2022-5丨General Subject：Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

General Subject：Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ

Message Seven Being Perfect as the Heavenly Father Is Perfect by Being Perfected in His Love

II. We need to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect by being perfected in His love—1 John 2:5; 4:12, 17-18:

1 John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. In this we know that we are in Him.

1 John 4:12 No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

1 John 4:17 In this has love been perfected with us, that we have boldness in the day of the judgment because even as He is, so also are we in this world.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has punishment, and he who fears has not been perfected in love.

A. “Whoever keeps His word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected”—2:5:

1. Here the love of God denotes our love toward God, which is generated by His love within us.

2. God's love is His inward essence, and the Lord's word supplies us with the divine essence, with which we love God and love the brothers; hence, when we keep the divine word, the divine love is perfected through the divine life, which is God Himself and by which we live.

B. “If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us”—4:12:

1. Here His love denotes God's love within us that becomes our love toward one another, and it is with this love that we love one another.

2. In God Himself the love of God itself is perfect and complete; however, in us it needs to be perfected and completed in its manifestation:

a. God's love was manifested to us in God's sending of His Son to be both a propitiatory sacrifice and life to us—vv. 9-10.

1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him.

1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.

b. This love is perfected and completed in its manifestation when we express it in our living by habitually loving one another with it.

c. Thus, in our living in God's love, others can behold God manifested in His essence, which is love.

C. “In this has love been perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of the judgment because even as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has punishment, and he who fears has not been perfected in love”—vv. 17-18:

1 John 4:17 In this has love been perfected with us, that we have boldness in the day of the judgment because even as He is, so also are we in this world.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has punishment, and he who fears has not been perfected in love.

1. Here perfect love is the love that has been perfected in us by our loving others with the love of God; such love casts out fear and has no fear of being punished by the Lord at His coming back—Luke 12:46-47.

Luke 12:46 The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him asunder, and will appoint his portion with the unbelievers.

Luke 12:47 And that slave who knew his master's will and did not prepare or do according to his will, will receive many lashes;

2. Christ lived in this world a life of God as love, and He is now our life that we may live the same life of love in this world and be the same as He is.

3. First John 4:12 and 17 speak of God's love needing to be perfected in us, and verse 18 speaks of our needing to be perfected in love:

1 John 4:12 No one has beheld God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

1 John 4:17 In this has love been perfected with us, that we have boldness in the day of the judgment because even as He is, so also are we in this world.

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has punishment, and he who fears has not been perfected in love.

a. This indicates that we and the divine love are mingled; when love is perfected in us, we are perfected in love; we become love, and love becomes us.

b. Through God's dispensing of Himself into us, we become love in the sense of being constituted with God as love.

Morning Nourishment

1 John 2:5 But whoever keeps His word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected...

4:12 ...If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

17 In this has love been perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of the judgment because even as He is, so also are we in this world.

[In 1 John 2:5] the Greek word for love is agape. This word denotes the love which is higher and nobler than phileo... Only this word with its verb forms is used in this Epistle for love. The love of God here denotes our love toward God, which is generated by His love within us. The love of God, the word of the Lord, and God Himself are all related to one another. If we keep the Lord’s word, God’s love has been perfected in us. It is altogether a matter of the divine life, which is God Himself. God’s love is His inward essence, and the Lord’s word supplies us with this divine essence with which we love the brothers. Hence, when we keep the divine word, the divine love is perfected through the divine life by which we live. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 131-132)

[First John 4:12] speaks of God’s love being perfected in us. The love of God is perfected already in God Himself, but now this love needs to be perfected in us. This requires that the love of God become our experience...When this love becomes our experience and enjoyment, it will be perfected in us. The love that is already perfected in God needs to be perfected in us through our enjoyment of this love. The Greek word translated “perfected” in 4:12 is teleioo, which means “to complete, to accomplish, to finish.” The love of God is perfect and complete in Him. However, in us it needs to be perfected and completed in its manifestation. It has been manifested to us in God’s sending His Son to be both a propitiation and life to us (4:9-10). Yet, if we do not love one another with this love as it was manifested to us, that is, if we do not express it by loving one another with it as God did to us, it is not perfectly and completely manifested. The love of God is perfected and completed in its manifestation when we express it in our living by habitually loving one another with it. Our living in the love of God toward one another is its perfection and completion in its manifestation in us. Thus, others can behold God manifested in His love-essence in our living in His love.

In 4:17 John indicates that “even as He is, so also are we in this world.”...[Christ] lived in this world a life of God as love, and now He is our life so that we may live the same life of love in this world and be the same as He is now. In verse 18 John goes on to say, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has punishment, and he who fears has not been perfected in love.” A literal translation of the first part of this verse would be, “Fear is not in the love.” “Fear” does not refer to the fear of offending God and being judged by Him (1 Pet. 1:17; Heb. 12:28), but to the fear that we have offended God and will be judged by Him. “Love” refers to the perfected love mentioned in the preceding verse, the love of God with which we love others. Perfect love is the love that has been perfected in us by our loving others with the love of God. Such love casts out fear and causes us to have no fear of being punished by the Lord at His coming back (Luke 12:46-47).

In 1 John 4:18 John tells us that he who fears has not been perfected in love. This means that the one who fears has not lived in the love of God so that it could be perfectly manifested in him. First, John says in 4:12 and 17 that God’s love needs to be perfected in us. Then in 4:18 he speaks of being perfected in love. This indicates that we and the divine love are mingled. When love is perfected in us, we are perfected in love, for we become the love, and the love becomes us. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 304, 311-312)