“No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12) What does it mean that God’s perfect love is perfected in us? First let’s look at another example where perfection is described in the Book of James concerning Abraham. In James 2:22 it states, “You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected.”In other words our “works of love” perfects our love. In this case, practice does makes perfect. Not perfect in the sense of excellence without error and not an end point or final goal reached. In this context, perfection means growing to maturity and continue to practice to improve.
“By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” (1 John 4:13) Simply stated, we can be assured that if we are practicing love, then we are truly abiding with the Father. By this, our actions of love, prove as testimony to ourselves and others, that we abide with Him as we cannot do this on our own! Practicing love is possible, and expected of us because He has given us His Spirit.
“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” (1 John 4:15) Therefore, when we are born again, we receive the gift of His Spirit which enables us to “walk out” (perfected love) His will for us. As we continue to abide in love with the Father and have fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the Lord, we grow and mature in our faith and love. If not, we will drift away. (Hebrews 2:1)
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