Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CVIII) 07/08/22

^4:17                If God’s agápē is made perfect in us, we can be without fear on the day when God judges the world. We will be without fear because we are like Jesus in this world.

Johann Bengel (1687-1752) says that God’s agápē is always the same and perfect: but with us, it is brought to its consummation, rising more and more from its descent to us to the level of boldness. Bengel then parses verse seventeen to show how this agápē is perfected: “Herein is our love made perfect, that [to such a degree] we may have boldness [the opposite of fear, (see verse eighteen).] in the day[1] [more terrible than the day of death] of judgment: because  [this refers to herein.] as He is, [Jesus the Anointed One is love, (in heaven; which words, though unexpressed, contrast with in the world.)] so are we [who love God.][2]  in this world. [which is devoid of love and in dread of judgment.][3] [4]

Thomas Pyle (1674-1756) says that we must firmly adhere to this fundamental truth of one’s faith and practice that love and kindness joined together, which is the principal test of our conformity to His excellence, and our return of gratitude to Him. In other words, by loving our fellow believers, as God loved us, and ready to suffer for their sakes, as the Anointed One suffered for us, we prove ourselves His true disciples, in full and perfect union with Him. Thus, we can expect the glorious reward He promised on the great day of final judgment.[5]

James Macknight (1721-1800) comments that those of whom the Apostle John speaks will have boldness in the day of judgment because, as God’s children, by loving God and their neighbor, their Judge will not condemn them. The verb in this clause is in the present tense. So, the relative “He” must be understood as God, represented in verse eleven as the object of our imitation of His agápē to mankind. If the reader thinks that the Anointed One is meant and that the words “in this world” are connected not only with the words “we are,” but with the words “He is,” the translation should read, “as He was, so we are in this world.” According to this translation, likewise, the sentiment expressed is perfectly appropriate.[6]

John Brown of Haddington (1722-1787) says that the appearance and the sincerity and strength of our love encourage our hope that we will appear with bold confidence before God’s judgment seat because we have been faithful to Him according to our faith and obedience, having passed through this tempting and entangling world, we still have our hearts filled with supreme love for God and with a sincere and passionate love for His children for His sake.[7] Unfortunately, some Christians mistakenly believe they will pass God’s judgment based on faithful church attendance, daily Bible reading, nightly prayers, and participating in church activities. But John makes it clear that God is not looking for that. Instead, he wants to see our record of loving one another as we would like to love Him.

Alfred Plummer (1841-1926) says that the earliest English Versions, except for Wycliffe and the King James Version, agree on how God’s agápē is perfected.

In this thing is the perfect God’s agápē with us (Wycliffe Bible-Purvey Bible 1395)

Herein is the love perfect in us (Tyndale 1534)

Herein is the love perfect in us (Bishop’s Bible 1568)

Herein is that love perfect in us (Geneva Bible 1599)

Herein is our love made perfect (King James Version 1611)

The meaning seems to be that love, which is of God, takes up its abode with us and is developed until it is perfected. “Love” here evidently means our love towards God: His agápē towards us can have no fear about it.[8] “Herein” may refer to either of the two clauses which follow. “Herein….that” (ἵνα – hina) occurs possibly in John 15:8, and “Herein… because” (ὅτι – hoti) occurs in 1 John 3:16; 4:9, 10. But it is perhaps best to make “Herein” refer to what precedes; to our abiding in God and God in us. It avoids the awkwardness of making agápē’s perfection in the present depend upon our attitude at the judgment, which though near, according to John’s view,[9] is still in the future. In this way, we can give its full meaning to “that” ((ἵνα – hina): by close union with God, our love is made perfect so that we may have boldness on judgment day.[10]

Charles Simeon (1759-1836)  asks, what are the true Christians’ noble ambitions? It certainly is not some inferior pattern that they are content to follow. They look to see what God Himself is to His creatures and would He be to the utmost extent of His power. The Apostle Paul said he wanted to be an imitator of God.[11] Is God love? Paul also wants to be the embodiment of love; he would do nothing except out of love and say what love would accept. What a heaven would earth be if all were of this mind and spirit!

So, Pastor Simeon cries out, “Come, beloved, and rise to the occasion. See what God is to the world at large: and do the same, according to your power, all caring and love. See also what God is to His Church in particular: and be same towards every member of that Church, so far as the individual is worthy of it, alike in satisfaction and demonstration.” In a word, let your endeavor be not only godly but God-like; “Be holy now in everything you do, just as the Lord is holy, who invited you to be His child,” [12] and “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” [13] [14]

Augustus Neander (1789-1850) notices that the Apostle John characterizes the disposition of the mind, where this abiding in God’s agápē has matured. So he interprets John’s words here in verse seventeen that even when thinking about the coming judgment, our fellowship in union with God has for its bold confidence, undisturbed by fear. For the English word “boldness,” Luther uses “Freudigkeit,” which means either “joyfulness” or “readiness.” Both terms indicate such a relation to another that it allows us to talk with Him in an open conversation, to tell Him without reserve all that is in our hearts, and to turn to Him with all our concerns with faultless confidence. Such a state of joyful assured confidence, disturbed by no fear, no apprehension, in which we turn to God under all circumstances and necessities, is the one indicated.[15]

Gottfried C. F. Lücke (1791-1855)  says that some authors understood the term “love” as meaning God’s agápē to us. Others, in the sense of love for each other. The reading “of God” after “agápē” lend little support to the first interpretation. The translators of the King James version make a similar mistake by inserting “our” before “agápē.” The Greek text reads, “In this has-been-perfected the love with us.” See how love is referred to in verse sixteen if we want a clue: “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” The Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus the Anointed One, and God’s agápē, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” [16] We may accept what little may be gained by this interpretation of whose love it is. One simple way to consider it is that our love is from God, not from ourselves, which we share with our brothers and sisters.

Lücke mentions that Dutch lawyer and Bible scholar Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), referring to “herein” in verse seventeen, changes it to the unclear “that is how” and declares the words “in boldness” to be what gives the sense of the passage – the highest degree of love toward us. In addition, much of this world’s hatred was shown to our Lord; we grimaced in pain following His divine love’s supreme example.[17] So, being constant in enduring evil promotes the model of the Anointed One. It allows us to enjoy the best while waiting to hear from Him. But even this explanation does not remove the difficulty and almost insurmountable obscurity of Hugo Grotius’ (1583-1645) [18] interpretation; it exhibits a sentiment, which indeed is true, but in this context, entirely foreign and which is far from being suggested by any previous passage or alluded to in any subsequent one, as it is from being naturally or contained in the words with which it has been randomly connected. Without hesitation, Lücke gives preference to the opposite opinion and explains the passage according to the analogy of 1 John 3:19, in conjunction with 3:15, as expressing the power of brotherly love to give perfect confidence on the day of the divine judgment to those who exercise it according to the Anointed One’s example.

Daniel D. Whedon (1808-1885) talks about “Boldness” – Fearlessness. A calm assurance that the Savior is the Judge, a close friend of ours, and that for us, there is no fear of sin’s punishment – eternal separation from God and heaven. And this boldness is not based on the idea that there is no punishment for unrepented sin, except for the consciousness, through the spirit of love bestowed upon us, that our reconciliation with Him is a welcomed Day of judgment – His Parousia[19] or coming! As He is, so are we – our moral conformity in love gives us a trusting sympathy. He is God’s holy Son, and we, His reconciled children in this world, are equally opposed to us.[20]

Richard H. Tuck (1817-1868) says that the words “made perfect” can be understood as reaching their purpose and end. The sign of its full development in us will be the removal of fear with the “Day of Judgment.” We shall no more fear it than Jesus did. Enter into sonship, and all thought of judgment day passes away. Obedient children should not be afraid of their fathers.[21]

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[1] Romans 2:16

[2] 1 John 4:18; John 15:10

[3] See 1 John 4:9

[4] Bengel, Johann: Critical English Commentary, op. cit., pp. 321-322

[5] Pyle, Thomas: Paraphrase, op. cit., p. 397

[6] Macknight, James, Literal Paraphrase, op. cit., pp. 94-95

[7] Brown, John of Haddington: Self-Interpreting Bible, op. cit., p. 1328

[8] See 1 John 4:18

[9] 1 John 2:18

[10] Plummer, Alfred: Cambridge Commentary, op. cit., p. 151

[11] Ephesians 5:1

[12] 1 Peter 1:15

[13] Matthew 5:48

[14] Simeon, Charles: Hor Homileticæ, op. cit., Discourse 2459, p. 508

[15] Neander, Augustus: First Epistle of John, Chapters IV, V, pp. 268-269

[16] 2 Corinthians 13:14

[17] See 1 Peter 2:19; 4:16

[18] Hugo Grotius was a Dutch humanist and jurist whose philosophy of natural law had a major impact on the development of seventeenth-century political thought and on the moral theories of the Enlightenment. 

[19] The term Parousia is transliterated from Greek to denote the future coming of the Anointed One. This use of the term is based upon its New Testament meaning when related to the Anointed One. Cf. Matthew 24:3, 27, 37, 39; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:1,8,9; James 5:7,8; 2 Peter 1:16; 3:4,12; 1 John 2:28

[20] Whedon, Daniel D., Commentary of the Bible, op. cit., p. 275

[21] Tuck, Richard H., Preacher’s Compete Homiletical Commentary, op. cit. p. 310

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CVII) 07/07/22

^4:17          If God’s agápē is made perfect in us, we can be without fear on the day when God judges the world.  We will be without fear because we are like Jesus in this world.

So, how does this apply to us? When God sees His love completed in us demonstrated by our love for others, He perceives a likeness in how His Son operated on earth. He observes the character of the Anointed One in us.  The Father said that He was well pleased with Jesus on earth. God calls on each member of His family to show His family’s characteristics. God expects us to love His people. That’s why God’s love can only be consummated in us as He works with or associates with us to extend love to others. Fellowship with God causes us to abide in His love. These kinds of Christians will hold nothing back out for fear of being shamed at the Anointed One’s Judgment Seat.  God’s love makes it possible for Christians to have boldness on the day of judgment.[1] 

Therefore, the foundation for our confidence before the Anointed One’s Judgment Seat is how and what Jesus did for us on the cross. The Greek emphasizes “He.” We could translate “He” as “that one.” The Father was well pleased with the Son when He was on earth. It differs from what Jesus was on earth because He is now in heaven. Our Lord is now in close fellowship with the Father.[2] Notice in verse seventeen the “as He is, so are we” connection between these two phrases. As the Anointed One exhibited love on earth, Christians’ love will give them cause to have boldness at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One. The basis of such confidence is our likeness to the Anointed One. In so far as we manifest God’s love to others, there will be no blame on that day. We will stand there without reproach and regret. Note that this is in the present tense, not the future tense. We here are just like He is there. He represents us there, and we represent Him here. He assures me that I will share heaven with Him. He is already there, making a place for me.  He is the guarantee that I will be with Him.

