Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXXIII) 08/01/22

^4:18         Where God’s love is, there is no fear because God’s perfect love takes it away. On the contrary, it is His punishment that makes a person afraid.

Congregational minister and author John Ossian Davies (1851-1916) says the greater of the two is love out of fear and love. We all agreed that love is the mightiest lever in the universe, but there is the possibility that we are not all of one mind as to the use of uneasiness in religion. And has it any legitimate use? Our answer is decidedly in the affirmative.

The Bible speaks of two kinds of fear, says Davies – the brotherly and obligatory. First, we reverence God and dismiss the devil. Practicing loving others may seem like a Christian’s duty, but it is mandatory in escaping punishment. The one attracts us to God, but the other drives us away from Him. So, terror thunders, unless followed by love’s enrapturing melodies, and has a devastating influence upon the human soul. Here are some points to consider:

For one, panic tends to produce a Moral Obligation Policy unless accompanied by Love. The terrified soul strives to be virtuous, not from any love for virtue per se, but fear of sin’s punishment. We must strive to hate sin as sin, and love virtue as virtue, regardless of any discipline or reward.

Another is Incessant Appeals. Fear has an exhausting influence on a person’s moral nature. Anxiety paralyzes the soul, deprives it of its moral vigor, and positively hinders effort. Despair weakens the physical frame and paves the way for any disease hovering around. And is not this true of the intellect? Dismay may drive the soul out of Egypt, but we need a more gracious power to lead it into the promised land.

Then we have Continuous Pleas for Mercy. Fear tends to promote unbelief. A dreaded God will eventually become a God despised, hated, and denied.

Now comes Ceaseless Petitions for Patience. Lack of confidence tends to make spiritual worship impossible. Love delights to commune with its object, but a scary thing will end all pleasurable communion. We cannot be heartily and devoutly worshipped a God we fear. You can no more love Him than you can caress a volcano!

And finally, we have Endless Calls for Understanding. Insecurity may lead to forced Obedience, which is practically worthless. An old poetic saying goes this way: “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” Pharaoh forgot all his promises as soon as God removed the plagues. Forced obedience, generated by uneasiness, is little better than disobedience. Someone may still be tempted to ask, “What role does fear have in religion? Has it any use at all?” We reply that apprehensiveness must be used to pave the way for something better than itself; in itself, it must be the herald and forerunner of love. Sinai must be the precursor of Calvary. It is so in the Bible, it is so in God’s Providence, and it must be so in the spiritual history of every believer.[1]

^4:19       We learned to love because God loved us first.

EXPOSITION

John wants his readers to know that agápē between God and man did not start with humanity.  When we read the ancient documents of other civilizations and the First Covenant, we find that for a long-time, people did not love those they could see, let alone love someone they could not see. Jesus told His disciples, “You didn’t choose me! I chose you!”[2]

That’s because Jesus told them earlier that they did not choose Him because only those the Father could choose who to send Him so He could reject or accept them.  So that means every true believer has been twice chosen.  But John is not finished.  He has more to say just in case some think that all they must do is love God and everything will be okay.

Now we see that love has accomplished something. Christians do not look to the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One with nervousness because they understand God’s agápē. Not only does love look forward to meeting the Lord, but it presently gets rid of alarm so that love is free from angst. Anxiety and love are as contrary to each other as oil and water.  Apprehension and love can coexist, but perfect love and despair cannot coexist. Dismay, in varying degrees, exists in every believer’s life. This will not be the case if God’s perfect love has gripped their soul. There is no room for dread in God’s economy of love. We cannot simultaneously approach God in love and hide from Him in horror. We overcome having to tremble before God with terror by understanding His perfect love for us. Love is the most important manifestation of fellowship with the Lord.

The love that erects confidence also expels uneasiness. God’s agápē is amiable toward the believer because of the Anointed One. The believer’s love should be amicable toward fellow Christians because of their filial relation to the Anointed One.  Other Christians are worthy of being loved because of the Anointed One. If a person dreads the thought of judgment day, his life is not marked by the perfected God’s agápē that expresses itself in concrete action.  In other words, he has no basis for assurance concerning his welfare when the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One comes. “Love” here also has the additional thought of “acceptance.” Love conquers fear.

God’s initiative in love for us stamped love in our spirits. Our ability to love with divine love comes from God, not us.  We love because God taught us how to love with divine love.  The source of the believer’s love is prior love.  We do not love with our feeble love. The word “Him” does not occur in the oldest manuscripts, so the emphasis is on love generically, “We love because He first loved us.” Thus, this speaks of loving any object, whether God or human beings. 

The word “first” bears the emphasis of this phrase. This word allows us to see the connection to the preceding verses. Distress finds no place in the Christian who matures in God’s agápē. Fear of God is incompatible with understanding God as the source and initiator of love. Our exercise of love is a product of God’s agápē. John emphasizes the continued pattern of love rather than isolated acts of love. Since God loved us once [aorist tense] at the cross, we can go on loving Christians (present tense). No exercise of love on our part is possible without God loving us first.

Some commentators point out that “him” is an insertion and is not to be included. So, the rendering of verse nineteen reads: “We love because He first loved us [or “loved us first.]”[3] To take the Greek hēmeis agapaō, “we love,” as subjunctive, “let us love” is less forcible. John states as a fact what ought to be. We Christians do not fear; we love. Yet this is no credit to us. On the contrary, after God’s love in giving His Son for us, it would be monstrous not to love.

So let us review what John has said. First, God’s initiative in loving us stamped His agápē in our spirits. Our ability to love with divine love comes from God, not us. We love because God taught us how to love. The source of the believer’s love is prior love.  We do not agápē with our lackluster love. That’s why the word “him” does not occur in the oldest Greek manuscripts, so the emphasis is on generic love. Thus, this speaks of loving any object, whether God or human beings.

Secondly, the word “first” bears the emphasis of this phrase. The Greek adjective protos allows us to see the connection to verse eighteen. Faintheartedness finds no place in the Christian who matures in God’s love. Fear of God is incompatible with understanding God as the source and initiator of love. Our exercise of love is a product of God’s love. John emphasizes the continued pattern of love rather than isolated acts.  Since God loved us once [aorist tense] at the cross, we can go on loving Christians (present tense). Therefore, no exercise of love on our part is possible without God loving us first.

So, how do we apply this to everyday life? Our love for God and others originates in His agápē for us.  God’s agápē is the incentive for our passion. God loved us at the high cost of sacrificing His Son for us. God loved us first; we loved Him second. He took the initiative. His initiative enabled us to love because He put His agápē within us. He provided the loving apparatus. So don’t think you can love as God loved without God’s agápē in you.[4]

The omission of love on the human level indicates the absence of agápē on the divine level. God’s agápē makes divine love on the mortal plane possible. All true love is a response to God’s initiative. Our love is not self-originated, for it has a divine origin. God gives us the desire to love others. God calls out our love in response to what God has given. Our capacity to love spiritually rests on something more significant than our power to love. It is the response to God’s agápē. That is why this kind of love always finds an object. 

Thus, our love for fellow Christians validates our love for God. Response to God’s agápē produces love for others. Think of how irritable and stubborn some Christians are. They will do almost anything to upset us. Yet God loves them as much as He loves us. When our hearts are occupied with His wonderful agápē, we do not become perturbed with obnoxious Christians. God loved us when we were unlovable, so we should love the unlovely. 

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[1] Davies, John Ossian, Old Yet Ever New, 1904, p. 179

[2] John 15:16

[3] From the New International Version

[4] 2 Thessalonians 3:5

SKEPTICS may ask, why don’t people follow the advice of numerous proverbs and maxims of forethought available for centuries? Instead, they conclude that these apply only after some rightful venture has gone “horribly wrong.” When, for instance, a person gambles and loses all they have, including their house, why did they not remember the old Scottish proverb which declares “willful waste leads to woeful want?” But didn’t the gambler know this well-worn saying from earlier years? However, what good, then, did it do? Are the maxims of morality useless because people disregard them? For Christians and Jews, the Book of Proverbs is a great example. Yet, what about other religions and philosophers?

Here is one to consider by 6th century Sanskrit Indian poet Bhāravi, the author of the classical Sanskrit epics classified as a mahakavya (“great poem”)

“Being friends with the godless is like lounging in the shade of a crumbling overhanging cliff, which falls and buries those who stand beneath.”

