Apr 24
17
“Herein is Our Love made Perfect”
1 John 4:17
“Herein is our love made perfect.” Those words, as suggested by our translators in the margin of our Bible, might be better translated, “Herein is his love with us made perfect.”
John is not talking about us loving God perfectly or loving one another perfectly. Our love is anything but perfect love. John is talking to us about the knowledge and revelation of God’s perfect love for us in Christ in the sweet experience of his saving grace. He is here describing the “grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
God’s love toward us, which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost in the saving revelation of Christ, is made perfect in us when we are made to see and experience and enjoy the fulness, completion, and perfection of our salvation in Christ.
God’s love is made perfect in us (1 John 4:12), it is brought to its end and fulfilment, when it is made known in us, when we are born of God and given faith in Christ. Then it is that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost” (Romans 5:1-5).
Don Fortner