1 John 4:7-21 Part 3
The Effects of Love
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God…Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us… And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God… By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love…If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” - 1 John 4:7, 11-12, 14-15, 17-21
Introduction
We have discussed at length the attribute of God’s love, as well as the actions of God’s love. All of God’s attributes are consistent with and flow from the love of God. Because He is eternal, unchanging, sovereign, and just, so is His love in all things. His love knows no beginning and no end. His love cannot change on a whim. His love is sovereignly set upon those He wills, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. His love does not overlook or comprise wrath and justice, but rather it satisfies and removes the demands of divine wrath and opens the doors of mercy. God’s love is not in word and tongue, but it comes to us in deed and truth. The Father initiated communion with us by choosing to love us first. Christ the Son bore our sins and forever lives to secure us a place in the family of the Father. The Holy Spirit applies the finished work of the gospel to our hearts and ever lives to assure us of His love.
For many years, I was not big on text messaging or spending time on the phone; to some extent, I’m still not! However, one year, my family took a vacation, and all my relatives were surprised to see me on the phone for the entire trip. At first, they were surprised by this abnormal behavior, but then they noticed why I was so willing to be on the phone. I was dating the woman who was soon to be my bride. Loving and being loved by her changed my life, not just with the way I was willing to stay on the phone, but in every conceivable way. I am a different person now that her love is in my life. The Apostle John does not stop short at describing the love of God and all it does. He intends for the love of God to affect our lives in a transforming way. In this section, we find the effects of God’s love in our preparation for Judgment Day, our proclamation of the gospel, and the perception of God in the way we love each other.
Preparation for Judgment Day, v. 17-18
Verses 17-18 deal with realities all humans have an inherent dread of, no matter their cultural background: death, judgment, punishment. These verses also deal with what all people naturally crave for by virtue of the fact that they’re humans: love, confidence, and safety. The natural fear of death, and the natural longing for safety are supposed to point us to God our Savior who alone can calm our fears and satisfy us in grace.
It is an abnormally glorious thing to be free from the fear of death, yet that is what John says the love of God produces. People are afraid to die. I’m reminded of the old hellfire preacher out in Texas during the 1920s named Rolf Barnard. He was sent by his Baptist association to plant a church in a city of about 50,000 known for its sinfulness. It was an oil town where men would leave their families to go for work; while they were there, they would engage in drunkenness, harlotry, gambling, gunfights, and all manner of depravity. When Pastor Barnard was finally able to get his church built, he was the only preacher there. Because so many people were dying in gunfights, and because Barnard was the only preacher, there were times when he would preach up to seven funerals in a single day! He saw hundreds and thousands of people die, and he knew first hand the kind of dread people met death with when they weren’t ready to meet God.
That kind of experience with death didn’t leave Barnard time to preach about the trivial things so many weak preachers waste time talking about today. Barnard preached sin, hell, and salvation through repentance and faith in Christ alone. Pastor Barnard preached on street corners, bars, and anywhere lost people could be found. His constant message was of preparation to meet God. Within 16 months, he had personally baptized over 2,000 people, because in a town of 50,000 he was the only preacher and he had a message they knew they needed to hear!
I have found this to be true as well. Whether I am trying to share the gospel with a Muslim, a Hindu, an apostate, an atheist, etc., I’ve learned I don’t need to get caught up in endless arguments about the existence of God. All I need to do is press upon their conscience the reality that they are sinful, and one day they’re going to die. If I do that, I’ll have an audience. In ancient times, everyone was religious because they were not isolated from the reality of death the way we are today. We put dying people in hospitals and senior citizen homes; we have medicines that prolong death to almost unnatural periods of old age and live in sanitary environments. If the luxuries of modernity were swept out from under us, I am convinced that all the nonsense of pop atheism, agnosticism, and deconstruction would disappear in a single generation. If people were forced to think regularly about death as they did in old days, there would be a revival of religion overnight. All of us will die and meet God; we will meet Him in judgment when that happens.