This idea of not associating with those with godless attitudes and lifestyles has long been prominent in the Holy Scriptures. No doubt it influenced Bhāravi’s thinking. For instance:

King David stated clearly, “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow evil the advice of skeptics, who do not hang around with sinners, scoffing at the things of God.” (Psalm 1:1)

Then David’s son King Solomon added his wisdom, “Be friends with those who are wise, and you will become wise. Choose fools to be your friends, and you will be guilty of foolishness.” (Proverbs 13:20)

And the Apostle Paul advised, “Don’t let yourself be misled. If you listen to fools, you will start acting like a fool.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)

I read this story about Renelene Jay S. Camba recently; I hope it brings you more faith as it did me. She wrote – in English with a strong Filipino influence – I would love to share a bit about myself. I am a Filipina, age 27, who experienced a Miracle from above. In 2016 I felt like a lost sinner. Though I already knew about Jesus, I disregarded it until December 2016. I was preparing at that time for a competition then something happened. That was the second and maybe the most frightening moment of my life. I started having difficulty breathing. I felt that could be the end of my life.

So we went to the hospital, where a nurse gave me oxygen. I thought it would pass, and I would be back to normal. Then the second day came, but it was worse. When we went to another hospital for an X-ray and EKG purposes, suddenly, everything went black as though I had been knocked out. I was unconscious for a while. Then I became conscious that I was already in the emergency room and stayed there until the end of December. Then January of 2017 came. I was still sick. Then they find out I have Pneumonia and Acute Gastritis.

February came, and they found out I also have Potassium deficiency. I felt so hopeless that I was in bed the whole day, then the whole week, and then a whole month. I can’t get out of bed when I need to get to the comfort room. My family were always there to accompany me in standing up. But that was not all the sickness I had. We found out later in April that I also have Hyperthyroidism. Imagine me at that time. I can’t even walk on my own. I felt so hopeless that I always asked my father these: “When will it stop?” and “When will He take me?” He said, “If He really wanted to take you now, He would have done it in December to April when you had your worst attacks.”

I just cried. I ask help from the Lord. I was crying a lot and every day I prayed a lot that He will heal me someday. Every day was very challenging because it was really difficult to breathe. I was wondering, “Why am I still alive?”  So, when May came, I had the worst attacks. I felt my heart was pounding so heavily that I couldn’t make any move other than lying in bed all day at home. I already said my goodbyes to my mom and dad. I told them that I was and will always be glad that they are my parents. Their prayers have not been in vain because God heard it all. And the very special thing that we could impart to our family is FAITH. And that was the things I see in my parents. Having faith to God. So, I thanked them.

Finally, my father said to me, “What do you want us to do for you? Shouldn’t we fight for life? Let’s push forward.” So, I decided it was time to go back to the hospital. We went there. And that night, May 9, 2017, something amazing happened. I had a visitor named Gabrielle. She had with her a friend named “Almera”. After Gabrielle had already introduced Almera, she went out of the room immediately. So, Almera is a worship leader. I had a feeling that God delivered them to me. I felt happiness, even though I’m in an oxygen tent and bedridden. I felt hope was coming inside of the room. The joy in me started whispering. So, everything she said, I immediately believe. She had something of a product with her that also ended her 2-year abdomen suffering. She got healed using it, but she felt it was God that led her to this product. It was introduced to her by a Pastor. So, she also endorsed it to me.

I remember her saying, “Don’t give up cause God is not giving up on you.” I was having tears of joy hearing those from her. Overjoyed that I couldn’t contain my happiness showing in my very face. My father was looking at me those times and he immediately bought me those they have endorsed.

On the third day in the hospital, I got out. Amazing. They have been praying for me. And they looked after me every single week. Every day they texted me if I was alright. I was very thankful that God used their lives to bring glory in His name. Now I am already healed. With all those sicknesses, there is nothing impossible with God. As long as you believe in His plans. If your life is still on a mission to accomplish, God will set forth a road for you to keep up. I hope my story could help your site. To God be the glory!

We learn from Renelene’s story that God doesn’t always do things in the way that we pray for or expect. The one constant thing is FAITH which works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. So, as her father told her, “Let’s push forward.” In other words, God has worked out His plan for us so let’s start living as though the healing has already started.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXXII) 07/29/22

^4:18         Where God’s love is, there is no fear because God’s perfect love takes it away. On the contrary, it is His punishment that makes a person afraid.

Judith M. Lieu (1951) states that based on what the Apostle John says here, in this short section is hidden an unasked question: How does God’s agápē relate to God’s judgment? The issue is widely discussed in Jewish and Christian circles, often regarding God’s mercy and justice. But does one imperil the other? It appears that John’s horizon of concern is almost entirely restricted to the community of those who confess and who have responded to God. It is particularly so because the dual framework of past and future prophesies does not deal with any painful sensitivity to the failings and inadequacies of those who belong to God. Despair and the prospect of an adverse outcome in judgment, says Lieu, belong to the realm of death and darkness that they have left behind. John would not use fear to persuade his readers into complete obedience or commitment. They must be convinced that their task is not to achieve the fulfillment of love on their own but to allow it to be enacted on and in them.[1]

As we have seen in the comments of others, they take a different viewpoint. Believers will not stand in the judgment of the unrighteous but will only be judged according to their works out of love in the name of the Anointed One. So, will Christians still be judged? Yes, all Christians will be judged. Every believer is subject to a three-fold judgment which covers their past, present, and future life:

            As a SINNER: this judgment is PAST – John 5:24

                As a SON: this judgment is PRESENT – 1 Corinthians 11:28,31,32

                AS a STEWARD: this judgment is FUTURE – Romans 14:1

The question is, what is your attitude toward sin? A Christian abhors sin and refuses to stay a sinner. “Dear children, don’t let anyone lead you the wrong way. The Anointed One always did what was right. So, to be good like the Anointed One, you must do what is right. The devil has been sinning since the beginning. Anyone who continues to sin belongs to the devil. The Son of God came for this: to destroy the devil’s work.”[2]

Ben Witherington III (1951) believed that verses seventeen and eighteen should be treated together because they deal with one basic idea: in contrasting apprehension and love, we see how love triumphs over any uneasiness over judgment. More specifically, God’s loving presence in Christians gives them relief from fear in the face of judgment.[3] The mutual abiding love referred to in verse sixteen leads to love’s indwelling in the devoted servant and the community, leading to the dread of judgment being driven out of the Anointed One’s followers. This amounts to perfecting or completing God’s mission of love.[4] The Greek verb teleioō is expressed as perfect passive, “having been perfected.” It may also be rendered as “has reached its goal” or “has come to completion.” It is better to translate “was brought to completion/fulfillment” or “was able to reach its goal in case someone might ask, was God’s love imperfect before it came into the lives of humans?”[5]

Bruce G. Schuchard (1958) says that the love of which the Apostle John speaks dispels fear because it has been “brought to completion” in Jesus, for Jesus is both its source and life-transforming, life-informing, and life-defining example.  It is confidence in the transformed believer who courageously loves on account of the promises of the One who loved us first. Thus, the believer exhibits a future “complete” love that is possible only because the Anointed One is the one who gives it and, sharing it, alters the life of the beloved for time and eternity. In turn, the beloved is enlivened and empowered, defined, directed, and assured by Him, who was first to love. He has no misgivings in loving us, so why should we be afraid to love Him? Eternal punishment is for the wicked, not the redeemed.[6]

Marianne Meye Thompson (1964) says that the aged Apostle John further underscores the point when he writes, “in this world, we are like Him.” Here is an analogy between the children of God and the Son of God fellowshipping with the Father.[7] As the Son has free access to and confidence with God, the believer has courage with God.[8] And since boldness and cowardice are opposites of each other, John writes that in love – the hallmark of our relationship to God and Jesus’ relationship to God – there is only confidence: not uncertainty. And so, John writes, there is no panic in agápē. But perfect love drives out horror. As the context shows, [fear means the terror of punishment by God when judgment comes.[9]

Peter Pett (1966) says that the one who is safe in God’s agápē cannot be afraid, for there is no alarm in agápē. To be within God’s agápē in the Anointed One is to be free from angst. Agápē removes all anxiety, especially faultless love, which can only signify God’s agápē reaches its pinnacle in us.[10] The one with God’s agápē completed in them will not be apprehensive. Only those who are to be punished need to be concerned. The prospect of punishment carries despair, and the love of those afraid is not mature. This may suggest that those who dread punishment are the false teachers whose end is destruction. They have cause to be frightened because their end is inevitable. But some are dismayed because they cannot trust. They are afraid of punishment when what they should be doing is being assured in love. They need to dwell more in His presence and absorb His agápē, especially as it is revealed through the cross.[11]

Duncan Heaster (1967) reports that psychologists suggest that something within the human psyche needs to fear and wants to be afraid. Just look at the massive success of horror stories, movies, images, and Stephen King novels and how the media realizes that their global audience laps up distress and sensationalism about terror. One common thread throughout all the pagan forerunners of the “Satanic persona” idea is that the pagan concepts are all involved in generating nightmares and intimidation.

