“As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in 
me. The one who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit…” (John 15:4-5). God in Christ, Christ in us, we in God through Christ: that is what makes it possible for us to love as Jesus loves, and that is the content of Jesus’ prayer for us (see John 17:21-23).
Mutual abiding is quite prominent in 1 John 4. The Apostle mentions it three times in four verses, each with a different emphasis. “We know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of his own Spirit” (v. 13). “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God” (v. 15). “God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (v. 16).
We move here from the Spirit to Jesus to the Father. St Irenaeus wrote: “The Spirit comes and lays hold of you and gives you to the Son, and the Son gives you to the Father.” Abiding in God begins with God’s Gift of the Holy Spirit. We can’t abide in God merely by our own effort or will or desire. God has to take the initiative, to give the Gift. Only then can we freely choose to accept the Gift and respond with gratitude and love. Part of our response is our confession of faith. To believe and profess the divinity of Jesus Christ is a sign that the Spirit has been given and received, that the mutual abiding is a reality. The choicest fruit of the Spirit and of the profession of the true faith is love. To live in love, rightly understood, is to live in God. Put another way, to live in God’s love is truly to live in love.
(Verse 15 must be dear to all who pray the Jesus Prayer, for every time we utter the prayer, we are confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. This is one more reason why the practice of the Jesus Prayer enables us to live in God and God in us.)
St John next adds an eschatological element to his reflection. Love is perfected in us through the mutual abiding, but for what purpose? “So that we may have confidence for the day of judgment” (v. 17). Our loving relationship with God and each other is meant to last forever; it is not just for this short earthly life. So it is of great importance that we are prepared for the great and final Day of Judgment. The Apostle knows that the prospect of divine judgment, especially if we are conscious of our sins, can be quite a fearful one indeed. Again, love comes to the rescue, for he hastens to add: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love” (v. 18).
I’ve written about fear before, yet much more needs to be written. Fear is one of the greatest enemies of spiritual life, precisely because “there is no fear in love.” Love is the sine qua non of our abiding in God and God in us. The “fear that has to do with punishment” is not the same as what is known in the Bible as “fear of God.” To “fear God” in the biblical sense is to stand in awe before his holiness and his will, and to be determined to carry out faithfully his commandments, for God’s righteousness is incontestable and his universal triumph assured—and it is consummate wisdom to know on whose side one ought to be! But fear, as it is commonly understood and experienced, especially as a paralyzing and damaging psychological/emotional state, is certainly “not in love” and hence should have no place in our relationship with God. To be afraid of God is to manifest imperfect love of God, if in fact it manifests love at all. To love God, and to know deeply that God loves us, is to be freed from fear, for then we can “reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts…” (1 John 3:19-20).
Verse nineteen of 1 John 4 should put to rest all our fears. “We love,” John writes, “because [God] first loved us.” Nothing has to be forced or contrived; God doesn’t have to be cajoled or harangued; He cannot be manipulated or bought. Here is the Good News: God already loves us! He loved us first! He has already prepared unimaginable joys for those who choose to love Him back! The very possibility of our loving at all derives from God’s “loving us first.” God is love, and if we abide in God, we will be abiding in love. And as we abide in love, we will do his will, having confidence for the day of judgment, for love casts out fear.
Lest we think that our whole life consists of “me and God” blissfully loving each other, let us look at how St John closes this chapter: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also” (vv. 20-21). This makes it clear that “abiding in love” means not only loving and being loved by God, but loving our brothers and sisters as well.
Aye, there’s the rub! I’ve been tempted at times to respond to this passage by saying that it is precisely because I can see my brother that it’s hard to love him! But the point is that there has to be some practical application of love if it is to be manifested as the genuine article and not just some vague notion of virtue, disconnected from reality. There are already too many pious liars around. The test of our love for God is whether or not we love those whom He loves, which happens to be everyone. To love as Jesus loves is not an ideal but a commandment, and the presence of God within us makes it possible—and not only possible, but desirable as well.
We have come to the end of 1 John 4, but I hope we are just coming to the beginning of a deeper understanding of our life in Christ and of God’s love for us. I hope we are also coming to a firmer commitment to love one another, for love is of God, and the one who abides in love abides in God. I’ve repeated that a number of times here, intentionally. We have to see it, hear it, say it, over and over, so that we will finally do it habitually and joyfully. There is a tradition about St John that as he was nearing death, his teaching to his disciples was reduced to three words: “Love one another.” When they asked him to leave them with more teachings, he would only repeat: “Love one another.” That’s because he knew, and lived, a very profound and precious truth, one that is at the very heart of true Christianity: God is Love.
