The desire (indeed, the command) of our Lord is that we grow and develop in love to the point where we are truly a reflection of the nature of Yehovah God, who is love. To the degree we manifest His love, that love which is evidenced in and through us in our relationships with others is said to be "perfected" or "made complete." To the degree we withhold or suppress this love in our lives (as self interferes), it is thereby less than complete and mature; less than "perfected in us." The bringing of our nature into tune with His nature is the work of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, for the transformation of ourselves into His image is not something we can accomplish on our own. That is why immediately after stating His love is made complete in us (1 John 4:12), we read, "because He has given us of His Spirit" (vs. 13).
Paul tells us that the "sinful nature" cannot please God; indeed, it is impossible for our nature, on its own, to elevate us to a point of acceptance. "However, you are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah, he does not belong to the Messiah" (Romans 8:9). In this chapter Paul repeatedly stresses the importance of the work of the Spirit "that lives in you" (vs. 11). He takes away fear and gives confidence (vs. 15), He affirms our status as children of God and heirs (vs. 16-17). In Galatians 5:13f Paul states that the sinful nature leads us to works of the flesh, which include strife, hatred, discord, fits of rage and other relationship destroying attitudes and behaviors. However, we are called to "serve one another in love" (vs. 13), for "the entire law is summed up in a single command: 'love your neighbor as yourself'" (vs. 14). Thus, when we "live by the Spirit" (vs. 16) and are "led by the Spirit" (vs. 18), the "fruit of the Spirit" evidenced in our lives will be seen in relationship building attitudes and behaviors such as "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" (vs. 22-23).
When Spirit-led disciples of the Messiah, who have him living within them, exhibit the fruit of LOVE in their daily lives, they reflect the very nature of their Father, and in so doing "His love is made complete/perfected" in them (both individually and collectively). In this way our Father, who is not visible to the naked eye and thus cannot be seen by men, is made visible in the lives of His people. Men see Him in us, whether individually (a disciple) or collectively (the church). That is why the testimony of our LOVE is so important, and why a failure to LOVE one another is so detrimental to the cause of Christ. Indeed, if we do not LOVE, we are not truly His children. "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8). "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen" (vs. 20). "Anyone who does not love remains in death" (1 John 3:14). John declares that if we will not love others, then we are children of the devil rather than children of God (vs. 10). "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth (i.e., sincerely, genuinely)" (vs. 18). Again, in so doing we bring to completeness His love within us: we make it visible to those around us in its pure, perfected form.
The benefit to us in doing this is that "we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him" (1 John 4:17). When His love is brought to maturity in us, then fear is driven out and replaced with assurance (vs. 18). Where men are fearful of their Father, love has yet to be brought to maturity (completed, perfected) in their hearts and lives. "The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (vs. 18). "Perfect love drives out fear" (vs. 18). "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us" (1 John 4:16-17).
The love of which John is speaking in this passage "is not primarily God's love for us or our love for Him, but the love which God IS in His nature, produced in our hearts by the Holy Spirit ... which is brought to its full capacity of operation by the Holy Spirit in our lives" [Dr. Kenneth S. Wuest, Word Studies from the Greek NT, vol. 2, p. 169]. Wuest quotes Vincent (another noted Greek scholar), who says the same: "The words 'His love' do not refer to our love for Him, nor to His love for us, but to the love which is peculiarly His own, which answers to His nature" [ibid, p. 166]. "It then has its full accomplishment, having molded us according to its own nature" [Adam Clarke, Clarke's Commentary, vol. 6, p. 920]. Thus, our nature is transformed by the indwelling Spirit of God into the likeness of His nature, and the degree of attainment to this goal realized in our lives is the degree of completeness (perfection) we attain and evidence. The ideal is to be fully like Him; the reality, sadly, is that too often our own nature resurfaces and diminishes the reflection of His. But, life is a journey of imperfect souls, led by the Spirit of God, longing for an ever-increasing perfecting of our nature into the likeness of His. Paul lamented his own personal imperfection in this quest (Romans 7:15-25), yet celebrated his victory given by grace through the offering of the Savior and the operation of the Spirit (Romans 8:1ff).
God is love -- that is His essential nature. Our Father desires His children to reflect His nature to their fellow siblings, and also to those who do not yet know the Father. Indeed, we are to love all people, even those who may afflict us. In so doing, we truly reflect HIS love: a love that is being "perfected" (brought to maturity) within us as the Spirit of God transforms our nature into the likeness of His. We reflect this love by loving one another, and even by loving our enemies. We love as HE loves! "Seeing that God is invisible, His abiding in us can be shown only by His essential characteristic being exhibited in us: i.e., by our showing similar self-sacrificing love" [The Pulpit Commentary, vol. 22, p. 104].
"Though God is invisible, He yet is not only very near to us, but may be in us, the Life of our lives. ... The manifestation of active love by men witnesses to two facts: (1) the abiding of God in them, and (2) the presence of divine love in them in its completest form" [Dr. B. F. Westcott, The Epistles of St. John: The Greek Text with Notes, p. 151]. Loving others is evidence that this divine love dwells within us; indeed, His love within us, transforming us, is what motivates us to love as He loves. "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). He placed that love within us, and, with the aid of His Spirit, our natures become increasingly like His, thus becoming perfected. "The verb teleioo is here used in the emphatic form of the compound perfect, with the meaning of ongoing fulfillment, rather than static 'completion'" [Stephen S. Smalley, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 51, 1-2-3 John, p. 248]. In other words, our nature will never, during the course of our fleshly existence here on earth, attain to the absolute fullness of His nature. However, with the help of His indwelling Spirit, we progress daily toward that perfection, and in those moments (which we pray increase in quantity and quality daily) that we love as He loves, that love within us is shown in its most complete and perfect form. Thus, Paul prayed that we would all grow and mature toward the goal of that fullness (Ephesians 4:13f), for the world will truly know we are His when they see Him (and His nature = love) evidenced in our lives. "By this all men will know that you are my disciples!" (John 13:35).
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