For an explanation of this layout and the key to the books referenced, read here.
God’s Love and Ours (cont.), 4:16-21 NIV
v. 16, And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “We know and rely on (lit., ‘have come to believe’) … Living in the atmosphere of mutual Christian love produces a personal knowledge of God’s love and fresh experience of faith in that love. … John again affirmed the reality of the abiding experience enjoyed by all Christians who love.”
(ESV) “Assurance of salvation, while never an arrogant presumption, can become a settled state of mind and heart.” (Recovery) “God abides in us to be our life inwardly and our living outwardly. Thus He can be one with us practically.”
v. 17, This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “Loving Christians can even have boldness at the judgment seat of Christ when their Lord returns. … An unloving Christian is unlike his Lord and may anticipate rebuke and loss of reward at the judgment seat. But a loving believer is one in whom the work of God’s love has been made complete …, and the fruit of that is boldness before the One who will judge him.”
(Life) “With God living in us through Christ, we have no reason to fear this day, because we have been saved from punishment.”
(ESV) “Either eternal life or eternal punishment awaits all humanity …, and God’s love furnishes a sure hope for those who have trusted in him. … The love that Christ embodied and lived out among believers is their confidence to the day of judgment.”
(Recovery) “The judgment at the judgment seat of Christ at his coming back.” In this world we are like Jesus “refers to Christ, who lived in this world a life of God as love.”
v. 18, There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “The matured experience of God’s love (… of loving one another) is incompatible with fear and expels fear from the heart. The words fear has to do with punishment are literally, ‘fear has punishment.’ … Ironically, an unloving believer experiences punishment precisely because he feels guilty and is afraid to meet his Judge.”
(Life) “We can resolve our fears first by focusing on his immeasurable love for us, and then by allowing him to love others through us.”
(ESV) “speaks of fear and final judgment.”
(Recovery) “Perfect love is the love that has been perfected (v. 17) in us by our loving others with the love of God.”
v. 19, We love because he first loved us.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “A believer who loves also loves God, and in facing his Judge he is simply facing One whom he loves.”
(Life) “In loving his children, God kindles a flame in their hearts. In turn, they love others..”
(ESV) “God’s love always takes the initiative, and the love of Christians is a response to that love.”
v. 20, Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “In his conclusion, John crystallized what he meant by love and how that love can be realized in one’s life. … a claim to love God cannot be substituted for love for other believers. … Love for the unseen God can only be concretely expressed by love for one’s visible Christian brother.”
(Life) “4:20-21 … the real test of our love for God is how we treat the people right in front of us.”
v. 21, And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
(Bible Knowl Comm NT) “God’s command has joined together the two kinds of love—love for God and love for one’s brother.”
FIRST JOHN 4 MEDITATION vv. 16-21
The fruit of the Spirit is love. It’s not the fruit of “me” but the result of the Spirit working in me. We partner in this work. He speaks; I believe and respond; the Spirit shapes and trains my faith and character.
John’s gospel has the specific goal of bringing people to faith in Jesus as the Messiah, who is no less than the Son of God, and in believing, have life in His name (John 20:31). In this consistent believing and training, we come to acknowledge the Spirit at work, and learn of the Father and the Son. We have life when we enjoy the fellowship of the Father and the Son.
We make a mistake when we think the training is to make us work more or get involved in religious projects or be better with our religious rituals. The training is to make us vessels through whom God pours out His own love through us. For this to happen, we need to recognize the hate for our brother. The unbelief in the Word of God. The fear that we are not doing enough. And when we do, repent and ask the Lord to work in that area to make us more like the Son who loved, believed, and rejoiced.
The local church is the training ground for this love. We mingle and labor with the people the Lord brought together and learn to help them, forgive them, confess with them, cooperate with them—all with the goal of shaping our love for them (2 Peter 1:5-7). Along the way, we’ll find all kinds of gunk clogging the pipes so the Lord’s love doesn’t flow through; only our selfish, conditional love is seen. Our love hasn’t been perfected, or matured, until God’s own love flows. The influences of sin, the flesh, the world, and the devil hinders this growth.
We begin to love with this love because He first loved us. The Spirit helps the disciples see the difference between our conditional and His unconditional love, and choose the cross to see His will done in us. We keep reading the Word to uncover His purposes and uncover His resources. We keep believing and responding in faith. We don’t put the work first, but faith in Christ first; the faith produces the appropriate works. When the faith is illuminated by the Spirit, the work is done in the spirit of Christ (John 14:21-23).
The goal is loving others like God loved us. As long as that love is bottled up in unloving acts to those around us, the goal can’t be met. We are still resisting the fruit and outworking of the Spirit. This fruit flourishes in disciples, not in church attendees. Disciples are church participants, not those who watch on the sidelines. They get their hands dirty and egos bruised.
