Combat Zone
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.1 John 4:18 NASB
Is not perfected– teleióō. That’s the Greek term here. The verb is a perfect passive. ESV translates it as “has not been perfected.” The NASB translation could give us the wrong idea since it might imply that we are the active agents. But the verb is passive. That means something happens to us, not of our own doing. And it’s a perfect passive. That means emphasizes the present condition of an ongoing, completed action.
How can this be? We don’t experience that finished sense of completed love now. We are still a mess, gradually working our way through the struggles of life and the inherited traumas we were handed at birth. Our present state of being is anything but perfected. But perhaps that’s John’s point. We aren’t the initiating agent here. We are along for the ride. God is doing the work of perfecting, that is, completing what He began in us. Yes, of course, along the way we have to respond to His prodding and teaching and correction, but the whole job isn’t up to us. We aren’t making ourselves perfect.
In fact, perfection isn’t even the right goal here. teleióō is about 100% pure. “This word means ‘to make téleios in the passive,’ ‘to become téleios,’ or, in such senses as ‘to complete,’ ‘to carry out,’ ‘to put into effect,’ and, passive, ‘to be completed,’ ‘to mature.’”[1] So in order to understand teleióō, we need to understand téleios. TWOT comments:
- Outside the Bible. This adjective means “whole,” “unblemished,” “full,” “perfect,” “actualized,” “efficacious,” “mature,” “supreme,” and perhaps “dedicated.”[2]
It seems to me that we have mismanaged this Greek concept by translating it as “perfect.” It’s the same mistake we find in Matthew 5:48. In the Bible, “perfect” is a terrorist word. Why? Because it is impossible to achieve. No one is perfect. No living thing is perfect as long as we define perfection in Greek mathematical philosophical terms. So the number 7 is perfect, but it is not real. Seven things are real, and none of them is perfect. Life always has flaws. By translating these words “perfect,” we condemn ourselves.
Let’s try another approach. What if the text said, “and the one who fears has not been finished in love,” or “has not been completed in love”? Ah, the terror of perfection is gone. This is something I can live with because I know I am not done yet. God is still working on me. I still have a road ahead, but the goal isn’t mathematical perfection. The goal is to finish the journey, to be completed by Him.
I am reminded of a shocking quotation from Camille Paglia: “At some level, all love is combat, a wrestling with ghosts.”[3] Even my love for God—and His love for me—involves combat. And ghosts. Ghosts of past trauma, ghosts of present failures, ghosts of all those things I thought I once knew to be true. We fight together to reach the end. He pushes. I resist. He pushes harder. I retreat. He flanks me. I surrender. And then we start again. God loves me best in the battle. And some day, we will sit together and reflect on the long road to completion.
Topical Index: perfect, teleióō, complete, finish, 1 John 4:18
[1]Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament(1165). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
[3]Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickenson, p. 14.
Thank you…perpetual perfection, in the process of attaining…
Skip, there is a tremendous amount of encouragement here.
All false religions operate on some basis of works: it is up to us. Love itself, however, is not a ‘work’: it is an active state of devotion – perfect focus – on another. This complete (no distractions; no competing interest) attention will, naturally, result in behavior that is an EFFECT of this devotion. I think we get into trouble when we think that actions (“works”) CAUSE “righteousness”, or right-relatedness. We do rituals and use the 10 Commands as a check list to ‘get us close’ to God: we do good deeds SO AS TO BE a ‘good person’: we perform for love. That’s backwards! (Just ask any good lover: they would not be fooled.)
Over and over and over the Bible reiterates that we don’t get anywhere by the righteousness that originates with us in the flesh, because there is no such thing. (The wicked, after all, do all kinds of stuff to relate, but it is not counted as love in heaven.) The entire book of Romans cannot even be read if we don’t understand what is the chicken and what is the egg. Love does not start with deeds: deeds must be rooted in love.
The love that comes by faith that the God of love will do in us what He did in Christ is the right order. Gal. 5:5 “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” This is no new post-cross condition. Right-relatedness that is performed in us by means of faith that God will do it has always been the same across all dispensations and time. Rom. 4:21, 22 tells us that even Abraham “Being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was also able to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” was put into right relations with God, himself and all others – including us – by God. And we all know how related Abraham is!
If we think about it, now how exactly would Abraham have gone about doing that all by himself, just using some checklist of behavioral fruit? You don’t get the fruit of good work without the root of love. God does not draw us to Himself by means of us, after all. He draws us (and reproduces His image in us, too) by means of Himself IN US. May we, “rooted and grounded” in the love from above – like godly Abraham – not resist His Holy Spirit completing (perfecting) the work of God in us, today!
