The First Epistle General of John
Chapter 4:12-16
Geneva Bible Translation Ed. 1599
12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfect in us. (a)
13 Hereby know we, that we dwell in him, and he in us: because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 Whosoever confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God, in him dwelleth God, and he in God.
16 And we have known, and believed the love that God hath in us, God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.
(a) Read John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16
The Christian love is an assurance of the divine inhabitation: If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, 1 John 4:12. Now God dwelleth in us, not by any visible presence, or immediate appearance to the eye (no man hath seen God at any time, 1 John 4:12), but by his Spirit (1 John 4:13); or, “No man hath seen God at any time; he does not here present himself to our eye or to our immediate intuition, and so he does not in this way demand and exact our love; but he demands and expects it in that way in which he has thought meet to deserve and claim it, and that is in the illustration that he has given of himself and of his love. In them, and in his appearance for them and with them, is God to be loved; and thus, if we love one another, God dwelleth in us. The sacred lovers of the brethren are the temples of God; the divine Majesty has a peculiar residence there.
Herein the divine love attains a considerable end and accomplishment in us: “And his love is perfected in us, 1 John 4:12. It has obtained its completion in and upon us. God’s love is not perfected in him, but in and with us. His love could not be designed to be ineffectual and fruitless upon us; when its proper genuine end and issue are attained and produced thereby, it may be said to be perfected; so faith is perfected by its works, and love perfected by its operations. When the divine love has wrought us to the same image, to the love of God, and thereupon to the love of the brethren, the children of God, for his sake, it is therein and so far perfected and completed, though this love of ours is not at present perfect, nor the ultimate end of the divine love to us.” How ambitious should we be of this fraternal Christian love, when God reckons his own love to us perfected thereby! To this the apostle, having mentioned the high favour of God’s dwelling in us, subjoins the note and character thereof: Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit, 1 John 4:13. Certainly this mutual inhabitation is something more noble and great than we are well acquainted with or can declare. One would think that to speak of God dwelling in us, and we in him, were to use words too high for mortals, had not God gone before us therein. What this indwelling imports has been briefly explained on 1 John 3:24. What it fully is must be left to the revelation of the blessed world. But this mutual inhabitation we know, says the apostle, because he hath given us of his spirit; he has lodged the image and fruit of his Spirit in our hearts (1 John 4:13), and the Spirit that he hath given us appears to be his, or of him, since it is the Spirit of power, of zeal and magnanimity for God, of love to God and man, and of a sound mind, of an understanding well instructed in the affairs of God and religion, and his kingdom among men.
Source - Matthew Henry’s Commentary
No comments:
Post a Comment