Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 4:15-21
Staying in a nice 3 or 4 star hotel while traveling is nice, but its not home. Even a short trip of a week or ten days leaves one longing for home. When we finally arrive home at the end of said trip, we experience a comfort not known on the road. Everything is familiar and in its place. All my clothes are in the closet and bureau. My toothbrush is where it belongs. I get to sit in my favorite chair to read or watch TV by the fireplace. It is my home. Everything is comfortable. It is good to be home in my own abode. I abide in my abode.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. John uses the term “abide” quite often in his writings. We are to abide in Christ. Some translations say we are to remain in Christ instead of abide. They are both reasonable translations of the Greek meno. The idea of abiding in Christ is that we live there. In Christ is where we are at home. With this thought in mind, we might translate the verse, Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God is at home in him, and he is at home in God. This is the place we are welcome. This is where we belong.
It is generally well understood that what makes a home a home is not the size of the house or the quality of the decorations, the quality of the kitchen appliances or the effectiveness of the heating and air conditioning system. All those things are nice but if the home has the finest of all of these and many luxuries besides, the most essential thing to make a house a home is love. The nicest house lived in by people who do not love one another, who bicker, abuse one another, and fight constantly is not a home.
But God is love and God in Christ is at home in us therefore we know love. Likewise, we are welcomed in Christ and are loved in him. He is at home in us and we are at home in him.
John brings up a subject new to this letter, judgment. He is referencing the eternal judgment that will be faced by every human being at the second coming of Christ. This love that is perfected by Christ being at home in us and we at home in him causes us to be confident in the face of eternal judgement. Why? Just as Jesus lives out his perfect love in us, both individually and corporately, that is how we are in this world, experiencing God’s love in Christ.
Now for one of the generally misused passages in Scripture, “…perfect love casts out fear.” This is more often than not used to encourage people to be relieved of fears in this life whether it be an abused wife fearful of going home after a beating, someone in fear of public speaking, fear of job loss, etc. This passage is not referring to anything as trite as any of these fears, a real as they my be. This passage about perfect love casting out fear is referring to our personally facing eternal judgement at the return of Christ. The person who does not know him should indeed be in fear of him and the judgement. We who have submitted to the Lordship of Jesus and believed that he came from the Father, lived a perfect life for us, died for us, rose on the third day for us and ascended to heaven for us and now reigns on his throne from heaven do not fear because he is at home in us and we are at home in him where that perfect love abides. God’s perfect love casts out the fear of judgement and punishment for those at home with the Lord.
If we abide in God’s love then we will not get caught in the hypocrisy of claiming to love God and hating our brother.
And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 4:21