Consequently, God’s love in communion with us attains its consummation in the Anointed One’s likeness. The reduplication of the Anointed One’s love in our lives ensures that we shall be beyond censure and rebuke at the Judgment Seat regarding rewards. The likeness here is not positional but practical and experiential. We will also have positional privilege before the Father at the Anointed One’s Judgment Seat. As the Father was well pleased with the Son on earth, He will be happy with us at His Son’s Judgment Seat. We are also spiritually one with the Anointed One. We stand at the judgment seat with the Anointed One’s authority. God will see us united to Him. As Jesus moved from suffering to glory, we will do the same. There might have been some doubt about whether we would ever make it to heaven. Thank God that Jesus made it there for us. He is our assurance that, from here, we will be with Him there because He is already there. He is our guarantee that we will be with Him one day. His ascension guarantees our moving up.[3]

COMMENTARY

Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) says this is how everyone ought to test the progress of love in themselves, or their progress in love, for if God is love, there can be no progress or regress, and love is only said to make progress in you since you make progress in love.[4]

And Hilary of Arles (401-449 AD) advises that while in this world, we must do our best to be generous, godly, merciful, and patient, imitating God as closely as we can.[5]

Andreas,[6] a seventh-century AD monk, collected commentary from earlier writers to form a catena on various biblical books. For example, he advises that Jesus said: “The ruler of this world is coming, and he shall find nothing in me.”[7] Therefore, we ought to be the same so that God can find no worldliness in us.[8]

Bede the Venerable (672-735 AD) gives his view on the confidence a believer can have when facing Judgment Day.  He writes that John tells us how we can know where we stand in God’s eyes. Everyone who has assurance on the day of judgment has perfected love in Him. What does it mean to have such security? It means that we are not afraid of the coming of judgment. When someone is newly converted, they start by being respectful of the day of judgment because when the righteous Judge appears, they might be condemned as unrighteous if not careful. But as they grow in faith and start to change, they learn not to be anxious anymore but to look forward eagerly to the coming of the One who is the desire of the nations, hoping that on the strength of their good life, they will be crowned among the saints.”[9]

For John Calvin (1509-1564), in stating that we may now have boldness before God, the Apostle John shows God’s gift of divine love towards us, though afterward shows it more clearly from the contrary effect. It is, however, an invaluable benefit that we can boldly stand before God. By nature, indeed, we dread the presence of God, and rightly so, for, as He is the Judge of the world, our sins hold us guilty. Often, death and hell come to our minds whenever we think of God. Accordingly, that dread makes people stay away from God as much as possible. But John says that the faithful do not fear, even when mention of the last judgment is made. The opposite is true for the believer; they go to God’s tribunal confidently and cheerfully because they are assured of His unchanging love. Everyone who becomes more and more proficient in faith is well prepared in their mind to look forward to the day of judgment.[10]

John Trapp (1601-1669) says that on the day of judgment, those that bear His image will hear his eulogy; “well done,” He will own them and honor them, and their faith that worked by love, “may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus, the Anointed One is revealed.”[11] He who willingly submitted to judgment on their behalf will render no stiff sentence against them.[12]

Matthew Poole (1624-1679) says that by our inward union with God, our love grows to that perfection, giving us fearless freedom and liberty of spirit on judgment day. Our hearts will not hesitate to appear before Him as a Judge, whose very image we find mirrored in ourselves by His making us more like Him even in this world, though not in His perfection of love and goodness. Or, if the day of judgment is understood, as some conceive, as our appearance before human tribunals for His name’s sake, such a spiritual attitude will give us the same boldness in that case as well.[13]

John Flavel writes how Jesus, the Anointed One, exercises kingly power over the souls whom the Gospel influences to obey His Word. It implies that we must consider how great sin and misery are to those who continue in bondage to sin. That’s why we need to inquire and determine whose rule and reign we live. Whether the Anointed One or Satan is on the throne of our lives, they wave their scepter over our souls. It also begs the question, “Does the Anointed One exercise such a kingly power over the souls of all those influenced by His Gospel?” O then! Exclaims Flavel, let all who are under the Anointed One’s management walk as subjects of such a King. Imitate your King; the examples of kings are very influential upon their adherents.[14]

John Bunyan (1628-1688), speaking on the resurrection of the wicked, starts by saying that the wicked will come out of their graves to face God with the chains of eternal death handing on them.[15] By comparison, the resurrection of the godly will be glorious. The saints will arise in power, the wicked in weakness and astonishment. But, Bunyan asks the godless, will not the ghastly jaws of despair stare at you? Will not the convictions of your conscience continually batter against your weary spirit like thunderclaps? It is the redeemed who boldly stand on Judgment Day.[16]

Bunyan also sees that sin and guilt bring weakness and feebleness in this life; how much more, when both with all their power and force, like a giant, fasten on them; as God said, “Can your courage last, can your strength continue during the days when I deal with you?”[17] Will those ghastly jaws of despair leave you with spiritual condemnations of conscience, like thunderclaps against your weary spirit? No, the godly will have confidence on judgment day,[18] but the wicked will be like the straw the wind drives away.[19] Oh, the fear and the heartache that will seize them in their rising! The frightful thoughts that then will fill their throbbing hearts! Now their soul suffers in hell’s fire. So, keep it, I say, with the hot scalding stink of hell upon it. They shall not be able to lift their head forever; spasms will take hold of them, their hands will grow limp, and everyone’s heart will seize up, “looking aghast at each other’s faces all aflame.”[20] [21]

William Burkitt (1650-1703) still sees the Apostle John proceeding by argument to enforce upon us the obligation of our duty to love one another. He assures us here that if our love is to be made perfect, that is, heightened and improved by exactly corresponding with the divine pattern and Gospel. Suppose we love one another in obedience to God’s command and conformity to the Anointed One’s example. In that case, it will give us boldness on the day of judgment, and we may think and speak of, we may expect and look for the approach of that day without fear and dismay of mind; the reason is added because as the Anointed One was, so are we in the world; that is, as He was full of holiness and purity, love and kindness, so we must endeavor to be an imitation of His example, according to our measure, in some proportion and degree.[22]

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[1] 1 John 4:9, 12; John 13:1

[2] Matthew 3:17; 17:5

[3] John 16:8-11

[4] Augustine: (Bray Ed.), James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude, op. cit., loc. cit., Ten Homilies on 1 John 9.2

[5] Hilary of Arles: Ancient Christian Commentary, Vol. XI, Bray, G. (Ed.), James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, p. 216

[6] Andreas: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Introduction and Biographic Information, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005, pp. 486–487

[7] John 14:30

[8] Andreas, Ancient Christian Commentary, Vol. XI, Bray, G. (Ed.), James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, p. 216

[9] Bede the Venerable, Ancient Christian Commentary, Vol. XI, Bray, G. (Ed.), James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, p. 216

[10] Calvin, John: Commentary of the Catholic Epistles, op. cit., loc. cit.

[11] 1 Peter 1:7

[12] Trapp, John: Commentary upon all books of New Testament (1647), op. cit., pp. 477-478

[13] Poole, Matthew: op. cit., loc. cit.

[14] Flavel, John: The Fountain of Life, op. cit., Sermon 16, p. 198

[15] Cf. Mark 9:44

[16] 1 John 4:17

[17] Ezekiel 22:14 – Complete Jewish Bible

[18] 1 John 4:17

[19] Psalm 1:4

[20] Isaiah 13:8

[21] Bunyan, John:  Practical Works, Vol. 1, Manner of the Resurrection of the Wicked. p. 304

[22] Burkitt, William: Notes on the N.T., op. cit., p. 732

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CVI) 07/06/22

^4:16 We know how much God loves us because we feel His love and believe Him when He tells us how dearly God loves us. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God, and God with them.

Peter Pett (1966) does not doubt that the Apostle John wants his readers to have complete confidence in God’s agápē. We who are His know and believe God’s love in us. Note that it is in us as well as for us. We have come to experience and appreciate the love of the world’s Savior and rejoice that it is within us, resulting in an outflowing of agápē for God and our brothers and sisters. We know further that God is agápē. So, to abide in His agápē is to stay in God and know He resides in us. We live within the sphere of God’s Agápē and Light. We thus seek to live in purity.[1]

For universalist Duncan Heaster (1967) the Lord Jesus did not preexist as a person who needed some meditation. It seems evident that there must have been some kind of previous creation(s), for instance, Angels. God exists in infinity; He and His only and begotten Son. And His Son came to earth as a human being to humanity – less than two hundred million – 2,000 years ago. Incredibly, God’s only Son died for a few who crawled on the surface of this tiny planet. He gave His life so that His Father could work out our salvation.[2]

Thus, Almighty God, who existed from eternity, says Heaster, is likened to a new father with all the intensity, joyful expectation, and dreams. And more than this, the Jesus who didn’t preexist [3] but like us died in the shameful way He did. Our hearts and minds are stunned by this limitless prospect with all their powers. His pure love for us, His condescension, should mean that we also should reach out into all humanity’s lives, never thinking they are beneath us or too insignificant or distant from us. No wonder the Apostle John describes that believing Jesus is the Son of God is believing in God’s love for us.

