or improvement. In that sense love will never be altogether "made perfect with us." One meaning of "to be made perfect" is "to attain its end." And one of the designs of God is that love should inspire us with holy boldness in the day of judgment. "The confidence," says Afford, "which we shall have in that day, and which we have even now by anticipation of that day, is the perfection of our love; grounded on the consideration which follows;" viz. "Because as he is, even so are we in this world.

1. Perfect love expels servile fear. There is a reverent fear which increases as our love increases. "O fear the Lord, ye his saints," etc.; (Psa_34:9) "Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord," etc.. (Psa_115:11, Psa_115:13) But servile fear, the fear which hath torment, is incompatible with holy love. "There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear," etc. What countless fears agitate the hearts of those who are not in sympathy with God! Some men are dreading secular poverty; others, painful and lingering illness; others, death; others, judgment; others, God himself. Such fears agitate and distress souls; they have torment. Perfect love will expel each and all of these tormentors. It clothes our life and its experiences in new

2. aspects, by enabling us to regard them in a different spirit. This love is of God; it proceeds from him and returns to him, and it cannot dread him or his appointments in relation to us. In this way it banishes from the heart the dread of death and of the judgment.

3. Perfect love inspires holy confidence. It will impart "boldness in the day of judgment." Holy love is a most courageous thing. "Love is strong as death. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it." Since this relation of love subsists between God and us, and since God is what he is, viz. "love" (verse 16) and "light", (1Jn_1:5) we can do no other than trust him, and even now look forward with confidence to the day of judgment, Perfect love not only expels servile fear, but inspires victorious trust in God.

IV THE CONFIDENCE WHICH PERFECT LOVE INSPIRES IS WELL-GROUNDED. "Because as he is, even so are we in this world." "God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him;" and in a measure he is like unto God. Moreover, love is a transforming principle and power; and they who abide in love are ever growing into more complete likeness to God in Christ; and for this reason they may be well assured that in the day of judgment they will be accepted of him. If we are in this relation of holy love, we have communion with our Lord and Saviour, he dwells in us, we dwell in him, and we may rejoice in the assurance that, because we morally resemble him, he will not condemn us in that day. W.J.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hereby - That is, by this communion with God. Is our love made perfect; that we may - That is, so that we shall have boldness in the day of judgment - When all the stout-hearted shall tremble. Because as he - Christ. Is - All love. So are we - Who are fathers in Christ, even in this world.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Still our apostle proceeds by way of argument to enforce upon us the obligation of our duty to love one another; he assures us here, that if our love be made perfect, that is, heightened and improved by an exact corresponding with the divine pattern and precept; if we love one another in obedience to God’s command, and in conformity to Christ’s example, it will give us boldness in the day of judgment, and we may think and speak of, we may expect and look for, the approach of that day without fear and consternation of mind; the reason is added, because as Christ was, so are we in the world; that is, as he was full of holiness and purity, of love and charity, so have we endeavoured to be in imitation of his example, according to our measure, in some proportion and degree.

Learn hence, 1. That such as are sincerly gracious, and do excel in the grace of love, are in the word in some sort as Christ was in the world; such as walk in love, walk as Christ walked.

Learn, 2. That such as are in the world, as Christ was in the world, shall have boldness when Christ comes to judgment, and need not fear the condemnation of that dreadful day; Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; the reason of this freedom from the fear of wrath is added, There is no fear in love; 1Jn 4:18 that is, no slavish or distrustful fear, whereby we question the favour of God, but only a filial and reverential fear, whereby we stand in awe of offending him as a father; But perfect love casteth out fear; that is, either the actings of our perfect love to God, or the apprehensions of God’s perfect love towards us, do cast out all that fear which has torment in it.

Yet note, That although perfect love casteth out tormenting fear, it calls in obeying fear, Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man; Ecc 12:13 an awful fear of God is all duty, and every grace.

Note also, The true reason of our disquieting and tormenting fear is the imperfection and weakness of our love: fear may stand with faith and love, but not with perfect faith, nor perfect love: He that feareth is not made perfect in love, and because he is not made perfect in love, therefore he feareth.