True Christianity, says the Apostle John, aims to “expel” such forbidding through its revelation of the ultimate love of God. Unfortunately, so many control systems have played upon unwarranted concern over the devil – to bring children into subdued obedience, flocks into submission to pastors, etc. It’s time to realize that this is not how the true God works. “For fear has torment,” reads the KJV in verse eighteen, and this is precisely what proper understanding of the cross of the Anointed One saves us from. God isn’t a psychological manipulator; He doesn’t coax us into submission through trepidation. And yet it could be said that humanity is increasingly addicted to anxiety. People may mock being scared of the Loch Ness monster, werewolves, and funny sounds at night. But they still buy in ample time to uneasiness over a personal Devil. There’s something in us that wants to be afraid of something; that just loves the popular idea of a personal Satan. This is why it’s hard to budge this mentality.[12]

Karen H. Jobes (1968) makes a note that if God’s love for us is most clearly expressed in the atoning death of Jesus to cleanse us from our sins and free us from the fear of God’s judgment, then there is nothing left for us to be scared of once we have fully comprehended God’s agápē for us.[13]

David Legge (1969) says that if you’re in fellowship with God, you love those He loves. The doctrinal test is the apostolic message, which is the Anointed One. Hence, the social difficulty in loving our fellow believers. The Apostle John then speaks of the future manifestation of this love of God, which is why we should love one another. John stated that if God’s love is made perfect in us, we can be without uneasiness on the day when God judges the world. We will be without an alarm because we are like Jesus in this world. Where God’s love is, there is no despair because God’s perfect love takes away suspicion. It is His punishment that makes a person afraid. So, His love is not made perfect in anyone with such dismay.

Legge goes on to say that this love brings peace into our hearts, peace straight from God – so that not you’re serving God fearful of being judged or punished in the future, but that you’re serving God out of love! We love Him because He first loved us – we’re not serving God to stay out of hell; His atonement keeps us out of hell. We do and love Him because He took that punishment away! That is the moral test that our righteousness will be displayed not out of the dread of punishment but out of love for Jesus because He loved first.[14] 

David Guzik (1984) states that we may know the greatness of Jesus’ salvation now, but will we be sure of it on Judgment Day? To have such confidence shows the greatness of God’s work in us. We might be satisfied to survive the day of judgment merely, but God wants to fill our lives with His love and His truth that we have assurance in the day of judgment to testify of our love for Him and others. The Bible says that one day, all of humanity will gather before God’s Great White Throne and face judgment.

Jesus warned us we would answer for all the wild things we’ve said. This will happen on the day of judgment. Your words will be used to judge you. What you have said will show whether you are right or whether you are guilty.[15] But our Lord was not through. He also said that when He comes again with His Father’s glory and with His angels, He will reward everyone for what they have done for Him.[16] And John, in his revelation, tells us that he saw those who had died, great and small, standing before the throne. Some books were opened. And another book was opened – the Book of Life. The people were judged by their actions written in the books. Then the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. All these people were judged by what they had done.

So, says Guzik, this day is coming! The day of judgment is as fixed in God’s eternal timetable as any other day in history. Some may think they will go there and judge God. They will tell Him; I’ve got a few questions for You. But that is nonsense. The only way to have boldness on the day of judgment is to receive, and walk in, the transforming love of God today.[17]

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[1] Lieu, Judith: The New Testament Commentary, op. cit., p. 195

[2] 1 John 3:7-8

[3] See 1 John 2:28

[4] 1 John 4:12

[5] Ben Witherington III. Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: op. cit., loc. cit., (Kindle Locations 7257-7263)

[6] Schuchard, Bruce G., Concordia Commentary, op. cit., p. 489

[7] Cf. John 17:21-23

[8] 1 John 2:1, 28; 3:19-22; 4:18; 5:14

[9] Thompson, Marianne M., The IVP New Testament Commentary, op. cit., p. 127

[10] Ibid. 4:12

[11] Pett, Peter: Commentary on the Bible, op. cit., PDF, loc. cit.

[12] Heaster, Duncan: New European Commentary, op. cit., 1 John, p. 36

[13] Jobes, Karen H., 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, Book 18), p. 205

[14] Legge, David: 1,2,3, John, Preach the Word, op. cit., “Christian Love: Its Source and Sign,” Part 13

[15] Matthew 12:36-37

[16] Ibid. 16:27

[17] Guzik, David: Enduring Word, op. cit., loc. cit.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXXI) 07/28/22

^4:18         Where God’s love is, there is no fear because God’s perfect love takes it away. On the contrary, it is His punishment that makes a person afraid.

A gifted young lady named Charlotte was a portrait artist and writer of humorous verse. Then, in her early thirties, she suddenly became ill with a debilitating disease that left her an invalid. It not only affected her physically but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Being confined to a nursing home at the early age of forty-five, her ill health often brought the horror of having a useless life while the circle of friends around her was full of untiring service for God.

During her illness, a well-known preacher, Cesar Malan of Switzerland, came to visit her. He asked her if she had peace with God. She faced many inner struggles because she felt worthless and resented the question. She refused to talk about it because she was convinced it was of little value. But a few days later, she called Dr. Malan and apologized. She said she wanted to clean up her life before becoming a Christian. Malan answered, “Come just as you are.” That day she gave her life to the Anointed One and penned these stirring words: 

Just as I am – without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,
– O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am – though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings and fears within, without,
– O Lamb of God, I come!

Just as I am – Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
-O Lamb of God, I come![1]

That’s how God viewed lost humanity. But His agápē drove Him to send His son to tell us it was alright. We did not need to clean up our lives for Him to love us. Instead, we could come to Him, just as we are.

Stephen S. Smalley (1931-2018) notes that the Apostle John goes on in verse eighteen to explain more fully what happens when the experience of mutual love is completed by the fact that we “can have confidence on judgment day.” John does so by negatively stating the truth that we can share the Anointed One’s confidence before God, here and hereafter. Real love, he claims, results in spiritual boldness that “flings fear out of the door.” The train of thought which began in verse sixteen is thus achieved. God is love; the person who lives in love remains in God, and God in them; in this mutual indwelling, love finds its complete expression; and, as the believer imitates Jesus more closely, their angst, at last, is banished.[2]

Edward J. Malatesta (1932-1998) points out that verses seventeen and eighteen describe two characteristics that accompany perfect love in believers: (1) confidence on Judgment Day and (2) freedom from anxiety. The last two lines of each verse give the reasons for the respective affirmations. That is, “to be like Jesus completed in love” and “fear of punishment makes that impossible.” The only remedy is that when love is perfected in us, it evicts apprehension.[3]

John Painter (1935) points us to what the prophet Zephaniah had to say about the great and terrible day of the LORD.

            “

“That terrible day of the Lord is near.
                    Swiftly it comes—
                A day of bitter tears,
                    A day when even strong men will cry out.
                 It will be a day when the Lord’s anger is poured out—
                    A day of terrible distress and anguish,
                A day of ruin and desolation,
                   A day of darkness and gloom,
                A day of clouds and blackness

                    A day the trumpet calls and battle cries.

                Down go the walled cities

                    A day of trumpet calls and battle cries.
                Down go the walled cities
                   And the strongest battlements!

                “Because you have sinned against the Lord,
                    I will make you grope around like the blind.
                Your blood will be poured into the dust,
                    And your bodies will lie rotting on the ground.”