After telling us that God’s love is demonstrated through the apostolic message of the cross, Peter Legge (1967) questions, “What is that?” The Apostle John tells us in verse fifteen that if we confess the truth about the Anointed One, it brings new birth and the indwelling Spirit. But again, Legge asks, “What is that?” Can I know that I’m a child of God? How can I know I’m in fellowship with the Lord? The first test is Doctrinal. “What is that?” You believe in the historical, biblical Jesus, the Son of God came in the flesh. Then he tells us at the beginning of verse sixteen what this apostolic message is. By knowing and believing it, we will come better to appreciate the love of the Anointed One for us, and through appreciation of His love for us, we will come to love others. Then John continues. We know God’s love for us, and we trust that love. God is love. Everyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in them. – that is, the Social test. It’s alright to believe all the right things about the Son of God, but have you experienced His love so that it flows out of your life to other believers and lost humanity?[4]

Karen H. Jobes (1968) suggests that the violent death of an innocent man executed as a seditious criminal would be the last place one would expect to see a demonstration of love, but that is precisely where the Final Covenant locates it. Such love is not based on human motives or emotions but finds its impetus in the merciful heart of the creator God, who would rather submit to earthly horrors than condemn His beloved human race to perish. The cross of Jesus the Anointed One is God’s love extended across the canyon that stranded us on hell’s side, separated from God and trapped in our sin. There is no other bridge we can cross over from death into life.[5] Only being cleansed from our sin allows us to be reconciled to God and relate rightly to one another. God’s word to describe relating rightly to others is “love.”[6]

4:17     If God’s agápē is made perfect in us, we can be without fear on the day when God judges the world. We will be without fear because we are like Jesus in this world.

EXPOSITION

When the Apostle John says God is love, he is not describing an evaluation but defining an essence. I remember riding in India with the overseer of Tamil Nadu; we came up behind a taxi with a bumper sticker that said, “Love is God.”  I mentioned it to my friend Wellesley Solomon, and he said very quickly, “No! No! Love is not God; God is love.”  Yes, there is a big difference! In other words, without God, there would be no such thing as love.

Furthermore, you cannot have true love without having God. So, what the world calls love, is far from what John is talking about here. Instead, the world speaks about romance, physical attraction, and relationships. No wonder they symbolize love with cupid holding an arrow against the string on his bow, ready to strike at any moment. The kind of love John espouses here is oneness with God through Jesus the Anointed One. Wanting to be part of Him, not willing to live without Him in your life, making Him the love of all, and a desire to be obedient to Him that dying for Him does not frighten us because He died for us but rose again.

No wonder the Apostle Paul said that we become one with the Anointed One in His death through our death to sin and being made alive in Him. I remember once my wife was reluctant to ask me if I could pick her up from her workplace and take her to the store to buy some needed items after work. She knew it would come after a long day at my job, and I would no doubt be tired and want some rest. So, she kept saying, “You don’t have to.” Finally, just before taking her to work, as I did every morning because if she drove herself, it meant parking in the employee’s lot and taking a shuttle to the hospital, which would add an extra thirty minutes to her schedule and force her to get up that much earlier and come home that much later, I turned to her and said, “Sweetheart, I live for you.”  She couldn’t help it; in front of anybody who may have been looking, she hugged and kissed me with tears in her eyes. I could only do that because the same agápē God had for me was in my heart for her.

John now turns to the consequences of intimate fellowship with God. He presents it in favorable terms in verse seventeen, negative words in verse eighteen, and an optimistic expression in verse nineteen.

Boldness at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One for believers. (Verse 17)

No fear or shame before God. (Verse 18)

We love God because He first loved us. (Verse 19)

As Dr. Richison[7] says: “God perfects His agápē among us.” Love reaches its intended goal when it engages in active love toward others. God’s agápē finds fulfillment in reproducing itself in the conduct of His children. We do not reach perfection in our love on earth, but love can help us attain God’s intended goal. Through His agápē, He motivates believers to love one another. Christians who exercise love from the infilling of the Spirit can have confidence at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One. 

The phrase “that we may” indicates purpose. The person who engages in fellowship with the Lord by loving fellow Christians will have confidence at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One. “Boldness” means confidence.[8] Believers will have freedom in the presence of God because they have nothing to hide, nor do they have any shame. The word “have” conveys present possession. We have boldness now about future judgment. We can have “boldness” at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One if we trust God’s agápē for us. 

The “day of judgment” is the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One, not the Great White Throne judgment. The Great White Throne judgment is for non-Christians. The Judgment Seat of the Anointed One is the place to evaluate the effectiveness of the Christian life. There is no punishment at this judgment because Jesus took all the punishment for every Christian.

However, God will evaluate the works of Christians at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One for rewards. If Christians walk in fellowship by manifesting love to other Christians, they can have confidence on the “day of judgment” that God will reward them. Assurance about a good reward at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One revolves around our fellowship with God in time. The ground of our confidence at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One is who Jesus is and what He did for us on the cross. The Greek emphasizes “He.”  Therefore, we could translate “He” as “that one.” The Father was well pleased with the Son when He was on earth. It is not as if Jesus was on earth, but as He is in heaven. He is now in the closest fellowship of love with the Father. 

Note the “because as He is, so” connection between these two phrases. As the Anointed One demonstrated love on earth, any Christian’s love will cause them to have boldness at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One. The basis of our confidence is our likeness to the Anointed One. Therefore, as we manifest God’s agápē to others, there will be no blame on that day. We will stand there without reproach and regret. Note that this is present tense, not future tense. We are like Him here as He is there. He represents us there, and we represent Him here. He is my assurance that I will have His heaven. He is already there, making room for me. He is Himself the guarantee that I will be with Him. We are here just like Jesus is there.

It seems that John now looks at the consequences of intimate fellowship with God.[9] He puts this in positive terms in verse seventeen and negative in verse eighteen. It gives us boldness at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One for believers, we have no fear or shame before God, and we love because we were first loved. In this way, God perfects His love among us. Love reaches its intended goal when it engages in active love toward others. God’s love finds fulfillment in reproducing itself in the conduct of His children. We do not reach perfection in our love on earth, but love can reach God’s intended goal for us. This is the love God produces in the process of abiding in the believer. Through His love, He moves the believer to love others. That means Christians who exercise love from the filling of the Spirit can have confidence at the Judgment Seat of the Anointed One. 

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

[2] Isaiah 62:5

[3] This conclusion by Heaster is filled with misunderstanding. The human body that clothed Him was recently created in Mary’s womb, the soul and life that activated it eternally preexisted. Jesus, the man, did not have a separate mindset other than that of the preexisting Word. (John 1:1)

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

[5] John 5:24

[6] Jobes, Karen H., 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on The New Testament, Book 18), pp. 199-200

[7] Richison, Dr. Grant C., Verse by verse Commentary, Vol. 14

[8] 1 John 2:28

[9] 1 John 5:17-19

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CV) 07/05/22

^4:16 We know how much God loves us because we feel His love and believe Him when He tells us that He loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God, and God with them.

Henry E. Brockett (1936-1994) mentions the words of Jesus, “we will come to them and make our home with them,”[1] as the result of the baptism of the Spirit, an inner realization of God’s agápē. So, he testifies, “How glorious it was to taste what the Apostle John writes here in verse sixteen. “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” God’s agápē, His very inmost nature, seemed to me like a boundless ocean with the rays of the glorious sun shining upon it, and in this ocean of love and light, the Spirit immersed my whole being and filled my heart. I was dwelling in His agápē, and His agápē was living in me. I was inwardly satisfied, perfectly satisfied, resting in God’s boundless agápē. Praise God; there was no painful sense of an aching void the world cannot fill. God’s agápē had been poured out into my heart by the Holy Spirit.”[2]

James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000) points out that the Apostle John concluded in verse twelve that two things might follow if we love one another. First, God abides in us, and second, God perfects His agápē in us. These two conclusions outline the following two sections of this chapter. In the first section (verses 13-16), John discusses God’s indwelling of the Christian in detail. In the second section (verses 17-21), he analyzes the perfecting of love. That of the Christian by God is the theme of the first section, evident from the threefold repetition of the idea: once in verse thirteen (“we live in Him and He in us”), once in verse fifteen (“God lives in us and we in God”), and once in verse sixteen (“whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them”).

Michael Eaton (1942-2017) claims that knowing and trusting in God’s agápē involves authority. With access to Him, being deceived is not an option. It also consists in relying on or confiding in God’s agápē. It is confidence in God’s protection, confidence in God’s provision, trust in God’s guidance, in His saving grace. Furthermore, it brings peace and joy. It provides a sense of direction. Finally, it involves a continuing love towards others, the realization that salvation is a kingdom of love! When You abide in God’s agápē, it not only brings you confidence, calmness, and peace but also must overflow to others. If it does not spill over to others, you will lose the love given to you. This is perhaps the most vital practical sentence in this book; “to dwell in God’s agápē involves insisting on faith and maintaining love no matter what is happening to us.” We have all failed at this point, but if we take John seriously, we will discover what Jesus meant: “Whoever drinks from this water… will never thirst again.”[3] [4]

John W. (Jack) Carter (1947) asks, “What will be the state of a Christian on the Day of Judgment?” When God looks upon a person of faith, He will see the reflection of His agápē in their heart. So then, “What will be the state of a lost person on Judgment Day?” The presence of only phileo love in the heart of the lost does not reflect God’s agápē. As scary as this scenario may sound, people of faith have nothing to fear. They will be able to stand before God, not on their righteousness, but by the propitiation of Jesus as our advocate, lawyer, and Paraclete.[5] 

So, “should a Christian fear death?” asks Carter.  It is reasonable to fear the event so frequently characterized by suffering and regret the impact of our death on others. Yet, we have no reason to fear God’s judgment, regardless of our past sins. The lost will always fear punishment, never knowing if they have been “good enough.” People of faith do not need such anxiety. John writes of the final judgment when the sins and deeds of all will be exposed. God will remind us of every meaningless word we have stated. However, those who have placed their faith in God and whose hearts are filled with God’s agápē will find that they have been forgiven and will not be condemned for their sins.[6]

Robert W. Yarbrough (1948) takes note that verses fifteen and sixteen amount to an appeal to the readers to open themselves fully to the love that God offers. First, the Apostle John grounds his appeal by underscoring the happy state of the person who responds to it. “God abides in” this person and vice versa. Second, John uses the Greek verb menō[7] “abide” twenty times in this epistle.[8] In the same way that a solemn affirmation of the truth of John’s message concluded the previous section,[9] the Apostle John lays down the basis for the appeal by another somber confession.[10] The opening of verse sixteen signals the linkage between the two verses. The “we” echoes other occurrences of the nominative pronoun clustered more in this section of the epistle[11] than elsewhere, where the word appears.[12] In the previous verse, this “we” refers to John and readers who share in his vigorous confession of Jesus as God’s saving Son. John’s statement is not starkly individual but richly if guardedly social.[13]

