Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
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The Questions
1 John 4:13-21
This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God – God remains in Him and He in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because He first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.
Original Intent
1) What does it mean to “remain in love” (verse 16)?
Suppose a new home was purchased for you; you became the homeowner on paper, but until you are actually living in the house, you aren’t “dwelling” there. In John’s letter, to “remain” is to “dwell” or “abide”. More than just a title, it’s a way of everyday life. When we ask Jesus to be our Savior from sin, we are made new and “born again” into love. The Holy Spirit is deposited into us and we are the Lord’s and He is ours forever, nothing can take that away. (John 10:28) We are born into love, we are made new in love, we are saved because of love, and we were created to love. When we choose to “abide” or “dwell” or “remain” in love, it first and foremost looks like loving God, then is followed closely with loving others.
2) How is “love made complete” in us (verse 17)?
The Greek for “made complete” here carries the idea of reaching perfection. Whatever has been lacking, is now here in fulfilled perfection, not one piece is missing. John is describing true love here, helping his audience to see how several elements of love, coming in at different times, are all brought together and is made “perfect” or “complete”. God’s love itself is fully perfect; He does not need us to bring perfection to His own love, but He wanted to share His love with us and invite us to experience the perfection of His love. So, God brought love to us by sending Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin. (verse 9). Our receiving of this love is one aspect of experiencing His “perfect love”, but it isn’t until we “remain” in His love, rooting ourselves in it day-in-and-day-out, that we experience His love perfected in us. God’s love, already perfect outside of us, find perfection in us, when we submit to both loving Him and others.
3) Why was John addressing a seeming confusion regarding a blend of fear and love (verse 18)?
The Day of Judgement, a time of reckoning and final justice for all, was on the horizon for John and the churches of his day, just as it is for us. In Jesus’ culture, to please God, there were hundreds of laws to follow. Not obeying them resulted in needing to make sacrifices, be considered unclean, or even, if the offense was significant enough, be cast out from the community of faith and your family. God’s design was for these laws to help the people see their very obvious need for forgiveness because they would never be able to attain to righteousness by obeying laws. Paul says in Romans 9:31-32, “Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.” Israel had missed the point. They missed that it was never about good works, but always about a relationship. John brings his readers back to this point when he ties having “confidence on the Day of Judgement” to the idea that “there is no fear in love.” Following Jesus isn’t about performance or a long list of expectations or a lofty measure of good appearances, but it is about love. Perfect love that casts out fear. Love that invites us into a relationship where we can find freedom from fear right alongside the deep satisfaction of experiencing perfect love!
Everyday Application
1) What does it mean to “remain in love” (verse 16)?
What does loving God first and foremost look like? It means intentional and consistent time with Him, reading His Word, having a longing for more of Him, praying, fasting, serving the Body of Christ, and adjusting your life to His rhythms. When we choose to love God as He has loved us, the Holy Spirit awakens our hearts, which again, have been made new, to radically love others. Practically, it looks like living with open hands and open hearts towards others, ready to invest and give ourselves away because we too have been radically loved by the sacrificial Savior! Bottom line: when we choose to love God deeply and love others well, we are flinging wide the door to that home we have been given, which is new life in Christ. Confessing Jesus as Lord doesn’t stop when you finish a prayer, or walk the aisle of a church, it’s only the beginning of what will take eternity to discover….the incredible working out of what it means to ”remain in love”.
2) How is “love made complete” in us (verse 17)?
The rich theology packed into these brief verses in chapter 4 are loaded with priceless treasure. Do yourself a favor and read all of chapter 4 several times in 1 sitting, letting the words run deep into your heart. Write down your questions, allow yourself to be curious! The Lord is inviting you to know Him better! How are you rooting yourself in His love, allowing His Spirit to lead us deeper into what it means to live out a perfected love? When we are committing ourselves to consistently knowing God better and loving others, the Holy Spirit is free to move about in our lives. He teaches us in the little moments and the big ones of everyday life what it means to have complete, perfect love. The more we surrender to His leading on how to love, the more fulfilled and deeply satisfied like never before we will become!
3) Why was John addressing a seeming confusion regarding a blend of fear and love (verse 18)?
Do you wonder if you’ll ever be “good enough” for God? Have you ever considered if God was angry with you? It’s easy to fear something we don’t understand, and it’s even easier to fear judgement when we are already sure that we aren’t good enough to pass. John’s letter is clear, the perfectly loving God is inviting each of us to know Him better, and in that knowing, to discover that, through the sacrificial blood of Jesus that covers our sins when we cling to Him, and Him alone, to be our “good enough”, we are free from fear! Fear has no place in God’s economy of love. If you fear judgement from God, either 1 of 2 realities are at play. Either you haven’t explored enough of God’s character to know how deep and wide His unfathomable love is. Or, you have never truly and genuinely surrendered control of your life over to Him. If you’ve never claimed Him as your personal Savior, the Bible is replete with warnings that yes, you should indeed fear judgement, because it’s only through Jesus that we are free from condemnation. Have questions as we’ve studied these truths today? Explore those! Resist the urge to shove them down. Instead, reach out to a pastor or believing friend, or send us an email here, we’d love to encourage you to keep growing in truth and grace!
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Digging Deeper is for Everyone!
1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
several times
3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
other related verses!). (www.esvbible.org)
5) Check your applications with other trusted Christians that you are in community with and embrace the fullness of God
in your everyday!
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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