Blessed be God, as there will be no torment, so no fear, in heaven; that is, no tormenting fear; yet there is a fear of reverence, which will undoubtedly remain with glorified saints in heaven; they shall have an everlasting awe of the majesty and holiness of God eternally fixed upon their hearts and spirits, even in the kingdom of glory in heaven, as well as in the kingdom of grace here on earth; the saints serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear;

Lord, hasten the perfecting of thy grace in us, particularly the perfection of our love, that perfect love may cast out tormenting fear, and cherish such a reverential fear as will both prepare us for heaven, and accompany us in heaven, to all eternity.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17–21. Herein is our love made perfect. When love is perfected in us we will have no fear of the judgment day. Those who love God supremely will not be terrified at his presence. Because as he is, so are we, etc. The great ground of boldness is that we are as Christ; purified like him, made sinless like him, filled with love like him and appear at judgment in his likeness. This transformation begins when we are converted, hence, in this world.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Because of this, this love has been made perfect among us, so that we will have confidence

This can be stated in active form. Possible meanings are 1) "Because of this" refers back to 1 John 4:16. AT: "Because whoever lives in love is in God and God is in him, God has made his love for us complete, and so we may have complete confidence" or 2) "Because of this" refers to "we may have confidence." AT: "We are confident that God will accept us on the day he judges everyone, so we know he has made his love for us complete" (See: Active or Passive)

this love has been made perfect among us

This can be stated in active form. AT: "God has made his love for us complete" (See: Active or Passive)

because as he is, just so are we in this world

"because the relationship that Jesus has with God is the same relationship we have with God in this world"

Instead, perfect love throws out fear

Here "love" is described as a person with the power to remove fear. God's love is perfect. AT: "But when our love is complete, we are no longer afraid" (See: Personification)

because fear has to do with punishment

"because we would be afraid only if we thought that he would punish us"

But the one who fears has not been made perfect in love

This can be stated in active form. AT: "But when a person is afraid that God will punish him, his love is not complete" (See: Active or Passive)

translationWords

love

perfect

confidence

day of the Lord

fear

punish

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

17. ἐν τούτῳ τ. ἡ ἀγ. μεθ ̓ ἡμῶν. Here R.V. Herein is love made perfect with us, or the margin of A.V. Herein is love with us made perfect, is to be preferred to A.V. Most earlier English Versions agree with R. V.; and μεθ ̓ ἡμῶν probably belongs to τετελείωται, not to ἡ ἀγάπη. So also the Vulgate (Cod. Am.), perfecta est nobiscum caritas: while Augustine renders perfecta est dilectio in nobis. Ἡ ἀγάπη here must mean our love towards God: His love towards us cannot have any fear (1Jn 4:18) in it. This love takes up its abode, is developed, and perfected, with us. Ἐν τούτῳ may refer to either of the clauses which follow. Ἐν τούτῳ … ἵνα is a possible construction, and perhaps occurs Joh 15:8; and ἐν τούτῳ ὅτι occurs 1Jn 3:16; 1Jn 4:9-10. But it is perhaps best to make ἐν τούτῳ refer to what precedes; to our abiding in God and God in us. This avoids the awkwardness of making perfection of love in the present depend upon our attitude at the Judgment, which though near (1Jn 2:18) according to S. John’s view, is still future. In this way we can give its full meaning to ἴνα: by close union with God our love is made perfect, in order that we may have boldness at the Day of Judgment. For παρρησία see on 1Jn 2:28. Quisquis fiduciam habet in die judicii, perfecta est in illo caritas (Bede from Augustine).

τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῇς κρίσεως. The full phrase occurs nowhere else: the usual form being ἡμέρα κρίσεως (Mat 10:15; Mat 11:22; Mat 11:24; Mat 12:36; 2Pe 2:9; 2Pe 3:7). S. John elsewhere calls it ἡ ἐσχάτη ἡμέρα (Joh 6:39-40; Joh 6:44; Joh 6:54; Joh 11:24; Joh 12:48), or ἡ ἡμέρα ἡ μεγάλη (Rev 6:17) or ἡ ἡμ. ἐκείνη ἡ μεγάλη (Rev 16:14). Other Scriptural phrases are ἡ ἡμ. ἐκείνη (Mat 13:1; Mar 13:32; Luk 10:12), ἡ ἡμ. τοῦ Κυρίου (1Co 5:5; 2Co 1:14; 2Th 2:2), ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμέρα (2Pe 3:12), ἡ ἡμ. (Heb 10:25), ἡμ. αἰῶνος (2Pe 3:18), κρίσις μεγάλης ἡμ. (Jud 1:6), ἡ κρίσις (Mat 12:41-42; Luk 10:14).