Colin G. Kruse (1950) says that the words “God lives in him and he in God” is not easy to define. The concept of the mutual indwelling of believers in God and God in believers occurs in four places in this letter.[14] Assurance of this mutual indwelling is related in two cases to the presence of the Spirit, who bears witness to Jesus.[15] In the other cases, it is related to the confession of the Anointed One and abiding in love.[16] Because “God is love,” says the Apostle John, he can assure his readers that “Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” John is returning to the all-encompassing theme that loving one another is the mark of those who genuinely know God. The statement in verse sixteen is intended to bolster the readers’ confidence. They, unlike the secessionists, do love each other, and John wants them to recognize that this is evidence that God does live in them and they in God, despite the assertions of the secessionists to the contrary.[17]

Judith M. Lieu (1951) sees no conflict between making the proper confession of Jesus the condition for divine indwelling and the declaration of this verse that makes God the actual subject and source of all and the ultimate object of knowledge and belief. The Apostle John’s talk about Jesus, the Son, always leads back to God. The emphatic first-person plural, “we have recognized,” draws readers back from the potentially disputed confession to the convictions that define them. In addition to John’s testimony for having seen this Jesus, Son of God, with his eyes, here the emphasis is not on the grounds for testimony sight but its inner assurance, knowledge. Peter voices similar sentiments: “We have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God,”[18] and Lazarus’ sister Martha, “I have believed that you are the Anointed One.”[19] Their familiarity would reinforce the readers’ sense of inclusion as John closes this section. [20] The same is true of our “seeing” Jesus. While our physical eyes did not behold Him, our testimony comes from an inner sense of spiritual assurance and knowledge.

Ben Witherington III (1951) says it appears that the Apostle John speaks as someone who has known and believed for a long time (perfect tense verbs here). The same language appears in his Gospel,[21] where what is known and accepted is that Jesus is the Holy One of God. John is not making a profound statement about whether knowing precedes acknowledging or vice versa; he believes that the two things go together. The Greek text also speaks of the love God has “in us,” stressing the Christian experience of God’s love within the core of the human personality.[22] Notice, knowing, and acknowledging are affirmed when it comes to God’s love, not just one or the other. Christian faith is never blind; it always involves education and experience. Then John adds the famous saying, “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God, and God remains in them.” It reiterates in part what was already said in verse eight.[23]

Vincent Cheung (1952) reminds us that God is undivided into parts; He exists as an eternal whole with all his attributes as one and inseparable. It is sometimes called His “simplicity” since God is not complex or divided. Although one portion of Scripture may emphasize a divine trait, and another may emphasize a different quality, this does not mean that God’s features are truly separable. It does not mean that one virtue can override another, that one is more important than another, or that one more closely expresses God’s essence than another. The Bible teaches that God is His qualities. For example, the Apostle John says, “God is light,”[24] and “God is love.”[25] Therefore, God is not a being who is Love with Light as an element or vice versa; instead, He is Love and Light, Justice and Mercy, Power and Wisdom, and so on.[26]

Gary M. Burge (1952) says that the Apostle John offers another source of inspiration. We do not hear about what God has done through the Anointed One, nor do we merely experience the Spirit. John insists that through our testimony, the reality of God imprints itself on our lives.[27] We are encouraged to observe that faithful, loving discipleship is not simply an emotional experience of being loved or responding to an ethical command. It does not love godly conduct, although all these things are significant. Such discipleship has theological content. God’s indwelling is mediated to us through the work of the Anointed One.[28] John’s vision of discipleship demands our minds as well as our hearts.[29]

Marianne Meye Thompson (1964 says that the confession of Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world is wrapped up in the Apostle John’s understanding of Jesus. First, Jesus is the Son of God. Because Jesus is the Son, He stands in a unique relationship with God; therefore, He mediates salvation, the indwelling of God with us, and the love of God.[1] Second, Jesus is Savior. His life and death reconcile salvation or fellowship with God.[2] Jesus makes God known and takes away sin[3] so that we may indeed have fellowship with God. Third, Jesus is the Savior of the world. This affirmation summarizes the universal scope of Jesus’ work: no one, even the one hostile to God, stands outside the scope of God’s love. Salvation is appropriated by the person who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God.[4]

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[1] John 14:23

[2] Brockett, Henry E., The Riches of Holiness, op. cit., p. 31

[3] John 4:14

[4] Eaton, Michael: Focus on the Bible, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., pp.158-159

[5] Paraclete – John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7 (“Comforter”) KJV; (“Advocate”) NIV); 1 John 2:1 – (“Advocate”) KJV & NIV

[6] Carter, Dr. John W. (Jack). 1,2,3, John & Jude: Holding to the Truth in Love (The Disciple’s Bible Commentary Book 48), pp. 110-111

[7] Menō is translated in the KJV as abide ^[61x], remain ^[16x], dwell ^[11x], tarry ^[9x], endure ^[3x], miscellaneous ^[5x]

[8] 1 John 2: 6, 10, 14, 17, 19, 24 ^{[3 ×]}, 27 ^{[2 ×]}, 28; 3: 6, 9, 14, 15, 17, 24 ^{[2 ×]}; 4: 12, 13

[9] Ibid. 4:14

[10] Ibid. 4:15

[11] Ibid. 4: 6, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 19

[12] See Ibid. 1:4; 3:14; 16

[13] Yarbrough, Robert W., 1-3 John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., pp. 253-254

[14] Ibid. 3:24; 4:13, 15, 16

[15] Ibid. 3:24; 4:13

[16] Ibid. 4:15-16

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

[18] John 6:69

[19] Ibid. 11:27

[20] Lieu, Judith: The New Testament Commentary, op. cit., p. 191

[21] John 6:69

[22] Cf. Romans 5:5

[23] Ben Witherington III. Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: op. cit., loc. cit., (Kindle Locations 7246-7252)

[24] 1 John 1:5

[25] Ibid. 4:16

[26] Cheung, Vincent. Systematic Theology, op. cit., (Kindle Locations 1488-1502)

[27] Cf. 1 John 4:14-16

[28] Ibid. 4:15

[29] Burge, Gary M., The Letters of John (The NIV Application Commentary), op. cit., p. 189

[30] 1 John 4:14-16

[31] Ibid. 4:2; cf. Jn 17:3

[32] Ibid. 2:2; 3:5,8; 4:10

[33] Thompson, Marianne M., The IVP New Testament Commentary, op. cit., p. 125

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NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CIV) 07/04/22

^4:16 We know how much God loves us because we feel His love and believe Him when He tells us that He loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God, and God with them.

For Donald W. Burdick (1917-1996), the substance in verses seventeen to sixteen is that God is the source of Christian love. Since God, who is love, dwells in the believer, the believer must and will love His fellow believers in God’s family, which is a valid test of one’s salvation. If we were born again, love would be present in our lives. If it is not, it indicates that we are unregenerated.[1] The chances are that if you ask a good number of believers in your church or neighborhood how they know they are saved, very few will mention that it’s because they love others with God’s agápē. But don’t be hesitant to remind them of what the Apostle John says about the correct way to love God – through others.

Raymond E. Brown (1928-1998) states that the two verbs “believe” and “know” are not only combined in the same tense but also in the perfect/aorist tense with future/present combinations as follows:

• John 6:69 – “we have come to believe [perfect] and to know [perfect]

• John 8:31-32 – “who believed [perfect] . . .  will know [future]

• John 10:38: “believe [present] the works, that you may know [aorist][2] and understand [present]

• John 14:7, 10: “If you knew [perfect] me, you would know [future] my Father as well. From now on, you do know [present] Him and have seen Him” . . . “Don’t you believe [present] that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?

• John 17:8: “They knew [aorist] with certainty that I came from you, and they believed [aorist] that you sent me.

• 1 John 4:1-2 “do not believe [present] every spirit” . . . “This is how you can know [future] the Spirit of God.

• John 4:16 “so we know [present] and believe [present] the love God has for us.

A quick glance at these texts, says Brown, should convince the uncommitted that there is little difference between the aorist and perfect tense usages of “to know” and that there is no set sequence of priority between knowing and believing.[3] In addition, knowing the tense of the verbs helps interpret the verse more accurately to benefit the listeners.

Once more John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) notes that here in verse sixteen, instead of having two verses read as one, we have one verse that should be read as two. The first part is the Apostle John’s assurance that he and his readers know and rely on God’s agápē for them. There is historical evidence in God sending His Son both of His unique person (which “we have seen,” verse fourteen, and of the Father’s love “which we know and rely on,” in verse sixteen. But even this is insufficient.

Then John provides in the second half of verse sixteen, the necessary resource to have access to agápē, is not possible without God being in us through the Holy Spirit. It’s because our minds are dark without Love’s Light, and our hearts are cold without Love’s Warmth. Only the Holy Spirit can enlighten our minds to believe in Jesus and warm our hearts to love God and each other. So, believing and loving are evidence that His Spirit is at work within us.[4]

As John Phillips (1927-2010) sees it, love is what Christianity is all about, winning its battles by the weapon of love, not logic.[5] Although, of course, Christianity is strictly logical. It alone can explain the greatest mysteries of the universe – the problems of sin, sorrow, suffering, and silence. It alone has a flawless explanation to such questions, “Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I going?” Pagan religions do not have the answer. Philosophy, psychology, and philosophy are soon all out of their depth in these waters. God’s Word speaks with authority and with flawless logic. Still, logic is not that upon which Christianity takes its stand. That podium is Love.[6]

David E. Hiebert (1928-1995) states that a person’s growth in knowledge and faith relates to “the love which God has for us.” The Greek preposition en is translated variously as “in, by, with, among, at, on,” and “through, according to the context. So, the question here is “how did the Apostle John use it in verse sixteen?” The rendering “to us” – KJV, “for us” – NIV, “has for us” – YLT. The New American Standard Bible suggests in the margin that it means, “in us.” One way to look at this is, says Hiebert, since God is Love and He is in us, then that is from where His love glows. But I think the New Living Translation makes the best choice by rendering it, “how much God loves us.”