                Your silver and gold will not save you
                    On that day of the Lord’s anger.
                For the whole land will be devoured
                    By the fire of his jealousy.
                He will make a terrifying end
                    Of all the people on earth.[1]

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[1] Zephaniah 1:14-18

[4]

                   

The fact that the Apostle John should deal with despair in the face of judgment day is natural, given the tradition in the First Covenant[5] and beyond in Judaism and the Hellenistic world. However, the issues have become somewhat weightier with the mention of the day of judgment.[6] The dismay mentioned here seems to be more than dread of being shamed. The noun and the verb used can express awesome reverence or raw terror. The imagery of the day of judgment suggests the latter.[7]

William Loader (1944) says that while the Apostle John focuses on our relationship with God, his observations about uneasiness and love invite application to all human relationships. Love builds trust. Where trust grows, terror diminishes. Where worry diminishes, there is more room for love and life. Love gives life. Distress brings death. Trepidation has its place in the face of danger. It alerts us. But for John, the ultimate human misgivings of not being loved, not being of value, not belonging, and being lost, both in this life and beyond, are met with a gospel of hope. We are loved and valued; we belong; we are not lost. We need no longer choose faintheartedness and the rigidities and depression that flow from it. Instead, we may choose to believe that God is love and begin a process of letting go of fearfulness and allowing love to reach its fulfillment in us.[8]

Colin G. Kruse (1950) says that when people are anxious about God’s punishment, it signifies they are not yet perfected in love. Perfection in love here involves a love for God, which is based upon our sense of God’s love for us, and this love relationship with Him and other believers is what removes our anxiety as we face the day of judgment. The author has already underlined the greatness of God’s love for believers in several places in this letter. In 1 John 3:1, he wrote: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are;” in 3:16: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus the Anointed One laid down His life for us;” and in 4:16: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.” When the realization of God’s love for us in the Anointed One penetrates our minds and spirits, then we are perfected in love so that apprehension of God’s judgment is removed.[9]

Since perfected love means our love has gone through the process of yielding to God’s agápē so that we can love others as He loved us, why are so many of our songs and sermons focused on loving God instead of loving others with God’s love for us? Believe it or not, there are some 160 such hymns. However, few, if any, are well-known to regular churchgoers. For example, one such song has lyrics like this:

            Father, make us loving, gentle, thoughtful, kind;
                Fill us with Thy Spirit, make us of Thy mind.
                Help us love each other more and more each day,
                Help us follow Jesus in the narrow way.

Refrain

                We would learn of Jesus,
                Help us here below,
                Follow in His footsteps,
                Who hath loved us so.

                Father, we would ever, live as in Thy sight;
                Thou dost know our longings after what is right.
                Fill our hearts with kindness as we onward go,
                Teach us to be loving; Thou hast loved us so.

                Help us to remember, Thou art ever near;
                Teach us lovingkindness, tenderness, and cheer.
                There is much sorrow in this world below;
                Father, make us loving; Thou hast loved us so.[10]

---

[1] “Just as I Am” written by Charlotte Elliott in 1835, with music by William B. Bradbury (1816-1868), first appearing in the Christian Remembrancer, of which Elliott she became the editor in 1836. The final verse is from Elliott’s Hours of Sorrow Cheered and Comforted (1836).

[2] Smalley, Stephen S., Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 51, op. cit., pp. 259-260

[3] Malatesta, Edward J., Interiority and Covenant, op cit., p. 296

[4] Zephaniah 1:14-18

[5] See Isaiah 2:12-22

[6] Cf., 1 John 2:28

[7] Painter, John. Sacra Pagina: 1, 2, and 3 John: Vol. 18, loc., cit.

[8] Loader, William: Epworth Commentary, op. cit., p. 57

[9] Kruse, Colin G., The Letters of John (The Pillar New Testament Commentary (PNTC)), op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[10] “Father, Make Us Loving,” Words by Flora Kirkland (1901); Music by Isaac H. Meredith (1872-1962)

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXX) 07/27/22

^4:18         Where God’s love is, there is no fear because God’s perfect love takes it away. On the contrary, it is His punishment that makes a person afraid.

Amos N. Wilder (1895-1993): The elder Apostle John presents one after another all levels of Christian attainment: the secure conviction that God is Love and the only Love; unshaken confidence in the hora novissima[1] when “people will run into the caves in the mountainside, and into the tunnels in the earth, from before the terror of Yahweh, and from the glory of His presence.”[2] Now perfect love drives out fear. And yet these ideals do not seem unreal or fanatical since they are firmly grounded in faith and the victorious life of the church. This epistle describes the moral character and human greatness that the perennial foes of mankind, in particular anxiety, are dwarfed or banished. Since apprehension shrinks away while love unites, there can be no despair in love; at least perfect love gets rid of it. Since it is the love and reverence for God which are chiefly in view, despair has to do with a person’s punishment as an aspect of His discipline. But as the preceding verse made clear, the uneasy one is the person who is not perfected in love and, therefore, the dread in them drives them away from God.[3]

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) feels that since the Apostle John has just finished talking about having confidence when contemplating the coming day of judgment, he decided to expand on the cause for fear in that day. He shares an interesting story as an illustration to provide more clarity. He tells of a believer who was influential in his local church. But he and some other elders had a heated argument, and he felt uncomfortable worshipping with them. So, he decided to move and join a church elsewhere. After a good number of years, he became ill and was about to die. The members who quarreled with him back at his old church heard the sad news. So, they agreed that most of the trouble that started the argument years ago was their fault. They made plans to see him, offer their apologies, and ask forgiveness. They hoped it would cheer him up and make him feel better. But when his wife went to the bedroom and told him those men were there, he refused to see them. He said to his wife, “I could not do that! How could I go out and face God in eternity and refuse to forgive people who came to me with outstretched hands?” In other words, he settled the matter long ago, so there was no need to open the wounds again. Therefore, he would let himself off the hook by refusing to meet with them, accepting their apology, and offering forgiveness.

This is the irresponsible type of thinking that some people have of removing the fear of judgment day. Such reasoning does not pass the test of Scripture. Jesus said, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and remember that someone has something against you? Leave your gift there and make peace with that person. Then come and offer your gift.”[4] Even worse, while he thought he was letting himself off the hook, he left fellow believers on the hook to answer why they did not apologize and receive forgiveness? But our Lord has an answer for that too. He taught, “If your brother or sister in God’s family does something wrong, go and tell them what they did wrong. Do this when you are alone with them. If they listen to you, you have helped them be your brother or sister again. But if they refuse to listen, go to them again and take one or two people with you. Then there will be two or three people who can tell what happened. If they refuse to listen to them, tell the church. And if they refuse to listen to the church, treat them as you would someone who does not know God.”[5] [6]

F. F. Bruce (1910-1990) says that the day of judgment need not frighten anyone who has appropriated the assurance of Jesus’ words, “Anyone who hears what I say and believes in the One who sent Me has eternal life. They will not be judged guilty. They have already left death and have entered into spiritual life.”[7] Also, “He has given Him authority to judge everyone because He is the Son of Man.”[8] All such terror is rejected by “perfect love” in which the members of God’s family live. “Fear has to do with punishment,”[9] But “punishment” is the portion of those who, through disobedience, is “condemned already,” not of those who, believing in the Son of God, are “not condemned.”[10] [11]

Rudolf Schnackenburg (1914-2002) believes we should do all we can to banish angst. But that is not because love has a higher value in religion than uncertainty. The Apostle John is not thinking about religious psychology; as Swiss Lutheran minister and psychoanalyst Oskar Pfister (1873-1956) said, what the Apostle John says here in verse eighteen is “worthy of the highest admiration.” He then declares: “So the gate to Christian belief is shut to tormenting fear for all time.”[12] Those, at last, are clear words, free of any misunderstanding, worthy of being quoted and repeated.[13]

Instead, according to Schnackenburg, for John, fear is the product of observing that Christians have not yet realized all the potential of their fellowship with God. There is still much of the unredeemed state about them. They show too little joy over being children of God[14] and too little confidence in the power that comes from God.[15] Anxiety is alien to the children of God and must be dismissed. But this does not mean the Gnostic’s theory of liberation from the material world and its hindrances. Nor is it a rationalistic desire for peace of mind. Rather, they should remove every impediment that hinders them from the perfect response of love and the fellowship God has given them.[16]

Donald W. Burdick (1917-1996) states that here such dismay exists, there can be no love, and vice versa, for “perfect love drives out fear.” This is true because of what being scared is and what love is. “Being afraid,” the most self-centered of all emotions, can be analyzed as a heightened awareness of self occasioned by what is deemed to be “a threat” to oneself. Love is quite the opposite. It is instead a diminishing of self-concern and a heightened awareness of others. Thus, the two emotions work contrary to each other. The more uneasiness there is, the less love there is; the more one is occupied with love, the smaller the panic.[17] So when you call on God to help relieve your terror, ask Him for more love.