Just as a quick reminder, there will be two judgments, one for believers and one for unbelievers. The judgment for unbelievers is described as the Great White Throne Judgment in Revelation 20:11-15. Here, every unsaved person in the history of mankind will stand before God to answer for every thought, word, and deed. From there, God will dispense to them varying degrees of punishments which they must endure forever in the Lake of Fire, suffering under His holy wrath. The judgment for believers is called the Judgment Seat of Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:10 and 1 Corinthians 3. At the Judgment Seat of Christ, believers will not face any possibility of damnation. Instead, they will be judged by the deeds they performed after conversion, and God will reward us with various crowns. Hear me, you do not want to find yourself at the white throne judgment. Dear friend, the greatest threat to the well-being of your soul is not corruption in the federal government or the invasion force of some foreign tyrant. The greatest danger to your soul is a lack of preparation for Judgment Day.
As you meditate on sin and death, do you start to understand why confidence for Judgment Day is such a precious thing? We need boldness when that day comes, but how do we get it? We only receive this by the love of God. The Apostle John says when confidence comes to us, love is made perfect in our lives. This word for “perfect” is teleioo, and it differs from how we typically understand perfection today. One might wrongfully apply this to God and be offended at the thought of His love being imperfect and needing something added to it. Someone else may wrongfully apply this to themselves and think they won’t be confident for Judgment Day until they display perfect love in their life here and now. The Greek word teleioo doesn’t mean “flawlessness” as “perfection” does for us. It means fulfillment or completion. In other words, your love for God and others doesn’t need to be flawless yet; but if God’s flawless love is being brought to fulfillment in you, you can have confidence in the face of death.
Recently, there was a public trial where a young man was falsely accused of murder and faced the possibility of life in prison. It seemed as though the whole world was on the edge of their seats, waiting to hear the verdict of his trial. When the court case came to a close, a sense of dread filled the young man as he awaited the results. The words were uttered, “We find the defendant not guilty of all charges,” and the young man burst into tears and fell to the floor in relief! This is the same way you should feel when you read the words, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Joy and relief ought to assure you of the safety you have in Christ; as if you could fall to the floor crying at the thought that you will never be condemned by God. Psalm 103:10-13 reads:
He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
If your faith is in Jesus, it would be easier to bring east and west together as it would be to hear God count your sins against you again. He no longer deals with you as a righteously indignant judge but as a compassionate father, full of pity and grace. For a Christian, facing God on Judgement Day is not like being sentenced to prison; it’s like breaking free from the chains of prison and going home.
Another statement is made, which gives us confidence in the face of death: “as He is so also are we in this world.” I’ve heard some preachers take this statement to refer to Christ’s nature and ability relating to His deity. These preachers say we are literally Christ on the earth, that anything Jesus could do now in heaven, we can do on earth. Such preaching doesn’t merit a refutation because the line which separates us from God is so great it can never be crossed in that sense. He is God, we are not, and we never will be. Amen. This statement is not talking about our nature but our standing before the Father.
If you were ever to stand in unbelief of the amazing love of God, this is the time. This reality is so precious, so glorious, so undeservedly beautiful that your mind will not at first be able to accept it. Jesus describes this in His high priestly prayer in John 17:23, “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” How do you think God the Father sees and loves Jesus the Son right now in heaven? That is how the Father sees and loves you right now on earth. Christ was cursed. You are accepted. The imputed righteousness of Christ covers you by faith. The Father knows you are broken, weak, and sinful, but in love He has chosen never to hold those things against you again. You stand before the Father with as much acceptance as Jesus does right now. Doesn’t that give you confidence?
