The Perfect Love!
"But whoever keeps His word, truly the
love of God is perfected in him. By this
we know that we are in Him."
1 John 2: 5
When young people leave home for college,
they often hear words like these from a parent:
“Remember who you are and whose you are.
Your lifestyle and actions away from home
reveal how well you have internalized and
embraced the values you’ve been taught.”
The apostle John wrote something similar to his first-century audience.
In short, the Christians who obey God’s words are those in whom the
love of Godis doing its maturing and perfecting work. Or, said another
way, “By [our obedience] we know that we are in Him.”
Obedience doesn’t mean perfection, or never sinning. (See the apostle
John’s acknowledgement that sin happens in 1 John 1:9.) John’s word
“perfected” means “completion” or “ending.” The goal of God’s love for
us, and our love for Him, is that we would be conformed to His will as
expressed by obedience to His Word.
Do you find yourself being conformed more and more to the image
of Christ, motivated by loving fellowship with Him (Romans 8:29)?
By this you know that you are in Him.
"The habitual inclination of the heart…
in believers…is unto good, unto God,
unto holiness, unto obedience."
John Owen
