(Continued from page 36.)

(Chap. 4:7-19.)

We now pass on to other subjects treated of by the apostle in this section of the epistle. It will be remembered that in John i :18 it is said, " No man hath seen God at any time." That statement is repeated here, but not for the same reason or purpose. There, it is in connection with the revelation of God. No one has ever seen God to be qualified thus to witness to what He is-only the Son who has come from the bosom of the Father, who has personal knowledge of God, is personally acquainted with the perfections of His nature and character-He is thus a competent witness ; He speaks what He personally knows-what He has seen and heard (John 3:32).

Here, in this epistle (ver. 12), the apostle is not thinking of the Son of the Father testifying among men to what God is, but of God being manifested in His children. The children of God, loving one another, are displaying in their measure the love that is in God. "No one has seen God at any time," but if we love one another that is a display of Him. The moral nature of God is in us. This, as we have already seen, is an active nature. If it is present at all in a man, it is present in activity. Since it is the moral nature of God, it is proper to say God is dwelling in us. God dwells in us by a nature and life from Himself. It is His love that is in us. In loving one another, that love is having its normal activity in us. This is what is meant by the expression, "And His love is perfected in us."

The apostle is not speaking here of some advanced Christians, as if there were a class of believers of whom it is not true that the love of God is perfected in them. He is speaking abstractly, as he so commonly does. He is speaking of what is characteristic. He is not thinking of degrees and measures, but of what is normally and characteristically true, and marks every child of God. It is as loving one another that the children of God manifest themselves as those in whom God dwells-in whom the love of God is in activity.

If then we are marked by loving one another, God has given us "of His Spirit." He has given us a nature which is of His Spirit. We are born of the Spirit. By this nature God dwells in us and we in Him; and it gives capacity to recognize those on whom it has been conferred. By this activity of love we realize our dwelling in God and His dwelling in us (ver. 13).

Along with this communicated nature there is the apostolic testimony that "the Father sent the Son, the Saviour of the world." They had seen the Son manifested upon earth as having the glory of an only-begotten of the Father. Their contemplation of it had wrought in them a divine conviction. They could say, "We have seen," and testify. If "no one has seen God at anytime," they personally were witnesses that the Father sent the Son, the Saviour of the world (ver. 14.)

The world has refused Him who was sent to save it. It has rejected its Saviour, but the fact that the Father sent the Son to save the world may be appealed to as a manifestation of the love of God. If no man has ever seen Him, His love has been manifested. It cannot be said, No one has ever seen His love. Multitudes have seen it and live in it. All who have received the Saviour whom the Father sent, dwell in the love of God. Every one who inwardly submits to Jesus as being truly the Son of God, lives in the love of God. All such are born of God. A new life, a moral principle, is begotten in their souls in the power of the Spirit, by which God dwells in them and they in God (ver. 15). It is the characteristic fact, true of every one who in reality confesses Jesus as the Son of God. The degree of individual realization is quite another matter ; the apostle is not speaking of this here.

Loving one another, then, characterizes, more or less, all the family of God, and gives capacity to know or recognize one another. Undoubtedly there are hindrances in all to any full capacity for this. The great point urged by the apostle is that we have received a common life from the Spirit, and with it a full and reliable testimony to the love of God by personal witnesses of its manifestation. Those therefore who have become participators in this life through faith in Jesus, are those who know and believe the love God has to us. God is love; they are in community with Him; they dwell in God and God in them (ver. 16).

But while love may be in us, in a nature perfect in itself, yet it is quite another thing to be perfect in our apprehension of it. It is of immense comfort to be assured, as the word of God does assure us, that in new birth we have received a new and perfect nature-received eternal life, which abides for ever-an imperishable life indeed! Many who believe this do not realize that it stamps us as being already (even while still here in this world) as Christ is. If the day of judgment causes fear, love (the apprehension of it) is not perfect with them.

There is need to consider well the apostle's words, and to weigh them. First, let us notice a defect in our ordinary translation. Verse 17 reads:"Herein is our love made perfect." Now our love, our response to the love of God, is never perfect. It is never what it should be. To say it is, would be very pretentious. No child of God, unless under some deceptive influence, would claim that his love for God is perfect. In marginal Bibles this very serious defect of translation is corrected. They give " Love with us," instead of "our love." We should read, then, "Herein is love with us made perfect," which gives an entirely different sense. It is evident the apostle is not thinking of our love of God, but of the love which God has manifested.

Again, if the apostle speaks of the love of God being made perfect with us, it is plain he speaks of our apprehension of it. What is meant by this is what we must now consider.

Clearly it does not express the same thought as when we say, We are the objects of God's love. It is a great thing to know that. But many know this, heartily believe it, yet manifestly have not been made perfect in love. Love, in the perfection of its nature, is in them as we have seen; yet it has not been made perfect -with them; the apprehension of what it is needs perfecting. The apostle, speaking of the day of judgment, says:" Herein is love with us made perfect, that we may have boldness in respect of the day of judgment." (The Greek preposition en often has the sense of "in respect of," "in view of." I so translate it here.) Have we "boldness"-peace, rest of heart-in view of the day of judgment ? If so, then, according to the apostle, love has been perfected with us. But if this is lacking, if there is timidity in our souls as we think of that day, there is a defect in our apprehension of the Love that dwells in us. What then is the defect ? The answer to this question is found in what immediately follows :"Because as He is, so are we in this world." This is what is not realized where boldness in respect to the day of judgment is wanting. The thought in the minds of many is that they are to be made as He is, not that they already are as He is. How many a child of God shrinks from believing that now, in this world, he is as Christ is!
It is said, We are not where He is yet. Our bodies have not yet been changed and fashioned after His body of glory. Quite true; we are still in the body suited to this life-not yet in a body suited to heaven. Our present body is a sinful and mortal body. But the apostle is not thinking of the body; he is not occupying us with the thought of physical likeness to Christ. If he were, he ' would not say:"As He is, so are we in this world." We shall be physically like Him when we are changed into His likeness, but until then our body continues to be a natural body.

In what sense then are we now as He is ? Let us remember that the apostle is looking at the children of God as characterized by community of life with God. From that point of view, the thing that is true in Christ is true also in them. They are one with Him in the new nature given them-one with Him in life. The apostle thinks of us as identified in nature and life with Christ. As having the same nature with Him, we are as He is. As having community of life with Himself, we are already what we shall be in the day of judgment. Christ is not, cannot be, an object of judgment. As children of God, neither are we objects of judgment. The apprehension of this blessed truth, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, is what the apostle calls "Love perfected in us." C. Crain

(To be continued.)