So, it boils down to who is witnessing His agápē? If it’s the believer, it is “in us;” if it’s those around us, it is “for us.” Hiebert suggests that it could mean that the love God revealed in His incarnate Son was witnessed by those around Him and intended to bring salvation. While the preposition en can have this hidden meaning,[7] its more natural meaning is “in us.” Accepting the love manifested in the Anointed One enables that love to become operative in believers’ lives. God’s agápē, poured into their hearts by the Holy Spirit,[8] is now at work manifesting its presence in them. Since God’s agápē is no longer visible in the company of the incarnate Anointed One here on earth, God is manifesting His agápē through His people.[9]

Warren W. Wiersbe (1929-2019) says that the truth about God’s agápē is documented in His Word but displayed on the cross. “God is love” is not simply a doctrine in the Bible; it is an eternal fact demonstrated at Calvary. God not only said something to us but also did something for us. With God being invisible, He wanted to get His message to us in any way He could. So, He chose us, believers, as messengers who follow in the footsteps of His Son. That’s how God reveals Himself even today.

Wiersbe then tells this story: Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, a famous British preacher, had five sons, all of whom became Gospel ministers. One day a visitor in their home dared to ask a personal question: “Which of you six is the best preacher?” Their united answer was “Mother!” Of course, Mrs. Morgan had never preached a formal sermon in a church, but her life was a constant sermon on God’s agápē. The life of a Christian who abides in God’s agápē is a potent witness for God in the world. Men cannot see God, but they can see His agápē moving us to deeds of helpfulness and kindness.[10]

Stephen S. Smalley (1931-2018) observes that the stages in John’s thought have now emerged. Faith (acknowledging Jesus as God’s Son, verse 15; and trusting in God’s love for us, verse 16a) leads to mutual indwelling between God and the believer. Such a personal relationship is expressed and perpetuated by “living in love.” The believer’s love for God and others (or for God in other people, is to be active and sustained). Throughout this passage, John’s approach is unsentimental. “Living in love” means remaining in union with God and expressing this relationship in practical love for others. In these terms, the Christian experience is neither personal nor traditional. For John (perhaps in opposition to those heretically inclined members of his congregation who undervalued love of any kind) places equal emphasis on “love to God,” which is the heart of religion, and devotion to humanity, which is the foundation of spiritual morality.[11]

Edward J. Malatesta (1932-1998) notes that verse fifteen presents our mutual love with God who lives in us as part of our confession that Jesus is God’s Son, while verse sixteen presents the same love as a believer’s experience who remains in that Love as we live in Him. God could not live in us if He had not sent His Son, and we cannot be in union with God except through His Son. For the Apostle John, to try and separate God from the Son would destroy any hope of salvation that the Gnostics and Separatists were trying to do. It is why John sends out the warning to all who would listen.[12]

Ian Howard Marshall (1934-2015) sees the probability that verse sixteen is a parallel statement to verse fourteen, expressing another fundamental Christian conviction. A believer is sure of their faith because they have personally experienced God’s agápē. They came to know (and still know) it and put their trust in it. They are sure of its reality. The object of such love is expressed somewhat strangely. It literally means “the love which God put in us.” This way of putting the matter suggests that John is thinking not merely of the love for us shown by God through the cross but also of the personal experience of His agápē in our hearts created by the Spirit,[13] which is further manifested in the life of the Church.[14]

For John Painter (1935) the Apostle John now gathers his readers in a confident confession of what “we” have come to know and believe. The perfect tenses imply not only a distinct beginning of knowing and believing but a continuing effect. What is known and accepted is the love God has “for us.” This must be the primary meaning here, although “for us” is also used with other senses and probably intimates that God’s love is also active “in us” as love for one another. Even so, the emphasis is on “the love” God has for us: Its cause is God, who is love.[15] Its character is outgoing in sending and giving.[16] Its commission is self-giving for the sake of the other.[17] Its consequence is the atonement for our sins[18] so that we may live through Him,[19] the world’s salvation.[20] [21]

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[1] Burdick, Donald W., The Epistles of John, op. cit., p. 78

[2] Aorist has no beginning or termination

[3] Brown, Raymond E., The Anchor Bible, op. cit., Vol. 30, pp. 524-525

[4] Stott, John. The Letters of John (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries), op. cit., p. 168

[5] Ephesians 6:11-17

[6] Phillips, John: Exploring the First Epistle of John, op. cit., p. 147

[7] Cf. John 13:35

[8] Romans 5:5

[9] Hiebert, David E., Bibliotheca Sacra, op. cit., January-March 1990, pp. 82-83

[10] Wiersbe, Warren W., Be Real: Turning from Hypocrisy to Truth (The BE Series Commentary), op. cit., pp. 143-144, 147

[11] Smalley, Stephen S., Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 51, op. cit., p. 256

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

[13] Romans 5:5

[14] Marshall, Ian Howard. The Epistles of John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., p. 221

[15] 1 John 4:8, 16

[16] Ibid. 4:10

[17] Ibid. 3:16

[18] Ibid. 4:10

[19] Ibid. 4:9

[20] Ibid. 4:14

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

CYNICS may ask, why don’t people follow the advice of numerous proverbs and maxims of forethought available for centuries? Instead, they conclude that these are only used 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?

Firdausi (934-1020 AD) was a Persian poet of the first rank in the long history of the Persian civilization. He wrote one of the greatest national epics in world literature. Firdausi was born in northeast Tus province, some twelve miles northeast of present-day Mashed (1000 kn east of Tehran). Firdausi was the pen name of the poet. His name and that of his father, according to al-Bundari, was Mansur ben Hasan. Firdausi’s family was of old Persian gentry stock. Here’s what he wrote:

“In no wise ask about the faults of others, for he who reports the faults of others will report yours also.”

It sounds very familiar to the teaching of Jesus, who said, “Don’t judge others, and God will not judge you. If you judge others, you will be judged the same way you judge them.”[1]

It does look like Firdausi did have some knowledge of what was taught by the prophet Obadiah[2] and the Messiah Jesus.

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[1] Matthew 7:1-2

[2] Obadiah 1:15

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CIV) 06/24/22

^4:16 We know how much God loves us because we feel His love and believe Him when He tells us that He loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God, and God with them.

Albert Barnes (1872-1951) says it is not uncommon for the Apostle John to repeat an important truth. He delights to dwell on truths as that expressed in verse sixteen, and who wouldn’t? Is there any truth on which the mind can meditate with more pleasure; what is better fitted to win the heart to holiness; what will do more to sustain the soul in the sorrows and trials of this life? Therefore, in our tests; in the darkness which is around us; in the perplexities which meet and embarrass us regarding God’s Kingdom that seems incomprehensible in this world, and in the prospect of the next, let us learn to repeat this declaration of the favored disciple, “God is love.”

Furthermore, Barnes asks what trials may not come our way if we feel assured of God’s love? What dark cloud of gloom hangs over our pathway that will not be removed if from the depths of our souls we can always shout, “God is Love!” Christianity is all about Love. God is Love; He loved us; we are to love Him; we are to love one another; we are to love the whole world. Heaven is filled with Love, and there is nothing else there. The earth is filled with love just as far as Christianity prevails and would be dominant if it should succeed everywhere. Love would remove all the corrupt passions, crimes, jealousies, and wars on earth and scatter heaven’s bliss around the globe. If a person is motivated by this, they have the spirit of the heavenly world reigning in their soul and live in an atmosphere of love.[1]

Paul E. Kretzmann (1883-1965) says that the Apostle John brings forward another argument: God, no one has ever seen Him. That no one, no human being, has ever looked God in the face was stated by God[2] and repeated by John.[3] It is the bliss reserved for eternal life. But although we cannot see Him, we have evidence of His presence in us, by the brotherly love we feel in our hearts. For it would be impossible for us to have this agápē and to give practical proof of its presence in us if it were not for the fact that God chose us for His abode and that His agápē, which wrought the new spiritual life in us, has come to perfection in us, making its permanent home in our hearts.

All this is not mere speculation on our part: In this, we recognize that we remain in Him and He in us because of His Spirit given to us. If it had not been for God imparting to us His Spirit and giving us some of His life and power, thus enabling us to feel true brotherly love toward one another, then we could not be sure of our status as Christians. But our confidence rests upon the work of the Spirit in the Word; in this way, we gain the knowledge that we remain in God and God in us. Moreover, the brotherly love we feel is strong evidence that God now abides in us and that we have constant communication and fellowship with Him. Thus, we are rewarded, at least to some extent, even though we cannot see God as long as we are in the flesh.[4]

Charles H. Dodd (1884-1973) says that the expression “to remain in love” is suggestive rather than exact. It is not clear whether the meaning is “to continue to live as the objects of God’s agápē,” or “to continue to love God,” or “to continue to love our brothers and sisters.” According to the teaching of this epistle and John’s Gospel, it is impossible to make a clear separation between these three modes or manifestations of love. The energy of love discharges itself along lines that form a triangle, whose points are God, self, and neighbor, but the source of all love is God, of whom alone it can be said that He is love. Whether we love God or our neighbor, it is God’s agápē that is at work in us assuming, that is, that our love is that authentic agápē which is exemplified in God’s gift of His Anointed Son’s sacrifice for us all.[5]

Greville P. Lewis (1891-1976) sees the Apostle John returning to the conditions of the mutual “abiding” of the Christian and God. Before, John said that the condition is summed up as (a) belief in the Anointed One and (b) love for one another.[6] Then John pointed out that the condition is of the Christian and God.[7] Finally, John asserts once more than one condition is (1) belief in the Anointed One, [8] while the other is (2) love for God, including love for one another.[9] However, we can say that all of this is made clear when John wrote, “No one has ever seen God,” but if we love one another, God lives in us, and His agápē is made complete (perfected) in us.[10] [11]

Amos N. Wilder (1895-1993) notes that in the first part of this verse, God’s agápē takes the place of the twofold sense of abiding expressed in verse thirteen. The Apostle John is interweaving these conceptions. The same two verbs, “know” and “believe,” in the same perfect tense occur in John’s Gospel and are translated meaningfully.[12] Peter is replying to Jesus’ challenge.[13] The passage is relevant since the learning process here is connected with discernment of the Mediator, we have seen that the Father sent His Son.[14] The second part of this verse, what John said in verse twelve, “His agápē is perfected in us,” or “His agápē is brought to full expression in us,” brings out vividly the whole meaning of mutual abiding here in verse sixteen. The most significant themes of the epistle are focused on this verse. It is clear that it defines God as love only in the light of the coming of the Anointed One and that our love is identified with divine fellowship only as love is understood in context, namely, the Christian context of Christian agápē.[15]

Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) says there are some of Apostle John’s tests that seem to be the most practical we can immediately apply. So, here’s a summation: Jesus the Anointed One, the realization of who He is, that God sent Him to the world; the realization of what He has done by coming into the world and going back again, that He is our all and in all. Then, the realization that He is my Savior and therefore my Lord because if He has done that for us, then He has done it so that we might be rescued and redeemed out of this element of sin and that I may live a life pleasing to Him – He is the center of it all.