καθὼς ἐκεῖνος … καὶ ἡμεῖς. For καθὼς … καὶ … see on 1Jn 2:18. Ἐκεῖνος, as elsewhere in this Epistle (1Jn 2:6; 1Jn 3:3; 1Jn 3:5; 1Jn 3:7; 1Jn 3:16), almost certainly means Christ. Our assurance with regard to the future Judgment is not presumption, because so far as is possible in this world we are in character like Christ. The resemblance is marked as close, ‘even so are we’ (καθώς); comp. 1Jn 2:6; 1Jn 3:3; 1Jn 3:7. In what does this close resemblance specially consist? In love: the whole context points to this. He need not fear the judgment of Christ who by loving has become like Christ. ἐν τῷ κ. τούτῳ does not belong to both clauses; otherwise we should have had καθὼς ἐκεῖνος ἡν. The plural throughout is to be noted: μεθʼ ἡμῶν … καὶ ἡμεῖς. “The Apostle does not write to any individuals as individuals, but to the members of the congregation as such. In the Church alone, but certainly there, is to be found such a consummation of love, such a perfection of fellowship with God” (Haupt).

Here again Jerome differs considerably from his own Vulgate. In the latter; In hoc perfecta est nobiscum caritas, ut fiduciam habeamus in die judicii, quia sicut ille est et nos sumus in hoc mundo: in his own works (Adv. Jovin. I. 40); In hoc perfecta est nostra caritas, si fiduciam habeamus in diem judicii; ut quomodo ille est, sic et nos simus in hoc saeculo.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. ἐν τούτῳ κ.τ.λ.] Two interpretations of this verse are possible, according as the words refer to what precedes or to what follows. Ἐν τούτῳ may recapitulate the clause ἐν τῷ θεῷ μένει καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἐν αὐτῷ. Love finds its consummation in the realization of this mutual fellowship. But it would be truer to say that love is made perfect, not in fellowship generally, but in perfect fellowship; and this is hardly expressed by the words. And in the general usage of the author ἐν τούτῳ refers to what follows, whenever the sentence contains a clause which allows of such a reference. Such clauses are either added without connecting particle, or are introduced by ὅτι, ἐάν, or ὅταν. There is no certain instance of the construction ἐν τούτῳ ἵνα. But Joh 15:8 should probably be interpreted in this way (ἐντούτῳ ἐδοξάσθη ὁ πατήρ μου, ἵνα καρπὸν πολὺν φέρητε). And the writer’s use of the purely definitive ἵνα is so well established that such a construction causes no difficulty. If ἐν τούτῳ refers to the clause introduced by ἵνα the meaning will be that love is made perfect in full confidence, It has been perfectly realized only by those who can look forward with sure confidence to the judgment of the Great Day. Such confidence is the sign of perfect love. The thought is developed further in ver. 18. Cf. also 2:28.

παρρησίαν] See the note on 2:28.

μεθʼ ἡμῶν] As contrasted with ἐν ἡμῖν (א)it is possible that the phrase may emphasize the co-operation of men in the realization of fellowship, “In fulfilling this issue, God works with man” (Westcott, who compares Act 15:4). But it is at least equally possible that the usage of the Hebrew preposition עם may have influenced the choice of preposition.

ὅτι κ.τ.λ.] The ground of the assurance. Those who have attained to fellowship share, in some degree, the character of the Christ, as He is in His exalted state, in perfect fellowship with the Father. Cf. Joh 17:23, ἐγὼ ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ σὺ ἐν ἐμοί· ἵνα ὦσιν τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἕν. Those who are like their Judge, can await with confidence the result of His decrees. The fellowship is limited by the conditions of earthly life (ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ). Οὗτος“emphasizes the idea of transitoriness.” But so far as it goes the fellowship is real.

ἐκεῖνος] is generally used in this Epistle of the exalted Christ; cf. 2:6, 3:3, 5, 7, 16.

ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τῆς κρίσεως] Cf. 2:28, ἐὰν φανερωθῇ. However much the writer may seek to spiritualize the ordinary Christian, or even the Synoptic, eschatology, he has not eliminated from the sphere of his theological thought the idea of a final “day” of judgment, when the processes which are already at work shall reach their final issue and manifestation. The attempts which have been made to draw a distinction in this respect between the Gospel and the Epistle cannot be said to have been successful.

