God is love (1 John 4.8, 16). And God’s love is perfect. No one loves like God loves. If we want to know what real love is, we look to God … especially as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his unique Son so that everyone who believes in him might not be lost but have eternal life” (John 3.16 ISV). “But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” (Romans 5:8 HCSB) God’s love is a self-giving kind of love that seeks to restore to himself even the worst of offenders. Perfect love.
Yet 1 John describes an interesting scenario where God’s love is somehow perfected in imperfect human beings. Twice the writer of 1 John declares: “truly in this person the love of God has been perfected” (1 John 2.5 NET) and “his love is perfected in us” (1 John 4.12 NET).
How can perfect love still be perfected? These verses suggest that the perfection of God’s love is fulfilled not just in his selfless act toward us but also in the resulting effect on the recipients of that love. The reference to “this person” and “us” highlights those who have come to love others as God has loved them. In 1 John 2.5 “this person” is described as one who “obeys [God’s] word.” This is followed by the statement that “the one who says he resides in God ought himself to walk just as Jesus walked” (1 John 2.6 NET). That is, his conduct is an extension of Jesus’ own actions as he lived and ministered in this world. And in 1 John 4.12 “us” specifically refers to those who “love one another.” Such action shows that God “resides in us” and is completing the expression of his love through us.
The perfect love of God, then, isn’t just something that we receive and passively enjoy its benefits. God’s love is perfect precisely because it empowers the recipient to actively participate in God’s loving action as instruments of his love toward others. It is only then that we can begin to know what God’s love really is like—when we ourselves learn to love even those who have offended us. That’s what experiencing the love of God is all about. His love for us does not end with us, but flows through us. The God whom no one has seen (1 John 4.12) has been revealed in the love Christ Jesus showed on the cross. When we begin to love like Jesus, we somehow reveal this same God to others. And God’s love is thereby perfected in us. What a staggering thought. Yet true!
—Keith Y. Jainga