The key is our attitude toward Him. Let us say with the Apostle Paul, “I want to know the Anointed One and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!”[16] There is no need to explore the paths of mysticism; there’s also no reason to participate in a spiritual pep rally. There’s only one thing to do: enter God’s throne room of Grace and Mercy, [17] where He reigns in His brilliant Shekinah glory, [18] and lift your eyes to Him. Let His Light reveal who you are and your sin, and acknowledge the Anointed One as your Savior. Once you have Him, you have everything else. It is all in Him, for, without Him, there is nothing – no creation, no universe, no earth, no human life, no salvation.[19]

Paul W. Hoon (1910-2000) offers that the conjecture of “knowing” and “believing” also reminds us that people can believe in God’s agápē without fully knowing it, and can know God’s agápē without fully believing in all that comes with it. Familiarity with the Christian affirmation that God is love has dulled its grandeur and boldness for some people; others hold the assurance of God’s agápē merely as a theological concept or hearsay. Conversely, people can know God’s agápē in their own experience without fully comprehending the belief bound up with it. The philosophical and ethical implications of God’s agápē for mankind’s thought and life often escape them. The Christian’s experience of God’s agápē can be corrected and kept vital and glowing only when people know and believe.[20]

It is a bigger problem today than ever before. When we talk about people believing and loving God, they often think of their human capacity to accept and love. However, our personal belief, no matter how well-founded and thought out, does not come close to the faith we acquire through the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, human love cannot reach God, nor can it suffice in loving our Christian brothers and sisters the way Jesus told us to love them. So, when a preacher asks the audience, “How many of you love your heavenly Father,” a good chance is that out of those who raised their hand, some will equate their love for their father on earth with their Father in heaven.

Remember when Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?” Jesus used the verb agapaō for unconditional divine love. When Peter answered, he used the verb phileō, which means to approve of, be fond of, to like. Then Jesus asked Peter a second time, using agapaō, and Peter responded with phileō. But on the third try, Jesus switched to phileō. Now feeling exceedingly grieved, Peter answered, “Lord, You know how I feel, and You understand what I’m trying to say. Lord, You know what good friends we are.” This is a case of Peter thinking that human love is sufficient, but Jesus is pointing out to him that it does not qualify as God’s agápē inside us through the Holy Spirit. So, is it any wonder that Peter would deny his Lord three times later?

Ronald R. Williams (1906-1970) says that from now on, this life of faith and witness becomes another doorway through which the Christian could enter the life of union with God. The Apostle John often describes it as mutual “indwelling” – us in Him and He in us. It is a doorway because it leads to knowledge of and faith in God’s agápē for us, which implies a life of love, and onward to fellowship with God and His family.[21] As the NIV renders it, “we know and rely on the love God has for us.” Therefore, we must trust His agápē for us if we will love others.

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[1] Barnes, Albert: New Testament Notes, op. cit., p. 4868

[2] Exodus 33:20

[3] John 1:18

[4] Kretzmann, Paul E., Popular Commentary on the Bible, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 573

[5] Dodd, Charles H., The Moffatt Commentary, Johannine Epistles, op. cit., pp. 117-118

[6] 1 John 3:23

[7] Ibid. 3:24

[8] Ibid. 4:15

[9] Ibid. 4:16

[10] Ibid. 4:12

[11] Lewis, Greville P., The Epworth Commentary, The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., p. 101

[12] John 6:67-69

[13] Ibid. 6:66-67

[14] 1 John 4:14

[15] Wilder, Amos N., The Interpreter’s Bible, op. cit., 1 John, Exposition, pp. 284-285

[16] Philippians 3:10

[17] Hebrews 4:16

[18] Cf. 2 Chronicles 7:1

[19] Lloyd-Jones, Martyn: Life in the Anointed One, op. cit., p. pp. 515-516

[20] Hoon, Paul W., The Interpreter’s Bible, op. cit., 1 John, Exegesis, p. 284

[21] William, Ronald R., Letters of John and James, op. cit., p. 50

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CIII) 06/23/22

^4:16 We know how much God loves us because we feel His love and believe Him when He tells us that He loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God, and God with them.

Brooke F. Westcott (1825-1901) says the Apostle John teaches that faith precedes knowledge. We must have an actual, if limited, knowledge of the object of faith before true faith can exist, and genuine faith opens the way to fuller understanding. With general confidence in the Anointed One and self-surrender to Him prepared the disciples for loftier insight to His character. The experience of love includes the promise of a more prominent manifestation of its treasures. This John indicates here; We know how much God loves us because we have felt His agápē and because we believe Him when He tells us that He loves us dearly. To a certain extent, we have realized what love is: but we have not exhausted its meaning. In knowing we have believed too, and even without knowing everything, we wait without any doubt about future revelation.[1]

John James Lias (1834-1923) comments on God’s agápē in us because God Himself is in us, and He is love. If we compare this passage with verse eight, we see that this is the climax to which the rest leads. The phrase “God is love” is used in verse eight as an argument to prove that we ought to walk in love. But the statement itself, the Apostle John feels, requires proof. That proof is found (1) in God’s mission of His Son, (2) in the propitiation that the Son made for human sin, and (3) in the inward witness of the Spirit, producing in us an experience of the power of God to save us from sin. After mentioning these experimental proofs, John repeats the statement with all the additional weight it has gained and concludes this section with the assertion that in the abiding life of love alone can true union with God be reached.[2] It is not a level a believer arrives at simply due to dedication, confession, worship, prayer, praise, or charitable works. Either you are in love with God and do it because of your love’s generous gratitude, or it’s a waste of time.

Robert Cameron (1839-1904) says that we can see the various steps of agápē. First, it came to us in this world. Then it followed on to the sinful state we were, to give life and save. It then took possession of us and acted in us, loving its love in our hearts and continuing its manifestation to the world. But, finally, having come to our world and our place in sin and having seated itself upon the throne of our hearts, we are now to see how it places us upon the throne of the Anointed One’s glory. He took our place in sin. Amazing grace! We take His place in holiness and love and praise. Such love and grace surpass all comprehension! It saw all, measured all, took in need of all, and then moved forward to the end, making us as the Anointed One is, without any question of sin, to all eternity enthroned before the face of God, fearless and confident.[3]

British clergyman and canon the Reverend William Hay Macdowall Hunter Aitken (1841-1927) states that Love is the most essential and the most characteristic of Christian virtues. Those who lack this scarcely deserves the name of Christian, while those who possess this are on the way to including all. When we ask why such stress is laid upon the importance of maintaining this virtue above all others, more than one answer suggests to our minds. We may first observe one paraphrase of the words of this text reads: “A loveless soul can never be a God-like soul.”

We know that no gardener in the world can produce fruit for a plant; only the life within does that, yet how much does the fruit tree depend for its fruitfulness on the gardener’s skill! A person must see that the tree is planted where the sunshine can fall upon it, and the dew and the rain can water it. They must take care that it remains unexposed to harmful conditions. And even so, love, being a fruit of the reborn spirit, can only be produced by the presence of the Spirit working together with our spiritual nature. Although we cannot create or manufacture it independently, we are still indirectly responsible for its production.

Furthermore, says Aitken, the tree cannot cultivate itself, and here the figure fails us. Mankind, on the other hand, is a free agent and, therefore, responsible for their culture. Thus, it is not for us to attempt directly to induce this all-important fruit of the Spirit, but to see to it that we comply with the conditions of fruitfulness. Therefore, let us expose ourselves to the spiritual sunshine; let us live in the presence of God; let us see to it that we do not sink our roots into the earth, lest the cold clay of worldly-mindedness checks all our higher aspirations; let us guard against self-seeking and self-assertion; let us avoid exposing ourselves voluntarily to unfavorable influences as some Christians do, thinking more of worldly satisfaction than of their spiritual interests; and let us carefully rinse our garments of the stains of impure thoughts and unholy desires, and then the Spirit of Love will be able to induce the fruit of love within our hearts.[4]

Clement Clemance (1845-1886) says that as we have come to know and believe, both perfects are virtually present, expressing the present continuance of a condition begun in the past: “We know and continue to believe.” Experience and faith are intimately connected; sometimes, the one precedes the other.[5] But the meaning may be that the object of our knowledge and belief is that portion of God’s agápē which God has in us. It is “in us” and exercised towards Him and our brothers and sisters, but in reality, it is His agápē – Him living in us. In either case, love is the object of our faith. Thus, love is not only the Church’s keynote[6] but also the Church’s creed. The second half of the verse talks about Love and its future implications.[7]

Aaron M. Hills (1848-1911), speaking about the baptism with God’s Spirit, says that this is when we come to know and believe that God truly loves us.[8] – we “will have the power to understand how long, how high, and how deep that love is.”[9] The coming of the Holy Spirit makes God’s agápē a blessed reality to the soul, producing hope, peace, joy, and all the foretastes of heaven.

Hills then relates how the Holy Spirit came upon Sarah, the wife of Jonathan Edwards, in 1742, and she wrote: “I cannot find language to express how certain the everlasting God’s agápē appeared; the everlasting mountains and hills were but shadows to it. My safety and happiness and eternal enjoyment of God’s immutable love seemed as unchangeable as God Himself. Melted and overcome by the sweetness of this assurance, I fell into a great flow of tears and could not forbear weeping aloud … All night I continued in a constant, clear, and lively sense of the heavenly sweetness of the Anointed One’s excellent and transcendent love, of His nearness to me and of my dearness to Him, with an inexpressibly sweet calmness of soul, in an entire rest in Him.”[10] How could anyone doubt such a testimony? There certainly are some, but not among them are those who’ve had the same experience.

