Judgment or crisis?

One of my favorite Gospel moments came when the Holy Spirit shared with me the immense love that comes with the finished work of Christ … and John laid it down straight in 1 John 4. Like Paul’s letter to the Romans, there is no second guessing of what John is conveying here … plain simple truth. And if anyone should question the voice of the spirit they are hearing, John also begins this chapter by providing a perfect discerning-tool, so that we can unmistakably identify the spirit that speaks to us. And this can used on a daily basis.

Isn’t that just awesome?

Test the spirit!

Why? Because there are so many. And only one to listen to.

How do you know? The one you should be listening to will ALWAYS homologeō (confess - see this post) Jesus, God who came in the flesh!

Easy!

But what if it doesn't? Then it is the Antichrist. Don’t listen!

Easy!

To be applied in this life

At this point and with the background provided in the previous verses (we are now reading verse 4), John makes a definitive turn. He notably steers the conversation towards overcoming (nikaō - see this post). This is a key to what John builds his reasoning towards later (you’ll see when we deal with verse 17).

... comes with a pivot point

Now follows the important next key and the pivot point of life!

John lays out the character of Jesus, Love Himself, in the next couple of verses. He beautifully and gracefully explains how incapable we are of love (the story of man), but at the same time (and this is the most important "but" in the history of mankind) that God is love and that He loved us first, in spite of our incapability. And John does not deviate one single millimeter from this point. Someone once said that God doesn't love us because we are so lovely, instead He loves us because He is Love!

Wow!

The One is also the Other and never goes

The Spirit is the same Love-drenched Spirit of Grace! Easy to recognize.

John also touches on another important fact that many Christians today find hard to comprehend and accept. The Spirit-of-love dwells in us and we in Him. And He will not forsake us. It is the Spirit of Jesus. You don’t have to follow rules and rituals or even beg, wail and travail for Him to descend from heaven into your presence. He has given us His Spirit (verse 13). The only choice we have is to listen or not.

It is so wonderful that John doesn't leave it there. In the verses that follow, he emphasizes this very point that the Spirit abides in us, over and over. Go on. Read verses 15 to 17.

So, we get to verse 17.

I have always loved to quote verse 17 because there is no way that you can misinterpret this. It is literal!

Verse 4:17 says Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

This verse is so profound and far reaching, that the institutional church world, so trapped in rules and religion and like things, does not know what to do with it.

It rattles the cage of religion because John says that we are exactly like Jesus already in this world, now in the present!

Enters the One

So, the Spirit of Truth and Love drew my attention to a few astounding and crucial words that align beautifully with the finished work of Christ and the dominion position of His heirs in this world.

The word used for judgment is the Greek word krisis (where we get the English word crisis from). Krisis is a separating, a sundering, a trial, contest; selection; judgment or any opinion or decision given concerning anything. It is anything that comes against us, anything that we are accused of and any affliction aimed at us.

This changes the perspective of this verse profoundly from the narrow translation and religious interpretation, doesn’t it? When we read it now it becomes mightily empowering!

Now when I read verse 17, I clearly see the overcoming part mentioned earlier in verse 4, which is one of the central themes of the chapter (in fact, of this whole letter) together with love.

Within this context, let's look even closer at the verse ...

How do we overcome the crisis?

With boldness!

Five words earlier in the same sentence, the word boldness is the English word used for the Greek parrēsia or freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech; free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage; the deportment by which one becomes conspicuous or secures publicity.

Wow, again!

How do we overcome (have victory over the crisis)?

We speak the truth of the finished work of the cross, free, fearless, publicly!

Wait! Didn't Jesus say that whosoever shall say onto this mountain ...? (see this post and this post)

What do we declare?

By the word of our testimony and the blood of the Lamb! (Rev 12:11)

That is not the end though …

John again emphasizes in the last few verses of this chapter that Love (Jesus) has it all.

What’s left to say?

Glory!

HalleluYah!