1 John 4:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

God is light, and His saints, according to the saying of the Gospel (Mt 5:14), are the light of the world and are strangers to the fear of torment, because they are filled with love for God.

The apostle says: I desire that you be perfected in love, so that in the day of judgment we may have boldness before God. For He Himself is the Judge, according to His own saying: “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (Jn 5:22).

That our boldness will be before God Who became man, the apostle expressed in the following words: “as He is, so are we in this world.” That is, once we have proved that God is in us and we in Him, we ourselves are witnesses of the perfection of love.

He says how each person tests himself, to see how far love has reached perfection in him, or rather, how far he himself has reached perfection in love. For if love is God, then as God it is neither diminished nor increased. Thus love is said to reach perfection in you only because you reach perfection in it.

“Because as He is, so are we in this world.” Therefore, as He is generous and pious, compassionate and patient, so must we also be in this world.

And as He was, according to His own word, “the prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (Jn 14:30), so must we also be, so that nothing connected with the world may be found in us.

Our love for God must not be only a feeling. True love, by its very essence, must necessarily be expressed in deeds. If there are no deeds corresponding to love, then there is no true and perfect love.

How then should perfect love for God be manifested? The Lord and Savior said: “Therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). The more we love God, the more we must imitate the perfections of the heavenly Father. The very essence of love requires this.

God the Father is invisible, but He revealed Himself in His Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore we must walk as Jesus Christ walked.

The one who has known God and loves Him can ascend to that high degree of perfection in love from which the hater of mankind and enemy of holiness is forever excluded.

This degree of perfect love is boldness toward God, both during prayer and in the day of judgment. It is so precious and so desirable a gift that the Prophet David, while asking mercy of the Lord, did not stop at the blessing of always living in God’s house and beholding the beauty of the Lord.

He hastened higher and sought the very face of the Lord, so that near Him he might open the desires of his heart before Him (Ps 26:4, 8).

Concerning this height of love, the wise Solomon said: “By natural necessity I sleep, but my heart, because of my highest love for God, keeps watch” (Song 5:2).

Therefore one Church writer very rightly calls this state of love a fiery spring. The more it enters the human heart, the greater thirst it produces in it, and the more it sets it aflame.

“In this love is perfected with us,” or “in us,” “that we may have boldness on the day of judgment.” This perfection must first be referred to God's love (1 Jn 4:12). For God has shown and still shows such great love toward us that we may boldly expect mercy from Him even on the day of judgment. This is why it says further: “Perfect love casts out fear.” On the other hand, our own love may also become so perfected that, like children, we boldly turn to the Father, God. Loving Him, we do not fear His judgment, because “there is no fear in love.”

The connection of the following discourse with what precedes is this. Love, by which God abides in the heart of the believer and he in God, is so lofty in its perfection that it reaches boldness before God’s judgment and wholly casts fear from the believer’s heart.

Fear is a feeling contrary to love. “Love is perfected to such a degree”: man’s love for God and neighbor has degrees of perfection, even at the stage when he abides in God and God in him.

It stands at a high degree of perfection when it has boldness to stand in the day of judgment before the dread tribunal of Christ. This boldness consists in an unashamed hope of justification before the Lord and eternal blessedness in the Kingdom of Christ (cf. 1 Jn 3:21 and note; 1 Jn 2:28; 1 Jn 5:14).

From where do the children of God draw assurance of their knowledge of God and union with Him? “By this,” says the Apostle, “we know, because He has given us of His Spirit” (1 Jn 4:13).

The manifestation of this is, on the one hand, our firm confession of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. On the other hand, it is love, which casts out every fear of punishment and instead inspires confidence that we shall one day appear justified at God’s judgment.

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God... Love is perfected with us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment... There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 Jn 4:14-18).

The apostle places the full perfection of love in this: the one who has it can be assured that in the day of judgment he will not be condemned, will not depart from God in shame, but will remain with Him forever, enjoying His love and tasting joy from His glory (cf. 1 Jn 2:28; 1 Jn 3:21).

But who can be so confident in himself as to have firm hope of eternal salvation? And what can assure him that he will indeed be saved?

The apostle answers this perplexity further on. He points to the signs and manifestations of perfect love, which can clearly and visibly testify to the perfection of our love and, with it, to the possibility of eternal salvation.

The apostle indicates these signs and manifestations of perfect love in the absence of fear before the coming judgment and in love for neighbors.