John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) says that the Apostle John now reveals that the love that spells confidence also banishes being afraid. There is no cowardness, that is, no submissive timidity in love. Consequently, as the New English Bible (NEB) puts it, “there is no room for fear in love.” The two are as incompatible as oil and water. We can love and reverence God simultaneously.[18] That is why we cannot instantaneously approach Him in love and hide from Him in angst.[19] Indeed, it is by love for God that a false cringing horror of God is overcome. The reason why perfect love cannot coexist with anxiety is now given: apprehension has to do with punishment. Interestingly, the Greek noun kolasis appears only twice in the Final Covenant, here by John in verse eighteen (“torment”) and by Jesus (“everlasting punishment”) in His parable of the Sheep and the Goats.[20]

That is to say, fear introduces the category of penalties, which is quite alien to God’s forgiven children who love Him. Or the phrase “brings bad with it;” may signify unfounded concern, sometimes the very punishment it is afraid of.[21] In other words, “despair has something of the nature of punishment;” to be scared is to begin to suffer chastisement already. Once assured, as we are in verse seventeen, that we are “like Him” as God’s beloved children, we cease to be afraid of Him. It is evident, therefore, that the one who has misgivings is not made perfect in love.[22]

David E. Hiebert (1928-1995) says that the words “and the one who be dismayed is not perfected in love” restate the Apostle John’s nonpersonal principle, “There is no fear in love,” in personal terms. The conjunction “and” implies that something further needs to be said about the believer whose life is harassed by terror. The phrase “the one who fears” pictures an individual whose life is habitually beset with uneasiness. Love “is not yet perfected” in them. So, they are unable to attain their intended goal in their life. Therefore, the believer is the sphere in which God’s agápē works. So, to remove all dread, the believer must be brought into an enduring fellowship with God.[23] This is so true! Sometimes we are our biggest obstacle in obtaining the level of spiritual living God is looking for in our lives. We may blame it on everything else, but as the Prophet, Nathan, told King David, “You are that person.”[24]

Simon J. Kistemaker (1930-2017) looks at verse seventeen for practical purposes. He notes that TV viewers can witness courtroom sessions almost daily. We have become accustomed to the judge, jury, defendant, plaintiff, and lawyers. We hear the verdict and the innocent acquitted and the guilty sentence. Often, we witness the expressions of uncontrolled emotions. These emotions depict, from time-to-time anxiety and fear. At other times joy and happiness. Every human will have to appear before the judgment throne of the Anointed One. Feelings of guilt and remorse will fill the hearts of all those who have refused to obey God’s commands, believe His Word, and accept the Anointed One as Savior. Their hearts will be filled with anguish,[25] for they realize that the Judge will sentence them to everlasting punishment because of their unforgiven sins. Those who have lived in fellowship with the Father and the Son have nothing to fear. Their hearts are filled with joy and love. And they will hear the word “acquitted” from the lips of Jesus. He will say to the Father, “I have paid it all.”[26]

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[1] Hora novissima: Latin term for “last hour.”

[2] Isaiah 2:19 – Authorized Revised Version (ARV)

[3] Wilder, Amos N., The Interpreter’s Bible, op. cit., 1 John, Exposition, p. 286

[4] Matthew 5:23-24

[5] Ibid. 18:15-17

[6] Lloyd-Jones, Martyn: Life in the Anointed One, op. cit., pp. 541-542

[7] John 5:24

[8] Ibid. 5:22, 27

[9] A verbal parallel to this clause is provided by Philo where, speaking of the effects of shame and fear in one who has broken the eighth commandment, he says, “for it is only disgraceful actions which cause shame, and the other is a sign of his thinking it deserving of punishment.” Philo, The Special Laws, IV. I. (6)

[10] John 3:18

[11] Bruce, F. F., The Epistles of John: A Verse-by-Verse Exposition. Kingsley Books, Inc. Kindle Edition

[12] Pfister, Oskar: Das Christentum und die Angst. Eine religion psychologische, historishe und religion psychologische Untersuching, Published by Artemis Verlag, Zurich, 1944, 1,4888ff

[13] Hans-Josef Klauck (1948), Universitát Wurzburg, Deutschland

[14] Cf. 1 John 3:1

[15] See ibid. 2:13ff; 4:4; 5:4

[16] Schnackenburg, Rudolf: The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., pp. 224-225

[17] Burdick, Donald W., The Epistles of John, op. cit., p. 79

[18] Cf. Hebrews 5:7

[19] Cf. Romans 8:14-15; See 2 Timothy 1:7

[20] See Matthew 25:46

[21] Cf. Job 3:25

[22] Stott, John. The Letters of John (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries), op. cit., pp. 169-170

[23] Hiebert, David E., Bibliotheca Sacra, op. cit., January-March 1990, pp. 85-86

[24] 2 Samuel 12:7

[25] Revelation 6:15-17

[26] Kistemaker, Simon J., New Testament Commentary, op. cit., p. 341

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXIX) 07/26/22

^4:18         Where God’s love is, there is no fear because God’s perfect love takes it away. On the contrary, it is His punishment that makes people afraid.

James B. Morgan (1850-1942) observes that the argument of the Apostle John in verse eighteen is plain and forcible and needs only to be stated that it may be perceived. Let us notice his views:

1. The nature of love. It is self-evident. A child who perfectly loves its parent has no forbidding fear of them. On the contrary, it can come to them with confidence knowing there is nothing to be afraid of in their presence.

2. More firmly, the same view is presented in the operation of love. Reverence for God, understanding it in the evil sense of terror, is natural to mankind. But let love for Him be conceived, and it counteracts that dread.

3. The very nature of anxiety further confirms this view. We avoid the person whom we are scared of. Their presence is painful – no need to expose oneself to it except out of necessity.

4. Finally, the operation of distress is to destroy love. As one element is introduced, the other is destroyed. If apprehension is allowed to predominate, love will be overcome.

What a powerful argument for the cultivation of love. Would we now be happy in God and love to meet Him at last with joy? Then let us love Him. Let us see God in His Son to repose our faith and hope in Him. Let us cultivate this feeling since we regard Him as our friend. This will elevate, purify, and strengthen that love towards oneself. Then, in the end, we will await judgment day without being afraid.[1]

American theologian and author James Freeman Clarke (1810-1888) brings several passages to show that the spirit of the Gospel is not a spirit of fear and that Jesus came to deliver us from all dismay.[2] But, should we not be afraid because life is full of danger and evil? And if the Bible contains passages that teach us not to be uneasy, does it not have other passages which teach that we ought not to be overly concerned?[3]

So, how are these facts and statements, asks Clarke, reconciled with the assertion that it is the duty of Christians not to be afraid? First, we may say that a distinction can be made between suspicion as an ulterior motive and terror as a ruling motive of human action. Fear is the ruling reason for degrading conduct because it is essentially selfish. But misgivings, when controlled by reason, subordinate to hope, joined with courage, become caution, watchfulness, and modesty. A Christian may have qualms but is never governed by fright.

The work of the Anointed One is to deliver us from all excessive fear, states Clarke, and to leave calmness, sober watchfulness, and profound peace in its place. But this work is not done suddenly; it is progressive work. Consider the apprehension of sin and of its consequences. The primary purpose of Christianity is to save us from sin and, thereby, from its effects, which are moral and spiritual death. And it keeps us, not by stirring up uneasiness but by inspiring faith and courage. It assures us that “sin shall not have dominion” over us. God’s law shows us our duty but gives us no power to do it. The purer and higher the standard, we feel less able to reach it. We need the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father!”