η αγαπη] + του θεου96 alpauc vgcle tol. sahbw: eius arm.

μεθ ημων] + εν ημιν א.

εχωμεν] εχομεν א K Rev_5: σχωμεν Ib 78 (-).

τη] om. Ia δ454 (794).

ημερα] αγαπη א.

οτι… εσμεν] ut … simus sahbw (non liquet sahd).

κρισεως] + προς τον ενανθρωπησαντα Ic 208-116, 356 (307).

εκεινος] κακεινος13 Rev_2.

εστιν] ην εν τω κοσμω αμωμος και καθαρος ουτως Ic 116, 356 (-).

εσμεν] εσομεθα א.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Herein [εν τουτω] . To what does this refer? Two explanations are given. (1.) To the following that we may have boldness. So Huther, who argues thus on the ground that ver. 18 shows that the drift of the writer's thought is toward the fearlessness of love. According to this, therefore, love has its fulfillment in freeing us from fear, and inspiring us with boldness even in view of the final judgment. (2.) To what precedes, viz., our dwelling in God and He in us. So Westcott : "The fellowship of God with man and of man with God, carries with it the consummation of love." I prefer the latter, principally on the ground that in such phrases as ejn toutw in this, dia touto on this account, therefore, the pronoun usually refers to something preceding, though more fully developed in what follows. See Joh 5:16, 18; Joh 6:65; Joh 8:47; Joh 10:17; Joh 12:18; Joh 16:1 5. Our love [η αγαπη μεθ ημων] . The A. V. construes meq' hJmwn with us, with love, making with us equivalent to our. In that case it might mean either the love which is between Christians, or the love which is between God and Christians. The Rev. construes with us with the verb : love is made perfect with us. The latter is preferable. I do not think it would be easy to point out a parallel in the New Testament to the expression ajgaph meq' love that with us = our love. The true idea is that love is perfected in fellowship. The love of God is perfected with us, in communion with us, through our abiding in Him and He in us. "Love is not simply perfected in man, but in fulfilling this issue God works with man" (Westcott). Compare 2 John 3, "grace shall be with us" (true reading); and Act 25:4, "what things God had done with them." See also Mt 1:23; 1Co 26:24; Gal 6:18. Meta with, is used constantly in the New Testament of ethical relations. See Mt 20:2; Mt 2:3; Luk 23:12; Act 7:9; Rom 12:15; 1Jo 1:6.

Boldness [παρρησιαν] . See on 2 28.

The day of judgment [τη ημερα της κρισεως] . Lit., the day of judgment. The exact phrase occurs here only. Hmera krisewv day of judgment, without the articles, is found Mt 10:15; Mt 11:22, 24; Mt 12:36; 2Pe 2:9; 2Pe 3:7. The day is called the great day of their wrath (Revelation 6 17); the day of wrath and of revelation of the righteous judgement of God (Rom 2:5); the day of visitation (1Pe 2:12); the last day (Joh 6:39, 40, 44, 54); that day (Mt 7:22; Luk 6:23; Luk 10:12). The judgment is found Mt 12:41, 42; Luk 10:14; Luk 11:31, 32.

Because. Likeness to Christ is the ground of boldness.

As [καθως] . Not absolutely, but according to our measure, as men in this world.

He is. The present tense is very significant. Compare 1Jo 3:7, "is righteous even as He is righteous." The essence of out being as He is lies in perfected love; and Christ is eternally love. "He that abideth in love abideth in God and God in him." Compare 1Jo 3:2.

In this world. This present economy, physical and moral. The phrase limits the conception of likeness.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. Ἔν rovrg...] Inthis... The reference has been variously explained. Some have connected in this with what follows, others with what precedes. In the former case two views have been held. The words have been taken closely with the second of the following clauses, ἐν ,rourq...6rt...in this...because.... and again with the first, ἐν ‘rovrm...iva..., in this...that

.. The former construction may be at once set aside. The intervening clause, wa...xpiceos, makes the connexion of ἐν τούτῳ With ὅτι most unnatural, The connexion of ἐν τούτῳ with iva gives a true sense and is not foreign to St John’s style, though the exact combination does not occur (not John xv. 8) in his writings; for it would not be strange that he should use a final particle (ἵνα) in place of a demonstrative particle (orc), in order to bring out the idea of effort involved to the last in the realisation of confidence (comp. John xvii. 3; 6. iii. 11 note). But the context and his general usage (comp. ii. 3 note) favour the conclusion that the reference is to that which precedes. The argument requires the affirmation of a fact from which a consequence is drawn, rather than a further explanation of how love is perfected. The fellowship of man with God and of God with man carries with it the consummation of love. Jn this— in this double communion—love hath been perfected already on the divine

| side; and it is God’s will that men

should make its blessings their own in view of the close of earthly life.