It’s not just the fear of Judgment Day that perfect love casts out. Perfect love casts out all fear (v. 18). The Fear of God can mean having a morbid dread or terror of God. This is the fear of being harmed. It also can mean awe and reverence. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). We are to fear God all the days of our lives. Yet, through Christ, I am no longer afraid of God causing me any kind of damning harm. I know I can run to my Father and be received in my worst moments. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” If the only one who truly has the right and power to eternally harm me loves and accepts me, then what can man do to me? All genuine fear of death is cast out because I know I live in Him. All fear of sickness and pain are cast away because I know that I am secure in heaven in the worst-case scenario on earth. All fear of rejection/loss of reputation on earth is cast away because the Creator of heaven and earth has seated me at His table. If I have a healthy fear of God, what is there left to fear in life or death? What is left to be anxious about concerning the opinions of man?
Proclamation of the Gospel
In verses 14-15, we find another effect of the love of God, which is that we testify that the Father sent the Son, and we confess that Jesus is the Son. Directly, this speaks of the trustworthiness of the Apostolic witness. This also speaks of how every Christian will have a proper and public confession concerning who Jesus is and what He did for us. Jesus is the eternal Son of God, and He was sent by the Father to rescue us from sin and hell. Paul said he was constrained by the love of God in 2 Corinthians 5:14. When God’s love has taken root in us (perfected), we will not be able to hold back proclaiming the good news.
I once heard of a missionary who spent years taking the gospel to a single tribe of unreached people. By the grace of God, he was able to lead one group of these tribesmen to salvation, and he was shocked by the zeal for the Lord these tribesmen had after their conversion. In the middle of the night, they woke him and said, “We’ve been thinking about how Jesus saved us from sin and hell. We cannot stop thinking of the flames our other friends and family members are sure to endure. Come with us now so we can share the gospel with them! There’s not a second to lose!” The missionary said, “Brothers, it’s late, can we go at another time?” To which they quickly replied, “If not now, tell us when!” If the love of God has been shed abroad in your heart, you will confess it publicly, not just for yourself, but you will want the world to know too.
Perception of God in Love
Lastly, John begins and ends this glorious section on love by calling us to love each other (v. 7-8, 11-12, 20-21). As he does this, he makes two strange but similar statements, “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us” (v. 12) and, “he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen” (v. 20)? These statements go hand in hand with what he said in his Gospel, John 1:18, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” The idea here is not that Moses or Adam never saw God, but that God is a Spirit, and you and I cannot physically see Him right now. However, there is a sense in which God can be seen when His love is fulfilled in us. He is love, His love takes action, and when His love takes effect in us, He is perceptible.
A famous atheist Richard Dawkins was asked, “If God is real, what will you say when you meet Him?” Dawkins answered, “I would ask Him, why did you go to such lengths to hide yourself?” This is an astounding answer. First of all, God’s laws are written in our minds and creation displays His invisible attributes and Godhead so that we are without excuse. If left to ourselves, every human will naturally believe in a higher power. God can be seen in everything all around us. If a person denies the existence of God, it is in spite of the evidence, not for any lack. Nevertheless, John provides another way in which God is perceptible: the love of the church. “Where is God?” they demand. “God is here, in the way we love one another” the Christian replies.
God is seen in the hospital room when a loved one dies, and Christians rally to bear each other’s burdens. He’s at the altar when a struggling saint confesses his sins, and a pastor or deacon comes alongside to pray with them. He’s in the offering taken up to care for a member who can’t pay their bills. He is seen in your decision to visit the sick, to care for the orphan and widow, to give to the poor, and speak for the innocent, and stand for the oppressed. Where is God? He’s in the demonstration of sacrificial love by His people. If there is a vast uprising of atheists declaring God cannot be seen, it may be because we are not walking in love the way we ought
Conclusion
What can I say? If there’s a group of people who are afraid to die, have no desire to share or confess their faith publicly, and have little to no love for each other in the church, I know the love of God is not known there. I spoke with someone recently who had moved to a new area and was visiting new churches. He said he could immediately tell if God’s Spirit was at work there by the way the congregation loved each other. If the horizontal love for each other was there, the vertical love for God must be also. May we be a people defined and compelled by love.