Once we are delivered from the fear of sin by the power of the Gospel, we are also freed from misgivings about God. However, there is a concern about reverence for God, which is always right and we must always cherish. Heathenism is a religion of terror; Judaism is the religion of conscience; Christianity is the religion of affection. Where God is regarded as an Almighty Ruler, the chief duty is implicit, unquestioning obedience. The principal task is righteous conduct, where God is a Judge. Where God is as a father, the chief responsibility is childlike trust and love. There is gradual progress in the conception of Deity. Beginning with power, it ascends to justice and terminates in love. And when perfect love is attained, it casts out all anxiety.[4]

William Sinclair (1850-1917) says that the more perfect this disposition of perfected love becomes, the less any form of anxiety can share in it. Even if regarded as directed to an earthly object, if its character is pure and divine, not even a lack of exchange can disturb its calmness. Where it is a well-grounded emotion with a perfect being, its serenity is complete in proportion to its sincerity. When love is perfect, fear dwindles to nothing and is expelled. Love, seeking to be perfect, and finding despair alongside it, will diligently seek out the cause of the dismay, perfect itself by getting rid of the reason, and so get rid of the angst. Being scared in such a connection implies some ground for worry and suffering punishment (not “torment”) by being uncertain,[5] the presence of which are grounds for alarm. It would imply some corresponding imperfection of love.[6] [7]

Albert Barnes (1872-19d51) notes that love is not an affection that produces dread. There is no fear in our love for a parent, child, or friend. If a person had perfect love for God, they would have no uneasiness over anything – for what would they have to dread? They would have no terror of death, for they would have nothing to be afraid of beyond the grave. It is guilt that makes people afraid of what is to come, but those whose sins are pardoned and whose hearts are filled with God’s agápē have nothing to panic over in this world or the world to come. The angels in heaven, who have always loved God and one another, have no distress, for they have nothing to worry about in the future. Likewise, the redeemed awaiting the resurrection, rescued from all danger, and filled with God’s agápē, have nothing to be frightened of; knowing this love operates on earth to deliver the soul from all apprehension of what is to come.

This means, says Barnes, love that is complete or allowed to exert its proper influence on the soul. As far as it exists, it tends to deliver the mind from alarms. If it existed in any soul in a perfect state, that soul would be entirely free from all apprehension regarding the future. It is true; that people suffer from concern about poverty, grief, bereavement, sickness, death, and future woes. God’s agápē furnishes evidence of true devotion’s deliverance from all these distressing apprehensions. However, anyone whose mind lingers on the uncertainty of coming wrath shows that love has not accomplished its complete work in their hearts. Perhaps it never will feel complete until we reach the heavenly world, although there are many whose minds are so full of love for God that they feel entirely delivered from fear.[8]

Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951) says we should notice that perfect love is not something we find. No Christian has ever manifested perfect love, no matter how devoted or mature. There is some selfishness, jealousy, envy, and self-seeking in the heart of every child of God. Sometimes people imagine that they have gotten beyond all this, but circumstances soon reveal that they have not. When we look for perfect love, we find it in our blessed Lord Jesus the Anointed One, and we see that it was manifested when He, in infinite grace, gave Himself on the cross for guilty sinners such as we.

You see, says Ironside, there should be no forboding in love. That could not be displayed if it were a question of our love. Every honest Christian would continually panic if they thought their final acceptance depended upon their inward perfection in love. He would say to himself, “Well, I have trusted the Lord Jesus the Anointed One, and I hope everything is turning out all right at last, but my love is sometimes so cold, it is sometimes so low, that I really fear when the Lord makes an examination, He will find so much in me contrary to His mind that I will not be accepted at all.” But, thank God, we are turned away from ourselves and our experiences and directed to the full manifestation of perfect love on the cross. God says, as it were, “There you see love triumphant.” Love manifested in its fullness, reached the deepest depths, and lifted the poorest of sinners, utterly lost and ruined and undeserving. So, you can depend on it; He will never give you up. Remember, Jesus loved His disciples during His ministry on earth and will love them to the very end.[9] [10]

Greville P. Lewis (1891-1976) notes that “the fear of the Lord” is prominent in the First Covenant, but this represents an elementary stage in religious experience. Jesus told His disciples to only reverence God since He held their destiny in His hands, but they were then in the kindergarten of discipleship;[11] the Apostle John admits that dread is a response to God’s “punishment.” At the earliest stage in one’s spiritual life, the sinner is halted in their career of sin by the realization that they are rebelling against an almighty and holy God and that if they continue to do so, they must suffer the consequences. But the mature Christian’s perfected love has helped them outlive any distrust of God.

John does not say we should “love God” out of concern for what He will do with us, says Lewis. Instead, love God to your fullest, and you will never again shrink from Him in fright, for “there is no fear in love.” Being alarmed is essentially self-centered. It asks, “What is going to happen to me?” and trembles at the thought of the answer. But when our love for God is perfected, self is forgotten, and only devotion and admiration remain. So we are often justified in panicking over any undiscovered and, therefore, an unsanctified impulse that might lead to action which would add another wound to the Anointed One of the Cross and grieve the heart of our Father.[12]

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[1] Morgan, James B., An Exposition of the First Epistle of John, op. cit., Lecture XXXVI, p. 364-365

[2] 2 Timothy 1:7, Romans 8:15; John 14:27

[3] Matthew 10:28; Philippians 2:12; 1 Peter 1:17; Proverbs 3:7

[4] Clarke, James Freeman: Biblical Illustrator, op. cit., Vol. 22, pp. 144-145

[5] See Luke 16:24

[6] Cf. 1 John 3:19-21

[7] Sinclair, William: A New Testament Commentary for English Readers, op. cit., p. 489

[8] Barnes, Albert: New Testament Notes, op. cit., p. 4869

[9] John 13:1

[10] Ironside, Harry A., The Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., pp. 171-172

[11] Luke 12:4-6

[12] Lewis, Greville P., The Epworth Commentary, The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., p. 110

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CXVIII) 07/25/22

^4:18         Where God’s love is, there is no fear because God’s perfect love takes it away. On the contrary, it is His punishment that makes a person afraid.

Henry A. Sawtelle (1832-1913) says that the phrase “perfect love drives out fear” refers to the presence of divine love in our hearts and perfected there. In its completeness, it fills the soul, thereby shutting out despair in us prior to such love. Two spheres cannot occupy where there is only space for one. But how does perfect love in us expel dismay? In the experience of it, we feel entirely united to God, as if it were a part of Him. We look out upon the world, opposition, death, judgment itself, from God’s being that encircles us, from the canopy, the fortification of His divine person. In the consciousness of this union, we need not dread evil any more than God be uneasy about Himself.[1]

Sawtelle continues by pointing out that when it comes to the use of the word “torment,” there are only four places in the Final Covenant where this word occurs: Here, in verse eighteen, the Greek noun kolasis (“torment”), and Matthew 25:46 (“punishment”); and as the Greek verb kolazō in2 Peter 2:9 (“punishment”), and Acts of the Apostles 4:21 (“punish”). It is the punishment of the great day,[2] with which fear is connected and which it already takes possession of as if it were a part of itself. Distress is the anticipation of punishment; it contains a foretaste and partakes of it before it even arrives. There can be nothing of this, nothing of painful apprehension in perfected love, and, therefore, the statement in the first sentence of this verse must be true. The last sentence of this verse says that such fright is only present when perfected love is absent.[3] As we can see, the KJV translators chose the word “torment” to emphasize the severity of the punishment in the lake of fire.[4]

John James Lias (1834-1923) believed that the Apostle John has before his eyes the ideal condition of perfect union with God to which the believer is ever growing. No apprehension exists, nor can it exist in that condition, for there is no longer cause for anxiety. But, of course, John is not speaking of that reverent, respectful awe that hesitates to offend,[5] but of the dread of reprimand, rebuke, or rejection. If we ask, how is it that “reverence and godly-fear” are taught to us from Scripture if misgivings are opposed to love? We will find the reply in the following words – “because fear has no torment.”[6]

So, says Lias, if we imagine that fear and love may co-exist in the same person is not to misrepresent the Apostle John. He does not say that there can be no anxiety in the mind of the person who has love in their heart. What John says comes closer to the statement that apprehension is not love. He says that concern is not contained in love. Dread of offending God must always be felt. Despair over the consequences of sin cannot be avoided, even where there is much love in the heart. But, when love is allowed to diminish panic, the more a person is filled with love, the less they are inclined to be concerned. That’s why John says here, God’s gentle agápē dissolves the tears of fear.[7]

William E. Jelf (1836-1849) has an enlightening thought in verse eighteen. He says that having qualms does not harmonize with love, and perhaps it is the only energy of our moral nature with which fear is not connected. Being frightened of judgment is different than being afraid of the Judge. The feeling of love does not give rise to nor is it accompanied by uneasiness; it is the negation of worry. It cannot be said to use the argument “Who then is the one who condemns?”[8] for the notion of condemnation is not suggested by love but is foreign to it. It feels that God will give us all good things, and when this agápē is perfectly developed, if any hesitation arises from or in the other parts of our moral nature, love drives it out of our souls.

