Life-Study of 1, 2, & 3 John, Judeby Witness Lee

KEEPING HIS WORD

In verse 5 John continues, “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.” Here “word” is synonymous with “commandments” in verses 3 and 4, for the word comprises all the commandments. “Commandments” emphasizes injunction; the “word” implies spirit and life as a supply to us (John 6:63).

The word in verse 5 is the totality, the aggregate, of all the commandments. No matter how many commandments there may be, as a whole these commandments are the word of the Lord. Hence, in verse 5 John speaks of keeping His word. By this he means keeping the word spoken either by the Lord Himself directly or spoken through the apostles.

THELOVEOF GOD PERFECTED IN US

In verse 5 John tells us that in the one who keeps the Lord's word the love of God has been perfected. In this verse the Greek word for love is agape. This word denotes the love which is higher and nobler than phileo (see notes 71 and 72 in 2 Peter 1). 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.

The word “perfected” is very important. The Greek word for “perfected” is teleioo, meaning to complete, to accomplish, to finish. The love of God itself is perfect and complete in Himself. However, in us it needs to be perfected and completed in its manifestation. The love of God 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 byloving one another with it as God expressed it to us, it is not perfectly and completely manifested. It is perfected and completed in its manifestation when we express it in our living by habitually loving one another with it. Our living in thelove 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.

John concludes verse 5 by saying, “In this we know that we are in Him.” The pronoun “Him” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. The phrase “in Him” is a strong expression; it stresses that we are one with the Lord. Because we are one with the Lord, who is God, the loving essence of God becomes ours. It is supplied to us by the Lord's word of life for our walk of loveso that we may enjoy the fellowship of the divine life and abide in the light (v. 10).

In our reading of verse 5 we may wonder whether the love of God here refers to God's love or to the love with which welove God. The Chinese Version speaks of our loving of God, or of the love with which we love God. But the English expression seems to indicate that John is referring to God's love.

If we consider the Greek text and also take care of the context, we shall realize that this expression in verse 5 denotes ourlove toward God. However, this love is generated by the love of God, which we enjoy. First we enjoy the love of God; hence, the love of God is our enjoyment. Then the love of God, which is enjoyed by us, produces in us a love with which we love God. This is the love of God becoming our enjoyment and producing within us a love for God. On the one hand, this is the love with which we love God; on the other hand, this love is produced by God's love, which is enjoyed by us.

Actually it is rather difficult to say whose love John is referring to in verse 5. We have seen that this love is God's loveenjoyed by us and also that it is the love produced in us with which we love God. Love comes from God to us and becomes our experience and enjoyment. The result is that this love produces a love in us toward God. Therefore, this love comes from God, it passes through us, and it returns to God. What a wonderful, experiential love this is!

The love in verse 5 is both God's love for us and our love for God. This is God's love becoming our love through our enjoyment of the divine love. When God's love becomes our love, we have within us a love toward God. Through our experience of God's love, the love that comes from Him now returns to Him.

We have pointed out that in verse 5 John speaks of the love of God being perfected in the one who keeps His word. In itself God's love is absolutely perfect. There is no need whatever for God's love to be perfected, for it is already perfect and complete. However, God's love becomes the love with which we love Him, and this kind of love does need to be perfected. We love God by the love that is generated in us through our experience of the divine love. Although we may have thislove and may love God with this love, our love is still very limited and far from perfect. Therefore, our love for God needs to be perfected. As we grow in the divine life, our love for God also will grow.

Our love for God actually is not our own love. It is still God's love, but it is God's love becoming our experience and producing a love in us for God. Through our experience and enjoyment of the divine love, we love God. Now this loveneeds to be perfected.

I believe that all of us in the Lord's recovery can say that we love God. But we still need to ask to what degree, to what extent, we love Him. Some of us may have a very high degree of love for the Lord, but this love is not perfect. I wish to emphasize the fact that in itself God's love is perfect. But the love that is produced in us through our experience and enjoyment of God's love needs to grow, increase, and be perfected.

In our study of 2:5 we may have two questions concerning the love mentioned in this verse: first, the question whether this love is God's love or our love; second, the question concerning why God's love needs to be perfected. I believe that by now we have the proper answer to both questions.

In this verse the love of God is not mentioned in an objective sense; rather, John speaks of God's love in a subjective sense. John is referring here to God's love becoming our enjoyment in order to produce a love in us for God. Hence, now we know that the love of God here refers to the divine love experienced by us and becoming our love for God.

Furthermore, we have come to see that this love needs to be perfected. God's love viewed in an objective sense does not need to be perfected. But in an experiential, subjective sense, the love of God does need to be perfected in us. The lovewith which we love God, the love produced by our enjoyment of God's love, certainly needs to be perfected. Our lovetoward God is not complete, perfect, absolute. No matter how much we love God, our love has not yet been perfected. Therefore, we need to have our love for God perfected, and have it perfected to the uttermost.

(Life-Study of 1, 2, & 3 John, Jude, Chapter 15, Section 3)