James B. Morgan (1850-1942) says that above all, we should live under the power of love, and then we will fully dwell in God. “The love of the Anointed One constrains us because we thus judge that if one died for all who were spiritually dead; and that He died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto God.” The actions thus springing from love bring us near to God. While that is our spirit, and such is our conduct, we find ready access to Him and delight in Him. He, too, delights in us. God says, “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”[11] A communion is begun and maintained on earth and consummated in heaven. Lack of fellowship is the only sin that can disturb it here. No evil will ever enter; therefore, it will be interrupted no more. O! How the text’s significant meaning will be realized and enjoyed. “We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and they that dwell in love dwell in God, and God in them.”

William Sinclair (1850-1917) sees in these verses the Apostle John’s attempt to raise believers to their highest possible development by demonstrating the reality and nature of fellowship with God. Here John arrives at the center of his message, namely, that as God is Love, John says we should allow nothing to trouble that atmosphere of pure love which God has enabled believers to breathe. If they do not willingly turn away, they will be bathed and animated in the Light and Life of God, to become one with Him in Love.[12]

Alonzo R. Cocke (1858-1901) points out that knowledge and faith are related. The divine facts which are the objects of faith must be, to an extent, known before they can be believed. But also, faith accepting these sacred facts, they become experiences of the inner life or knowledge in its highest sense. Thus, knowing and believing in God’s agápē for us, we come to know God Himself. Then we can speak of God as known: “God is love.” That being true, abiding in love is the condition and token of fellowship with God. We have unquestionable proof that we dwell in God and God in us by living in love as our conscious sphere and the life element. The heart cannot be filled to overflowing with Christian love without evidencing God’s presence, for He is its eternal fountain. We may then, with special emphasis, repeat the words in the seventh and eleventh verses: “Beloved, let us love one another,” and “if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”[13]

Robert Law (1860-1919) states that Christians share the life of the Anointed One and so become a secondary manifestation of God’s agápē and of “the love God has for us” here in verse sixteen. Therefore, God’s agápē becomes a power in a Christian’s body. Believers are the sphere in which it operates and makes itself felt in the world. That’s why the progress of thought in this section is as simple as it is beautiful: This is how God showed His agápē to us: He sent His only Son into the world to give us life through Him. True love is God’s agápē for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as a way to remove our sins.[14] So, here in verse sixteen is our response to the reality of Divine love manifested – we recognize it and believe it.[15]

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[1] Westcott, Brooke, F., The Epistles of St. John, op. cit., p. 155

[2] The First Epistle of St. John with Exposition, op. cit., pp. 330-331

[3] Cameron, Robert: First Epistle of John, op. cit., loc. cit.

[4] Aitken, William H. M. H., Biblical Illustrator, op. cit., Vol. 22, pp. 104-105

[5] See John 6:69

[6] John 13:35

[7] Clemance, Clement: First Epistle of John, Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Exposition, op. cit., p. 104

[8] 1 John 4:16

[9] Ephesians 3:18

[10] Hills, Aaron M., Pentecostal Light, op. cit., pp. 8-9

[11] Ezekiel 37:27; cf. 2 Corinthians 6:16

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

[13] Cocke, Alonzo R., Studies in the Epistles of John, op. cit., loc. cit., Logos

[14] 1 John 4:9-10

[15] Law, Robert, The Tests of Life, op. cit., loc. cit., Logos

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CII) 06/22/22

^4:16 We know how much God loves us because we feel His love and believe Him when He tells us that He loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God, and God with them.

But that raises another question, says Candlish, we must not believe all spirits are godly; they must be proven as such. By what tests or trials are they to be validated? How is God’s Spirit to be distinguished from the antichrist spirit? First, by confessing that Jesus the Anointed One was revealed in the flesh;[1] and secondly, by our loving others with God’s agápē.[2] And now, connecting the two, John brings us back substantially to the original statement, as to our knowledge that we dwell in God, and God in us because He has given us of His Spirit. For the two analyses are now brought closer together and shown not to be one as two, but two as one; or at least not two independent assessments, each separately valid in itself, but so intimately related to one another that they mutually involve one another, and thus combine to make up one convincing and indisputable proof of God in us and us in God.

Hence, the two inspections unite, notes Candlish, and become one. To confess, on the testimony of the apostles as eye-witnesses, that the Father sent the Son to be the world’s Savior; that Jesus is God’s Son; and to know and accept the agápē God has for us and in us;[3] is the same thing. For the confession is not the cold, unfeeling agreement to a formal article in a creed. It is the warm and cordial embracing of the Father’s love, incarnate in His Son, whom He sent to be the world’s Savior. Allowing God’s love into our hearts infuses God’s nature, for God is love. It is our dwelling with Him in Love as the Apostle Paul teaches, in entire and perfect harmony with John.[4] It is faith confessing the Anointed One knowing and believing the agápē that God put us; faith-loving as it sees and feels that God loves.[5]

William E. Jelf (1811-1875) believes that what the Apostle John says here in verse sixteen gives the reason why the mission of the Anointed One is reintroduced. The fact of the Anointed One’s mission and our recognition of it is the source of this agápē. We see that John emphasizes not only the doctrine of the Anointed One’s mission, but also the bearing it has on the heart as the evidence of God’s agápē to us. To heighten our notion of God’s agápē and thus increase our faith and quicken our love, John again speaks of love as God’s essential nature. This agápē is to be taken in its broadest sense; love in the abstract. It does not exclude other attributes, such as justice, which we know from such expressions as “God is just,”[6] but all these attributes are under love’s control. This subordination of justice to love is clearly shown in the plan of salvation through the Anointed One.[7]

For this reason, says Jelf: fear implies the notion of punishment, love the idea of pardon and acceptance. Fear of torment not only brings with it a painful feeling which is punishment but also implies a penalty, for where there is no reprimand, there can be no fear. Perfection is not merely pure and real, but love when it has attained its perfect development in us, but love drives fear out of our soul. John uses the Greek noun Phobos for fear, indicating “dread and terror.” Thus, agápē must be perfected and composed of faith towards God in the Anointed One[8] and brotherly love.[9] It is enlightening that this same Greek word can also be translated as “reverence.”[10] So the sinner “fears” God, but the believer “reverences” God.

To illustrate the notion that John projects, we must believe that love continually keeps God in our minds, yet not with fear, for it brings Him before our souls as the Pardoner of sin and not as the Judge of sinners. Supposing death suddenly presents itself to a person in an airplane crash, the feeling that they are about to die will naturally suggest a fearful apprehension of the day of judgment. Still, if the principle of love towards God and mankind has been developed in their inner person, it will immediately assure them that they have nothing to fear.[11]

Charles John Vaughan (1816-1897), vicar of St. Martin’s in Leicester, talks about “Dwelling in love.” He calls it a strong and eloquent term, “to dwell in love” – love’s home. And the promise of that home of love is more remarkable still – that God will dwell in that home with us. And then even more stupendous – and it will become God’s home. So, what does it mean to “dwell in love?”

The first thing, it is obvious, says Vaughan, is that it must not be considered in a negative sense since there are no dislikes, no variance. Love is a positive thing, showing itself in positive feelings, words, and acts, without which a person cannot be said to “dwell in love.” Another eminent first principle is that the love spoken here in verse sixteen must include the love of souls. And, again, all love is one love, just as all light is one light. It is not love in God’s sense unless it is a reflection of God’s agápē to us. You must begin by being sure that there is no exception. We are not called to love all equally – our Lord Himself made distinctions in His agápē – but there should be no one whoever feels that you are unfriendly.

The next thing notes Vaughan, to which the very language of the text grabs our attention, is “home.” Our abode should be love’s residence. You must have a greeting, a thought, a look of gentleness, cheerfulness, and tenderness. This will bring love into every house. All will feel it, consciously or unconsciously. It will create its atmosphere. The Anointed One in you can make everything lovely. But there are other circumstances which every person has to occupy. There is the Church, and in the Church, a communion – a blessed communion of hearts, visible and invisible; to “dwell in love” is to be continually familiar with our union of saints. And the world – the world about us – is a world that sadly needs our love. And you are called, and your privilege is to go about an element of comfort in the world. Therefore, you must let God kindle a heavenly fire in your soul that He may use to warm the world in which you live![12]

John Stock (1817-1884) mentions that as in a mine when fresh ore is found, it repays the hard work that went into the exploration; so, in searching God’s Word, that which surpasses all wealth is discovered, and that with great joy. A young Psalmist’s estimation of the sacred Scriptures was just who said, “The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.”[13] So the Apostle Peter calls the promises of God “exceeding great and precious,”[14] and we who have the whole counsel of God cannot but estimate it as, beyond all comparison, excellent and invaluable. Admiring the wealth and brilliancy of a theme must not deter us from endeavoring to comprehend it.[15]

William B. Pope (1822-1903) supposes that the Apostle John remembers the words of Jesus when He taught that He was the Real Vine and His Father is the Gardener. He cuts off every branch that doesn’t bear fruit. And every grape-bearing branch He prunes back, so it will produce even more. So, Jesus said, you are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. Therefore, Live in Me. Make your home in Me, just as I do in you. In the same way, a branch can’t bear grapes by itself except by being joined to the vine; you can’t bear fruit unless you are in union with Me.“I am the Vine; you are the branches.”[16] When you are connected with Me and I with you, the relationship is intimate and organic; the harvest is sure to be abundant.

Perhaps that’s why John emphasizes the term “lives” – NIV here, in verses fifteen and sixteen. “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them, and they in God. And so, we know and rely on God’s love for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God [lives] in them.” The rest of that section spells out the consequences of not continuing to live in Him: “If you do not remain in Me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” So, the message is loud and clear![17]

Here’s a thought to consider. Think for a moment about what it is to have this indwelling of God in your heart. What a fountain is within us of holiness and happiness and strength. What an excellent thing it is – what assurance of our election, a license of prayer, and a pleasant foretaste of eternal life and happiness! To carry God not only with you but within you, wherever you go; to feel and know that He is there; to be sure of it by the feeling of your conscience, which is working there to make you love everybody and everything as His child – what more could you wish? It is the emblem of the child of the King of kings – the royalty of heaven – the crown! And because it is the badge of kinship and the Father’s likeness, it makes you love so much that all else is a non-starter.[18]

Daniel Steele (1824-1914) focuses on the opening words of this verse, “know” and “believed.” He points out that sometimes knowledge is the ground of faith, as the banker’s acquaintance with the excellent character of the borrower is his reason for trusting him, and sometimes faith is the path to knowledge, as when the child believes the teacher and comes to know the alphabet. Paul speaks of the unity of faith and knowledge; faith ends in knowledge.[19] This is the genesis of all spiritual wisdom.