True Christian love, says Jelf, which, when developed, becomes perfect love which is founded on God’s agápē for us, and, as God loved us before we loved Him, the existence of agápē implies that we have no cause to fear Him: as far as God’s agápē is concerned we should have no aversion if we love Him. This is proof of the statement that perfect love excludes animosity, giving us the freedom to speak. Therefore, as we love Him, we must have realized His prior love for us, and in proportion, as we recognize His agápē for us, dislike for Him is out of the question.[9]

Alfred Plummer (1841-1926) hears the Apostle John giving proof here in verse nineteen of the statement in verse eighteen that perfect love will give us boldness by showing the incompatible natures of love and fear. Love moves towards others in the spirit of self-sacrifice: hostility shrinks from others in the spirit of self-preservation. It is generally understood that neither God’s agápē nor dread of God is specifically meant. In all relations, perfect love excludes angst and prevents love from being perfect. And the two vary in reverse: the more perfect the love, the less possible the anxiety, and the more apprehension, the less perfect the love.

But, says Plummer, being as sure as any physical law, the principle that perfect love excludes all fear is an ideal that has never been proven. Like the first law of motion, it is verified by its approximations. No believer’s love has ever been so perfect as to banish concern, but all believers experience that as their love increases, their despair diminishes. It is worthy of note that John here abandons his incompatible method. He does not go on to state anything about those that do not doubt. And rightly so, for the absence of dismay proves nothing: it may be the result of ignorance, presumption, indifference, unbelief, or chronic wickedness that keeps a person from having no anxiety about appearing before God on Judgment Day.

The Apostle Paul teaches the same doctrine, says Plummer; “So, you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His children. Now we call Him ‘Abba, Father.’”[10] The submissive distress, which perfect love excludes, is therefore altogether different from childlike awe, which is necessary for creating the Creator’s image to love their Creator. Even obedient fright is necessary as a preparation for perfect love. “Respect for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,”[11] and it is also the beginning of love. Every sinner must begin by reverencing the God against whom they have sinned. Johann Bengel (1687-1752) gives us these various stages, notes Plummer: The condition of mankind is varied: (1) without terror and love; (2) with trembling without love; (3) with nightmares and love; (4) without misgivings with love – agápē love towards God. This is also the case of Hagar, who Abraham evicted from his household.[12] In the case of Sarah, it would be like number (2) above; with Abraham, it would be (4).[13] [14]

Erich Haupt (1841-1910) notes that the Apostle John is certain that love must drive out fear; however, it appears from this that uneasiness causes terror. To explain this idea, we are directed to the words of our Lord, “They will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”[15] We, therefore, perceive that torment is the punishment, not merely the feeling of condemnation; the objective condition, not the subjective sense of it or pain. As this is required by the Greek verb aperchomai (“to go away”), so still more is it demanded by the antithesis to eternal life: as it would be highly forced to speak of going away or entering a feeling. Hence, the state of eternal life is not the description of a subjective feeling but an appointed condition. Similarly, in our passage, torment must not be understood as a mere painful feeling, for it was surely not necessary to emphasize that angst is a sentiment of distress.

To look at it another way, the Apostle John said this terror has been shown to be the “fear of punishment” since the death penalty is already included and involved. If we remember the saying of the Gospel, those who don’t believe are condemned already.[16] Such condemnation implies that Light shined on those in darkness, but they did not comprehend its meaning. In John’s thought, condemnation is consummate in eternal separation from God. It is perfectly clear that John might have exhibited this proposition: that where dread is, love cannot be perfected. Therefore, dismay must be driven out.[17]

Clement Clemance (1845-1886) notes that since Love implies attraction, fear repulsion; therefore, being scared does not share any space in our hearts with love. Love in verse eighteen means the principle of love in general; it must not be limited to God’s agápē to us, or our love to God, or our love of fellow Christians. Love and distress coexist only where love is not yet perfect. Perfect love will absolutely exclude fright as surely as perfect union excludes all separation. Self-interested love is apprehensive; pure and unselfish love has no dismay. Yet nothing but perfect love must be allowed to drive out timidity. Otherwise, says Clemance, this text might be used to take the most unwarranted liberties with Almighty God and those around us. Attempting to end worrying without achieving perfect love is irreverent and presumptuous.[18]

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[1] See Romans 8:1

[2] See 1 John 4:17

[3] Sawtelle, Henry A., An American Commentary, Alvah Hovey Ed., op. cit., p. 53

[4] See Revelation 19:20

[5] Cf. Psalms 19:9; 111:10

[6] First Epistle of St. John with Exposition, op. cit., pp. 339-340

[7] First Epistle of St. John with Homiletical Treatment, op. cit., pp. 340-341

[8] Romans 8:34

[9] Jelf, William E., The First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., p. 65

[10] Romans 8:15

[11] Proverbs 1:7; 9:10

[12] Galatians 4:30

[13] Bengel, Johann: Gnomon of the New Testament, op. cit., loc. cit.

[14] Plummer, Alfred: Cambridge Commentary, op. cit., pp. 152-153

[15] Matthew 25:46

[16] John 3:18

[17] Haupt, Erich: The First Epistle of John, op. cit., pp. 279-280

[18] Clemance, Clement: First Epistle of John, Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Exposition, op. cit., p. 105

To gain a better understanding of this Points to Ponder, I would suggest that you read it slowly or in two sittings. Although we use the word understanding often, sometimes it doesn’t mean what we think it does. Psychologists tell us that understanding is the procedure of attaining knowledge about oneself or other people or comprehending the meaning or significance of something, like a term, idea, argument, or occurrence.

It begins with the mind, says Linda B. Glaser at Cornell University Department of Psychology, because the mind that thinks our thoughts is a special place for understanding to grow. But is it distinct from the brain? Is there a soul directing our thoughts, or are they determined entirely by the output of our biology? Could that bug in your garden be thinking deep thoughts, or are humans unique?

Some psychologists say that the mind would function just as it does without a body. Others say the mind is extraordinary – it’s not just a fascinating and complicated machine. Trees and tables, and billiard balls can be explained by physics and biology. Still, you need to add something extra, some non-physical property, to explain human consciousness that brings understanding.

Rhode Island counseling psychologist Will Meek explains that our brains perform so many functions that sometimes it becomes a confusing mess. For example, how often have you had mixed thoughts, feelings, ideas, solutions, and memories clamoring for your attention while trying to stay focused on something? Cognitive psychologists have attempted to make sense of this for many years.

Meek offers three types of minds for us to consider. Perhaps we’ve used all three reading this post. But, once we get a good sense of them, they should become more understandable and easier to work with.

Engaged Mind

It is the state of being immersed in, or connected to, what we are doing in the present moment. When we are fully present in a conversation, skiing down a mountain, crying after hearing about a friend having cancer, or taking the first bite of the best slice of pizza in the world, when our thoughts and attention are fully connected to what is happening here-and-now, that is an understanding mind.

Automatic Mind

Our brain is constantly conducting an enormous range of tasks. For example, we become aware of any changes in our environment or any pains or bodily sensations that deserve noticing. We effortlessly make evaluations and judgments about things being positive or negative, categorize our experiences, and make decisions about things we need to do and must remember. We have scenes from our past triggered and have feelings and sensations about things that might occur in the future. This non-stop flow of information is part of human understanding, and we spend many of our lives swimming in this stream.

Analytic Mind

Since we are self-aware creatures, we can intentionally step back from our current thoughts, feelings, and experiences to observe them, manipulate information in our minds, and solve problems. All the complex reasoning we can do is called an analytic mind. Since there are many, the analytical mind can work. For instance: Observe: We can observe other people and the workings of our minds. Reflect: We can replay events in our memories and arrive at new perspectives. Solve: We can take immediate issues and problems and find solutions or understanding. Plan: We can plan deep into the future and create backup options. Focus: We can sustain attention on something important. Imagine: We can use our imaginations to run through how something may play out so we can understand so we can react appropriately.

Psychologist Jesse Marczyk of the Psychology Today Blog says that understanding per se is to be distinguished from the awareness of understanding. While understanding per se refers to the actual connections among your mental representations, the perception of understanding refers to your mental representations. The sense of understanding is an awareness and understanding of one’s thought processes – you’re thinking about your thinking. Much like understanding per se, the consciousness of understanding comes in varying degrees: one can feel as if they don’t understand something as though they do understand it completely and anything in between.