Today’s word is incredible! I have been saying this for quite some time in my growing experience with God. We are complete in him and yet at the same time we are becoming complete. We are full and yet becoming full. It makes it more hopeful knowing God‘s intentions toward us and finding our way through him to continue to grow and move ahead.
I have always liked what Oswald Chambers said, and continues to say, “making the real actual “. Becoming who we are in Christ. For it is God who is at work within us, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We are the ones who are always so tempted to give up or to retreat. God is the constant! Thank you Skip !
This type of thinking correlates with what AA teaches. It’s all that black-and-white or 100% or nothing that is a real killer. I think when the church teaches “if any man be in Christ he is a new creation“, it puts incredible pressure on people such as myself who have come out of such a messed up background. It activates the works/performance type of Christianity. Trying to be something we are told we are instead of being told we are in the process of becoming.
I guess if we could see each other the way that God sees us, we would all be at different stages. So we need to be patient with each other, long-suffering toward one another. Not trying to make the child act like an adult but realizing that they are on the way there and doing all we can to promote healthy development . We are meant to build each other up. I always felt I was spiritually “developmentally delayed”, if there is such a thing. This takes special handling and consideration and God has been faithful to do that for me. He doesn’t let me off the hook but he graces me every day, sometimes every moment !
You are right, Larry. If God can be patient with us by filling in the missing blanks so as to keep us together and with ourselves and Him, even if we are still slap full of disconnects, we can do the same -“cover” (forgive) each other’s sins – with each other. The only thing that matters is that we do not let go of God, ourselves or each other no matter what, for He promises to never let go of us; even flawed us. Let us operate in that forgiveness today!
The MOMENT we finally “put off” our natural selves, is the
moment Yeshua and the Father come to make their home
in us. (See Jn 14:23)
In that moment of high obedience, our lives make a huge
shift into a realm of empowerment that takes us quite a while
to actually realize is true. It’s His power!
Peter received this and wrote about it in 2 Pet 1:3-4.
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life
and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us
by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us
His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may
participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world
caused by evil desires.”
Today, we can watch His power grow us into His image!
I was curious about the word “flank”. So I looked it up on the web and it was speaking about military maneuvers. I haven’t given it a lot of thought this morning, just briefly, but I will put it into my thinking for later contemplation. It reminded me of Psalm 139:5. In a sense being surrounded by God so I have to move the only direction available to me. Similar I guess to the idea of his love constraining me. It has a sense of being uncomfortable. Molded. He is the potter and we are the clay. Maybe he doesn’t see our( or those of others) defects like we see them, but potential aspects of our transformed person, making us unique in Him. Like the song says “something beautiful, something good, all my confusion he understood. All I had to offer him was brokenness and strife but he made something beautiful of my life“.
I’m beginning to appreciate the firm yet loving hand of my father. Never having had that in my life before God and yet having the potential to appreciate it, even when he “flanks” me! The love of God is full of strength!
And, Larry, I think how we experience that “flanking” all depends on if we are resisting the will of our Father or not. Think of a small child who sees a pretty snake. If he does not know it is poisonous he might want to play with it. If so, he might struggle and pout when his father picks him up but if he does know how much it will hurt him, he will be grateful and feel safe.
Yes, Laurita, and thank you for your second comments. Helpful. I don’t think, though,as a child ( spiritually speaking ) that we realize how much God does this for us because were not aware of the dangers that are surrounding us. In our immaturity we may even think he’s being a killjoy. It’s probably not until later life that we are able to see the hand of God in his protection and direction…. to say nothing about his patience towards us! I picture the child having a temper tantrum when daddy picks them up and says no.
My continuous struggle is with habits and they always throw a wrench into my relationship with God. Struggling to see the bigger picture, that God does not focus on one little spot and disregard the rest. It’s that all or nothing type thinking. It’s also that being fixated on perfection. Thinking, “if I just get this licked I will be more useful to God“. Trying to trust Jesus in these areas is quite the challenge. At the same time I don’t want to make a mountain out of a mole hill, so to speak. Back-and-forth, back-and-forth!
As I was going to send this, the thought came to me, “what part does fear play in this, or does it? “.
Thanks Laurita for your first comments. Very helpful and in your shedding light on what we so often do by default. I think it is so ingrained in us to be involved in works and performance. Seems to be a lesson we need to have regularly. We are working in cooperation with Him,not separate or independent of him. Not doing something and then presenting it to him for his approval. We are already approved of God and it’s on the foundation that the building is built !
It’s amazing how important we are to each other. To be able to benefit from someone else’s journey! Members one of another. Shalom.
