In verse 12 John also speaks of God’s love being perfected in us. The love of God is perfected already in God Himself, but now this love needs to be perfected in us. This requires that the love of God become our experience. If the love of God remains in God, it will be perfected in God Himself. But when this love becomes our experience and enjoyment, it will be perfected in us. The love that is already perfected in God needs to be perfected in us through our enjoyment of this love.
The Greek word translated “perfected” in 4:12 is teleioo, which means to complete, to accomplish, to finish. The love of God is perfect and complete in Him. However, in us it needs to be perfected and completed in its manifestation. It has been manifested to us in God’s sending His Son to be both a propitiation and life to us (4:9-10). Yet, if we do not love one another with this love as it was manifested to us, that is, if we do not express it by loving one another with it as God did to us, it is not perfectly and completely manifested. The love of God is perfected and completed in its manifestation when we express it in our living by habitually loving one another with it. Our living in the love of God toward one another is its perfection and completion in its manifestation in us. Thus, others can behold God manifested in His love-essence in our living in His love.
In 4:13 John says, “In this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, that He has given us of His Spirit.” The words “in this” mean in the fact that God has given us of His Spirit we know that we abide in Him and He in us. The Spirit whom God has given to dwell in us (James 4:5; Rom. 8:9, 11) is the witness in our spirit (Rom. 8:16) that we dwell in God and He in us. The abiding Spirit, that is, the indwelling Spirit, is the element and sphere of the mutual abiding, the mutual indwelling, of us and God. By Him we are assured that we and God are one, abiding in one another, indwelling each other mutually. This is evidenced by our living, a living that habitually expresses His love.
In verse 13 John indicates that we may know that we abide in God. To abide in God is to dwell in Him, remaining in our fellowship with Him, that we may experience and enjoy His abiding in us. This is to practice our oneness with God according to the divine anointing (2:27) by a living that practices His righteousness and His love. It is all by the operation of the all-inclusive compound Spirit, who dwells in our spirit and who is the basic element of the divine anointing.
In verse 13 John also says that God “has given us of His Spirit.” In Greek of literally means “out of.” God has given us out of His Spirit. This closely resembles and repeats the word in 3:24, which proves that this does not mean that God has given us something, such as the various gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:4, of His Spirit, but that His Spirit Himself is the all-inclusive gift (Acts 2:38). “Out of His Spirit” is an expression which implies that the Spirit of God, whom He has given to us, is bountiful and without measure (Phil. 1:19; John 3:34). By such a bountiful immeasurable Spirit we know with full assurance that we are one with God and that we abide in Him and He in us.
As we consider 4:11-13, we see that we should never teach the saints to love with their own natural love, with the love that is something apart from God Himself. On the contrary, we all need to see that God abides in us, and we abide in Him. This is a matter of coinherence, of mingling, of organic union. God is not only in us; He abides in us, dwells in us. Through this mingling, this organic union, He becomes us, and we become Him. Therefore, since God is love, this love becomes our constitution. Because we become what He is, our love for others will actually be God Himself. We love others with God as love. Because God abides in us and we abide in Him, we love with God Himself as love.
In 4:14 John continues, “And we have beheld and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.” As in 4:9 and John 3:16, “world” here denotes fallen mankind.
The Father’s sending of the Son to be our Savior is an external act, that through our confessing of the Son He may abide in us and we in Him (4:15). The apostles have beheld and testify this. This is the outward testimony. In addition to this, God’s internal act toward us is the sending of His Spirit to dwell in us as inward evidence that we abide in Him and He in us (4:13).
In 4:9, 10, and 14 the apostle John says three times that God has sent His Son. God sent the Son that we might live through Him; He sent the Son a propitiation concerning our sins; and He sent the Son as Savior of the world.
In 4:15 John says, “Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” God the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world with the purpose that men may believe in Him by confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, so that God may abide in them and they in God. But the heretical Corinthians did not confess this. Hence, they did not have God abiding in them, nor did they abide in God. But whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. He becomes one with God in the divine life and nature.
We may have expected John to say that whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God has the forgiveness of sins, or has eternal life. However, here John says that whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. We should use this verse in preaching the gospel. We should tell people that if they believe in the Lord and confess that Jesus is the Son of God, they will be forgiven of their sins and will be saved. We should also tell them that if they confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God will come into them and abide in them, and they will be able to abide in God. This is the highest preaching of the gospel. Have you ever preached the gospel in this way? In our preaching of the gospel let us tell people that if they believe in the Lord Jesus, confessing that He is the Son of God, God will come into them to abide in them, and they will abide in God.