With this distinction made, we can consider some good questions: what is the connection between understanding per se and comprehension? What behaviors are encouraged by the reaction to understanding? What functional outcome(s) are those behaviors aimed at achieving? Finally, given these functional outcomes, what predictions can we draw about how people experience various degrees of emotion as they formulate their understanding?

The University of West Alabama, in their Psychology and Counseling News, tells us that the way we interpret and respond to the world around us makes up who we are and contributes to understanding our quality of life. The study of emotional psychology allows researchers to dive into what makes humans react as they do to certain stimuli and how those reactions affect us both physically and mentally. While the study of emotional psychology is vast and complex, researchers have discovered quite a bit about what constitutes our emotions and behavioral and physical reactions to them.

We know that emotions have helped humans survive. According to Emotional-Psychologist and former professor at the University of California San Francisco, Paul Ekman, who developed the “wheel of emotion,” said, “It would be hazardous if we didn’t have emotions. But, on the other hand, it would also be a very dull life. Because our emotions drive us.” That is why we must be able to understand emotions, as they play a vital role in how we behave.

Ekman argues that emotions are fundamentally constructive. They are influenced by what is suitable for our species and what we learned during our upbringing. Therefore, they guide our behavior in a way that should lead us to a positive outcome. However, emotions can become destructive if the feelings we’ve learned are the correct response no longer fit our situation or subconscious emotions cause reactions we cannot understand. Emotional awareness is being in touch with your feelings and turning your understanding into action. Being able to do this with others is also referred to as emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive, control and evaluate emotions. The term was coined by researchers Peter Salovey of Yale University and John D. Mayer of the University of New Hampshire, Durham, and made popular by Dan Goleman, an author, psychologist, and science journalist. In his 1996 book, they are defined as the ability to recognize, understand and manage our emotions, and recognize the influence of others.

Those with emotional intelligence open themselves to positive and negative experiences, identify the emotions, and communicate them appropriately. Emotionally intelligent people can use their understanding of their affections and the sentiments of others to move toward personal and social growth. Those with low emotional intelligence may be unable to understand and control their feelings or those of others. It could leave others feeling bad when they don’t understand their emotions, feelings, or expressions.

Since everything said so far about the mind, emotions, reactions, and understanding applies to our spiritual life, what does God’s Word say about understanding? The ancient believer Job had some enlightening thoughts about understanding: He said, “Behold, reverence for the LORD, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.”^[1]Then he added God’s question, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me if you understand.”^[2]

Perhaps King David learned from this grand patriarch. As a Psalmist, he says, “The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together, they have become corrupt; none does good, not even one.”^[3] But for the faithful, David said, “When I thought how to understand, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into God’s sanctuary; then I understood what will happen to the wicked.”^[4] That helped him later after he learned that “Reverence for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those practicing it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!”^[5]

One of David’s subjects, who wrote the longest Psalm, stated: “Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.”^[6]Further on, he learned that “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.^[7] Added to this, we have David’s wise words, “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure.”^[8]

It is possible that David’s son Solomon was taught these things by his kingly father. He begins his wise thoughts by saying, “Making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understand; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand reverence for the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Then you will understand righteousness, justice, and equity.”^[9]Solomon adds, “Discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech, who forsake the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness.”^[10]

Then Solomon turns to the personal side of understanding by saying, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your understanding. In all you do, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. Blessed is the one who finds wisdom and gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”^[11]

Solomon concludes, “Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.”^[12]So, “Do you hear wisdom calling? Does not understanding raise her voice?”^[13] Remember, “Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.”^[14] “Isn’t it better to get wisdom than gold! To get an understanding is to be chosen above silver. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears and understands the word. He bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and another thirty.”^[15] That’s why, “Whoever restrains his words has gained knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.”^[16] We know that “Fools take no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.”^[17] Think of this, “The purpose in a man’s heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.”^[18]

But the First Covenant preachers and prophets are not silent about understanding. Jeremiah asks us, “Do people gain anything from their hard work? I saw all the hard work God gave us to do. God gave us the ability to think about His world, but we can never completely understand everything He does. And yet, He does everything at just the right time.”^[19] Jeremiah goes on to share a word from the LORD “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth ”^[20] Listen and learn, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it?”^[21]To which Isaiah adds, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable.”^[22]

But the Final Covenant writers also have something to say about understanding. Luke tells us that as Jesus began teaching, “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”^[23]And the Apostle Paul joins in by saying, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”^[24]That’s why sinners are “Darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance, due to their hardness of heart.”^[25] That’s why he told young Timothy, “Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.”^[26] So, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”^[27]

Not only that, but to the congregations scattered throughout the area, Paul had this to say, “From the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.^[28]And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in the Anointed One, Jesus.”^[29]

Finally, the Apostle Peter adds, “As Paul does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. Some things in them are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.”^[30]And the Apostle John declares, “We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are Him who is true, in His Son Jesus the Anointed One. He is the true God and eternal life.”^[31]

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[1] Job 28:28

[2] Ibid. 38:4

[3] Psalm 14:2-3

[4] Ibid. 73:16-17

[5] Ibid. 111:10

[6] Ibid. 119:34

[7] Ibid. 119:130

[8] Ibid. 147:5

[9] Proverbs 2:2-6, 9

[10] Ibid. 2:11-16

[11] Ibid. 3:5-6, 13-18

[12] Ibid. 4:7

[13] Ibid. 8:1

[14] Ibid. 14:29

[15] Ibid. 16:16

[16] Ibid. 17:27

[17] Ibid. 18:2

[18] Ibid. 20:25

[19] Ecclesiastes 3:9-11

[20] Jeremiah 9:23-24

[21] Jeremiah 17:9

[22] Isaiah 40:28

[23] Luke 24:45

[24] 1 Corinthians 2:12

[25] Ephesians 4:18

[26] 2 Timothy 3:1

[27] Ibid. 2:7

[28] Colossians 1:9

[29] Philippians 4:7

[30] 2 Peter 3:16

[31] 1 John 5;20

Have you ever sung the song, “O What a Mighty God We Serve?” Well, God’s strength is very different from the energy we usually consider. We tend to include things like bombs and explosions when we think about force. We point to nuclear power plants and giant engines that make a lot of noise. We list dictators and tanks and soldiers. We point to football players so jacked up on steroids that they have no discernable necks. And because this is our image of courage, when we look at Jesus’ ministry to the poor, the sick, and the suffering, we do not see anything we would label as strong in it.

However, the sunrise offers us a near-perfect analogy for how to understand what God’s strength is really like. If you live near the ocean, no doubt you’ve seen the sun rise over the water. Some rays of light from that sun traveled almost 100 million miles through the great vacuum of space, trickled through the clouds over the water, and find their way through the open blinds into a house or apartment. Imagine those rays of light filtered through those blinds landing on the face of a newborn baby girl lying in her crib. Feeling the warmth of that light caressing her cheek, she was ever so gently roused from her sleep, cooing in the way newborns do when they’re not screaming their heads off.

At that exact moment, other rays of light from that same sun that traveled almost 100 million miles trickled through those same clouds, landing not on the face of that newborn baby girl but on the water’s surface. And as those rays of light hit the water, they eventually cause the molecules of that water to vibrate with increasing intensity. Essentially, that light caused the water to boil, so by the end of today alone, some 52 cubic MILES of water will be transformed from a liquid into a vapor and rise to enter the atmosphere.

Once in the atmosphere, that water will then get swept up by air currents and move across the globe, falling in the form of rain, snow, sleet, and hail. In some places, it will cause flooding and mass devastation. In other areas, it will etch new landscapes out of solid granite. And everywhere, it will provide the water needed to sustain some of the 8.7 million species of plants and animals that call earth home. Which is all to say, while we can look at the light gently landing on a baby’s face and say it’s not that strong, we can only say that because we don’t have the complete picture in view. Our perspective is too limited.

In the same way, God’s strength – as displayed in acts of mercy and compassion, as demonstrated ultimately in Jesus’ self-sacrifice on the cross – may look to us as tiny and insignificant. But while it may look to us to be the very definition of weakness.  It’s that mercy, that compassion, that self-sacrificial love that is the very definition of strength.

Likewise, it takes strength to love your enemies. It takes courage to reach out to those who aren’t like you. It requires a strong effort to forgive those who have wronged you. It’s that mercy, that compassion; it’s that self-sacrificial love that can wrestle power from the forces of evil that hold our world. It’s that mercy, that compassion; it’s that self-sacrificial love that can make the kingdom of God a reality here on earth. Now that’s power!