I eat with your fork, too, Larry. Keep it coming!
Technically, the verb teleióō here is a middle/passive, and one must decide by its context if it’s either middle or passive. Opinions go both ways, but I’m inclined to an understanding as the middle. The middle voice is a bit hard to explain, but it essentially means rather than something solely being done to the subject (passive), the subject also has some (usually equal) input. Hence, I’m inclined to agree with the NASB’s choice of “is” over “has been” in this case.
Moreover, in a general sense, sometimes the Greek perfect tense-form can be rendered as an English present perfect of “be” + past participle (“has been perfected/completed/finished”), other times it is best translated as a present of “be” + past participle (“is perfected/completed/finished”) to indicate that a state has been reached. The distinction is that on the latter interpretation the state continues (has been and yet continues, is), and it’s the continuing state that is to be understood as most important. This can be likened to Matthew 4:7’s “it is written” (not “it has been written”)—certainly Scripture has been written, but the emphasis is on the state of its ‘written-ness’, rather than the fact of its original writing.
The delineation between using the Greek perfect tense-form as an English present perfect of “be” (has/have been) + past participle in translation as opposed to rendering as a continuing state is probably best seen in Pilate’s response to the Jews who pleaded with him to change the inscription over Jesus. Here two perfect active indicatives (the same as the subject of this TW except active voice over against middle/passive voice) are right in a row: ho gegrapha gegrapha, What I have written is written. Most translations just repeat the verb “What I have written, I have written”, but the sense is more likely, IMO, a defiant What I have written IS [stands] written (-‘and I ain’t gonna change it’). While person/number is encoded and thus implied in every finite verb, it isn’t necessary to translate the implied subject in many cases; in other words, in this case translating the subject “I” in the first instance of the verb while leaving it out in the second seems right. Thus, the first usage of the verb is rendered as an English present perfect (“have written”), understood as a past action with then-present results; in contrast, the second verb should be rendered as an English present of “be” + past particle (“is written”).
Craig, do you mean that sanctification is where we are returned to our original design of working WITH God instead of without Him or for Him or waiting on Him to do it all or thinking it doesn’t actually need doing (major doctrinal positions, all)?
Trust and obey, for there’s no better way.
Many appear to get tripped up on just what sanctification is. It’s not “I’m in, so I can coast till death and let God do all the work”. But, on the other hand, works do not justify nor sanctify in and of themselves. Works are the evidence of faith, as James says (“faith without works is dead”), not the way in. I’m no Luther-ite, but I think that while he initially misunderstood James’ point–thinking that James was propounding that works justified and sanctified the individual–and I think Luther may have comprehended it upon further reflection. But, I’m not in Luther’s head.
See my comment below regarding 1 John 2:5 and its relation to 4:18 here.
If I think of your words in real time I’d ask myself, If I believe something but do not act would my mind renew in any way? I must hear and do or I deceive myself or at best forget what I looked like/saw in the mirror I.e no change. Doesn’t tangible deliverance require belief in heart and speaking (confession) to be aligned. Who wants to hear the words I love you but the consistent actions are contrary to the words. Can two walk together unless they agree? There must be a manifestation of what I claim to believe or else it’s a form of wishful thinking ?
You are so right, Cloud9: real lovers aren’t any more fooled by words without follow through than they are by someone ‘going through the motions’ while their heart (trust) is actually somewhere else. Both parties want to gain without input. It takes both heart and hand – soul/mind and body – to engage life, which is why we must seek healing (forgiveness) in our whole being so as to be free/empowered to love.
I’m not exactly sure your point, but it seems to me that you may not understand the point I was making. See my first paragraph @ February 21, 2019 10:32 am, then read my comment @ February 21, 2019 10:40 am, and see what 1 John 2:5-6 states.
While there are some in Christianity who promote ‘faith vs. works’, that’s a false dichotomy. Faith must precede works, but works must follow, as these are the evidence of putting faith into practice. It’s a matter of living life ‘by the Spirit’, as opposed to by the flesh (Gal 5:16-26). If one exhibits no ‘fruit’, then it must be questioned if this one is truly justified in the first place.
If this is to me Craig my point was in agreement with you. I understood your point. I wasn’t correcting anything, I was simply sharing my own triggered thoughts. So my point is what “I think” triggered by what you shared. No theological debates here
Sometimes the written word is both hard to convey and interpret. Sorry for my misinterpretation.
The sentence highlighted in this TW should be compared to 1 John 2:5, which has the same verb in the same tense-form (perfect middle/passive indicative).
One technical handbook I have renders this “The one who fears has not reached the goal in the manner of love”–very close to Skip’s rendering.
I love this group!