Jerome has a strange inversion of the sense of the passage: In hoc perfecta est...caritas, si fiduciam habeamus...ut quomodo ille est sic et nos simus... (6. Jovin. i. ὁ. 40).

τετελ. μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν] perfecta est nobiscum V., is (hath been) perfected withus, There can benodoubtthat uel? ἡμῶν is to be joined with the verb. The structure of the sentence is decisive against taking ἡ dy. μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν together in the sense ‘the love which is realised between Christians,’ or ‘the love of God shewn among us.’ The unique form of expression appears to have been chosen in place of the simple ‘hath been perfected in us’ in order to place the perfection clearly in the realised fellowship of God and man. Love is not simply perfected in man (ἐν ἡμῖν) by an act of divine power, but in fulfilling this issue God works with man (μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν). Something of the same thought of cooperation is seen in Acts XV. 4, ὅσα ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς μετ᾽ αὐτῶν. Comp. 2 John 3 ἔσται μεθ᾽ ἡμῶν χάρις...

Philo calls attention to a use of the preposition not unlike in Gen. iii, 12 εὖ τὸ μὴ φάναι ἡ γυνὴ ἣν ἔδωκας ἐμοὶ ἀλλὰ μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ. οὐ γὰρ ἐμοὶ ὡς κτῆμα.. «ἔδωκας ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴν ἀφῆκας ἄνετον καὶ ἐλευθέραν... (Leg. Alleg. iii. § 18; i. 98 M.).

The tense presents the perfection as dependent on a continuous fellowship between God and the Christian body. Contrast Clem. ad Cor. i. 50 of ἐν ἀγάπῃ τελειωθέντες.

ἵνα παρρ. ἔχ. ut fiduciam habeamus V. The fulness of love is given with a view to an end, The feeling |

The reference is not to any one attribute, as love or righteousness, but to the whole character of Christ as it is made known; and His highpriestly prayer serves as a commentary on the view which St John suggests of the position of Christians in the world.

Following Augustine (see iii. 7 note) Bede says forcibly: Non semper ad soqualitatem dicitur sicut, sed dicitur ad quandam similitudinem... Si ergo facti sumus ad imaginem Dei, quare non sicut Deus sumus? non ad sequalitatem sed pro modo nostro. Inde ergo nobis datur fiducia in die judicii, quia sicut ille est et nos sumus in hoc mundo, imitando videlicet perfectionem dilectionis in mundo cujus ille exemplum nobis quotidie preebet de ceelo.

ὅτι ὁ φ. KOA. ἔχει) Quoniam timor poenam (tormentum Aug.) habet V.,

summation of the believer is presented in two complementary forms. He is himself the sphere in which love finds its perfection ; and love is the sphere in which he finds his perfection. Love is perfected in him (ii. 5): and he is perfected in love. Comp. Additional Note on 2. 15.

Bengel in one of his unmatched epigrams gives a history of the soul through its relations to fear and love: Varius hominum status: sine timore et amore; cum timore sine amore; cum timore et amore; sine timore cum amore.

19—21. In the preceding verses St John has shewn what love brings to the believer. He now lays open the obligation which it imposes upon him. The love which is inspired by God must be manifested towards the brethren according to His commandment.

19 We love, because he first loved us. 2 Jf any one say I love God, and hate his brother, he ἐδ a liar ; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen cannot love God, whom he hath not seen. 2: And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also.

Brooke Foss Westcott (1825–1901), The Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and The Epistles of St John (1883) — public domain (pre-1929). Text recovered from Internet Archive / Google Books OCR scans. Westcott’s Gospel of John commentary is not included (its OCR lost the chapter running-heads required for reliable verse-keying). Some Greek quoted in the Hebrews volume is imperfectly rendered by the OCR.