A general acquaintance with the Anointed One and self-surrender to Him, notes Steele, prepares us to seize by faith His promise of the Paraclete whose office it is to glorify the living Anointed One revealing Him in the heart. As a practical truth in the spiritual realm, believing precedes knowing. Then, in turn, knowledge lays the foundation for a higher act of faith, as the Apostle Paul knew whom he had believed, and on this ground, he was fully persuaded or had a perfect faith that he could safely trust the deposit of himself in His hands until the day of judgment.[20] Thus, by first believing and then knowing, and on this new basis believing again, the Christian climbs Jacob’s ladder from earth to heaven.[21]

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[1] 1 John 4:1-6

[2] Ibid. 4:7-12

[3] Ibid. 4: 14, 15, 16

[4] Galatians 5:6; 6:15

[5] Candlish, Robert S., First Epistle of John, op. cit., pp. 134-135, 143

[6] Cf. Isaiah 45:21; Job 4:17; Psalm 89:14; Matthew 12:18; Revelation 19:11

[7] Jelf, William, E., First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., p. 63

[8] 1 John 4:15

[9] Ibid. 4:12

[10] See Strong’s Greek Concordance and Lexicon

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

[12] Vaughan, Charles J., The Biblical Illustrator, op. cit., 1 John 4, p. 127

[13] Psalm 119:72

[14] 2 Peter 1:4

[15] Stock, John: Exposition of the First Epistle of John, op. cit., p. 369

[16] John 15:5

[17] Pope, William B., Popular Commentary, op. cit., p. 316

[18] Nisbet, James: The Church Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., Vol. 12, p. 303

[19] Ephesians 4:13

[20] 2 Timothy 1:12

[21] Steele, Daniel: Half-Hour, op. cit., pp. 113-114

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson CI) 06/21/22

^4:16 We know how much God loves us because we feel His love and believe Him when He tells us that He loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God, and God with them.

John Howe (1630-1705) notes that since the One we love makes our love the summation of His law and principles, we should make it the sum of all our requests, for it is our privilege and duty. What we are to do and what we are to enjoy are thus summed up in love. And if we make this the foundation of our desires, how much skill would there be when we come to the Lord and say, “Lord, if I cast all my desires into one request, it is love! Love is the only thing. I beg only a heart to love You.” How much resourcefulness is there in praying that way! And how great the necessity of it! For we can as soon pluck down a star or create a new sun to plant in our souls the seed of this principle of love to God without His aid. Every good and perfect gift is from Him;[1] indeed, this is good, and a matter of the highest excellence, to have the heart possessed with His agápē. Nevertheless, we can never understand God’s agápē to us until our souls are transformed into loving Him. God is love, and those who dwell in love abide in God and God in them.[2] [3]

William Jones of Nayland (1726-1805) says that the belief in a Supreme Being is equivalent to the human identification process. The attributes and names ascribed to Him are very different, but almost all agree on His existence. But what and who is God? There are various answers to this question. To some, He is unintelligent and irresistible Fate. For others. Nature. Some assign it to the beautiful order and spectacular forces of nature. To others, “the something outside ourselves, which affords living right.” For many it is, “an infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed.”[4] For believers, the Creator, Sustainer, and Sovereign of the universe. But what does the Supreme Being say about Himself? “God is Light;” “God is Love.” A complete infilling of what God makes it impossible for humans to understand. The finite cannot comprehend the Infinite.

Now, says Jones, let’s combine the two statements: “God is Infinite Love.” Such a statement goes way over our heads. The highest and mightiest of created beings cannot comprehend infinite love. The knowledge our sanctified spirits have of God will increase forever, but at no period in the everlasting future will anyone be able to know Him fully. Yet as to His being and character, we may each attain such knowledge to enable us to confide in Him and enter upon the blessed and endless transformation of being more like Him. Though we cannot comprehend Him who is Infinite Love, we may yield to Him through the Anointed One, trust Him, love Him, commune with him, and become one with him. “God is Love.”[5]

Adam Clarke (1772-1832) says that the Bible shows us that God is Love: that He hates nothing that He has made; that He is loving to everyone and is not willing that any should perish, but that all will come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. As the Apostle John says, “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His agápē. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”[6] [7]

While reading this poem by Robert Southey (1774-1843), many scholars wonder if Southey read verse sixteen as the inspiration for these beautiful lines

They lie who tell us Love can die.

With life, all other passions fly,

In heaven, ambition cannot dwell,

Nor Avarice in the vaults of Hell;

Earthly, these passions of the Earth,

They perish where they have their birth

Its holy flame forever burneth,

From Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth;

Too oft on Earth a troubled guest,

At times deceived, at times oppressed,

Then hath in Heaven its perfect rest:

It soweth here with toil and care,

But the harvest time of Love is there.[8]

Richard Rothe (1799-1867) feels it is only proper that the Apostle John should begin the sentence with “God is love.” In these words, the Apostle’s line of thought takes a fresh start. He returns to the assertion in verse eight that God is love to derive from it a new way, an appeal to brotherly love. If God is love, then to abide in love is substantially an abiding of God’s Love in them. That is, staying in union with God. This fellowship with God is the perfecting of love in us and love being free from all fear. It is a condition no one can arrive at any other way.[9]

William Lincoln (1825-1888) says that in the Apostle John’s Gospel, we fully see that the Anointed One is in the Father and the Father in the Anointed One. Then in John’s epistle, an advance is made; and that is this – that the Anointed One is in the believer, and the believer is in God.[10] Lincoln then tells us that once, when he was preaching, he remarked that “a believer was brought so close to God, that there was not a shade of distance between them.” A person wrote him a letter the next day, suggesting that he had exceeded the truth – for he thought by leaving out any mention of the Anointed One, “it seemed that he belittled the Son of God.” Lincoln wrote back that there was not the shadow of a shade of any space between the believer and God; he was close to Him. Now, Lincoln maintains that this individual simply missed the main point. Through our being in the Anointed One who is also in God, it is not merely that people are brought to God; but the language is – “they dwell in God,” and that is more than just being brought to God.[11]

William Lincoln (1825-1888) says that in the Apostle John’s Gospel, we fully see that the Anointed One is in the Father, and the Father is in the Anointed One. Then in John’s epistle, an advance is made; and that is this – that the Anointed One is in the believer, and the believer is in God.[12] Lincoln then tells us that once, when he was preaching, he remarked that “a believer is brought so close to God, that there is not the shadow of distance between them.” A person wrote him a letter the next day, suggesting that he had exceeded the truth – for he thought by leaving out any mention of the Anointed One, “it seemed that he belittled the Son of God.” Lincoln wrote back that there was no space between the believer and God; they were so close to Him. Now, Lincoln maintains that this individual simply missed the main point. Through our being in the Anointed One who is also in God, it is not merely that people are drawn to God; but the language is – “they dwell in God,” and that is more than just being brought to God.[13]

Augustus Neander (1789-1850) says that the Apostle John now returns to that which serves as the foundation for the Christian life and salvation. It is the ground of the entire church and all its divine inward experiences, depending on all, and with this is given all. It concerns the testimony respecting God’s Son, whom the Father sent as the world’s Savior. Of this, John has the confident assurance of an eye-witness.[14] But with those who had long been acquainted with Christianity, John did not need to appeal merely to his sight and experience. They were not to depend upon his testimony, to which he bore witness. The fact must have been fully attested to by their conscious experience of fellowship with God. But the apostle would repeatedly impress upon their hearts that firm adherence to this fact must always be the ground of all true unity with God.[15]

Albert Barnes (1798-1870) says it is not uncommon for John to repeat an important truth. He delights to dwell on such a truth as expressed here, and who should not? What truth is there on which the mind can stay with more pleasure; what is there that is better fitted to win the heart to holiness; what that will do more to sustain the soul in the sorrows and trials of this life? In our tests; in the darkness which is around us; in the perplexities which meet and embarrass us regarding the Divine administration; in all that seems to us incomprehensible in this world, and in the prospect of the next, let us learn to repeat this declaration of the favored disciple, “God is love.” What trials may we not bear if we feel assured of that! What dark cloud that seems to hang over our way, and covers everything with gloom, will not hinder us if we can always say from the depths of our souls, “God is love!”^[16]

Robert Smith Candlish (1806-1873) looks at the Apostle John’s statement in verse thirteen, “With this know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit,” and says it carries us back to a previous statement, “Now we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us.”[17] Again, we are reminded of the scope and design of the whole passage. The question is about the mutual indwelling of God in us and of us in God, particularly about His abiding in us. How are we to know this? By the Spirit which He gave us is the answer.

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[1] James 1:17

[2] 1 John 4:16

[3] Howe, John, op. cit., (Kindle Locations 1954-1962)

[4] Cf. “But one truth must grow ever clearer—the truth that there is an Inscrutable Existence everywhere manifested, to which he [the man of science] can neither find nor conceive either beginning or end. Amid the mysteries which become the more mysterious the more they are thought about, there will remain the one absolute certainty, that he is ever in presence of an Infinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things proceed.” Mr. Donald Murray asks in NATURE of February 24 is in Herbert Spencer’s “Principles of Sociology”, Part 6—Ecclesiastical Institutions, Chap. 16—Religious Retrospect and Prospect.

[5] Jones, William: First Epistle of John, Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, op. cit., Homiletics, p. 122

[6] 1 John 4:16; See Psalm 145:9

[7] Clarke, Adam: Clavis Biblica, op. cit., The Apocalypse, or Book of the Revelation, p. 52

[8] Southey, Robert, The Poetical Works, published by A. and W. Galignani, Paris, 1829, “The Curse of Kehama,” Ch. X, Mount Mebu, p. 322

[9] Rothe, Richard: The Expository Times, op. cit., June 1894, p. 421

[10] 1 John 4:16

[11] Lincoln, William: Lectures on 1 John, op. cit., Lecture V, pp. 58-59

[12] 1 John 4:16

[13] Lincoln, William: Lectures on 1 John, op. cit., Lecture V, pp. 58-59

[14] See 1 John 4:14

[15] Neander, Augustus, First Epistle of John, op. cit., Chapters IV, V, pl 266

[16] Barnes, Albert: Notes on the N. T., op. cit., p. 4868

[17] 1 John 3:24