Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

4:13 The presence and activity of the Holy Spirit within Christians are evidence that they are abiding in God (see notes on John 8:31; 15:4).

4:14 we have seen and testify. This was particularly and uniquely true for apostles like John, who were Jesus' hand-picked witnesses. By extension and through faith, all subsequent believers testify to the same truths. Savior occurs in John's writings only here and in John 4:42.

4:15 Jesus is the Son of God, not in the derived sense that all Christians as God's children are his adopted "sons" and heirs (Rom. 8:14; Gal. 3:26) but in a unique sense (the Son of God) in which Jesus is acknowledged as personally divine and as sharing fully every attribute of God (see note on John 1:14). In 1 John 4:2 it was required that true teachers affirm Christ's full humanity; here it is required that they affirm his full deity.

4:16 we have come to know and to believe. Assurance of salvation, while never an arrogant presumption, can become a settled state of mind and heart (see notes on 2:3; 5:13).

4:17 By this refers to the previous verse, where John speaks of believers abiding in God and God abiding in them. confidence for the day of judgment. Either eternal life or eternal punishment awaits all humanity (see John 3:36), and God's love furnishes a sure hope for those who have trusted in him. as he is so also are we in this world. Just as the Son was and is present in the world in a loving fashion that in no way attracted divine displeasure, so are the Son's followers. The love that Christ embodied and lived out among believers is their confidence in the day of judgment.

4:18 No fear in love does not rule out the presence and constructive effect of "the fear of the Lord" that is "the beginning of knowledge" (Prov. 1:7). Here John speaks of fear of final judgment (cf. 1 John 4:17). God's perfect love for believers casts out the fear of wrath and eternal punishment.

4:19 We love because. Christian love is a gift from God, demonstrated supremely in the cross (see Rom. 5:8). God's love always takes the initiative, and the love of Christians is a response to that love. Likewise, all morally good human actions are good not because they conform to some arbitrary human standard of good but because they are rooted in imitation of the morally perfect character of God and conform to God's commands.