Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon in 1 John 4:17-21.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he , so are we in this world (1 John 4:17).
What does the apostle John mean when he says our love for God
is being “made perfect”?
The Greek verb rendered as “perfect” here does not mean something
like numerical perfection so much as it means to complete, or to accomplish, or
to come into maturity. It is built on the root word telos, which means
end, purpose, goal, or destination. In this life we will not be without sin (see
1 John 1:8, 10).
So, we might render it, “Herein is our love moved closer toward
the goal and achievement of our true purpose as believers.” Or, “Herein is our
love made more mature or more complete.”
Let me offer an illustration from the world of construction.
In the construction industry they use the term “finishing.”
There is the task of building a house, which means building the necessary infrastructure
that makes a house a house (e.g., the foundation, framing, roofing, shingles, electrical
work, plumbing, drywall, etc.), and then there is the “finishing work.”
I found this
description online:
….finishing work
describes anything that is used to “finish” off your home (i.e. trim work,
crown molding, window casings, millwork, shiplap, paneling, coffered ceilings, etc). All of these things are typically found in a home BUT
they aren’t necessarily a “necessity” of building a home.
You can
be saved and still be very rough around the edges. All of us are this way when
we first come to faith. Some, sadly, do not get much beyond this. The thief on
the cross was saved but he did not live long enough to experience a long period
of slow and progressive sanctification.
Most of
us, however, are granted time and opportunity for the Lord to do his finishing
work on us, though it is never complete in this life.
When God
saves a man, he begins this “finishing” work of sanctification. This work will
only be complete when he enters the state of glorification (see 1 John 3:2: “and
it doth not yet appear what we shall be”). But for now, we can be sure God is
at work making our love for him and for one another perfect.
