Book of 1 John Chapter 2 Vs. 5

 Christ Our Advocate

1 John 2:5 “But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.”

Keepeth His word (τηρῇ αὐτοῦ τὸν λόγον)

Note the changed phrase: word for commandments. The word is the revelation regarded as a whole, which includes all the separate commandments or injunctions. See the use of λόγος word, and ἐντολή precept, in John 14:21-24.

of God perfected... Is in the perfect tense. John refers to the decisive and enduring effect of the indwelling love of God. But the test of knowing God’s love is keeping His Word.

is the love of God perfected (ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ τετελείωται)

Rev., rendering the perfect tense more closely, hath the love of God been perfected. The change in the form of this antithetic clause is striking. He who claims to know God, yet lives in disobedience, is a liar. We should expect as an offset to this: He that keepeth His commandments is of the truth; or, the truth is in him. Instead we have, In him has the love of God been perfected. In other words, the obedient child of God is characterized, not by any representative trait or quality of his own personality, but merely as the subject of the work of divine love: as the sphere in which that love accomplishes its perfect work.

The phrase ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ the love of God, may mean either the love which God shows, or the love of which God is the object, or the love which is characteristic of God whether manifested by Himself or by His obedient child through His Spirit. John's usage is not decisive like Paul's, according to which the love of God habitually means the love which proceeds from and is manifested by God. The exact phrase, the love of God or the love of the Father is found in 1Jhn. 3:16; 4:9, in the undoubted sense of the love of God to men. The same sense is intended in 1Jhn. 3:1, 3:9, 3:16, though differently expressed. The sense is doubtful in 1Jhn. 2:5; 3:17; 4:12. Men's love to God is clearly meant in 1Jhn. 2:15; 5:3. The phrase occurs only twice in the Gospels (Luke 6:42; John 5:42), and in both cases the sense is doubtful. Some, as Ebrard, combine the two, and explain the love of God as the mutual relation of love between God and men.

It is not possible to settle the point decisively, but I incline to the view that the fundamental idea of the love of God as expounded by John is the love which God has made known and which answers to His nature. In favor of this is the general usage of ἀγάπη love, in the New Testament, with the subjective genitive. The object is more commonly expressed by εἰς towards, or to. See 1Thes. 3:12; Col. 1:4; 1Pet. 4:8. Still stronger is John's treatment of the subject in chapter 4. Here we have, 1Jhn. 4:9, the manifestation of the love of God in us ἐν ἡμῖν by our life in Christ and our love to God we are a manifestation of God's love. Directly following this is a definition of the essential nature of love. In this is love, i.e., herein consists of love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us (1Jhn. 4:10). Our mutual love is a proof that God dwells in us. God dwelling in us, His love is perfected in us (1Jhn. 4:12). The latter clause, it would seem, must be explained according to 1Jhn. 4:10. Then (1Jhn. 4:16), We have known and believed the love that God hath in us (see on John 16:22, on the phrase have love. God is love; that is His nature, and He imparts this nature to be the sphere in which His children dwell. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God. Finally, our love is engendered by His love to us. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1Jhn. 4:19).

In harmony with this is John 15:9. “As the Father loved me, I also loved you. Continue ye in my love.” My love must be explained by I loved you. This is the same idea of divine love as the sphere or element of renewed being; and this idea is placed, as in the passage we are considering, in direct connection with the keeping of the divine commandments. If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love.

This interpretation does not exclude man's love to God. On the contrary, it includes it. The love which God has, is revealed as the love of God in the love of His children towards Him, no less than in His manifestations of love to them. The idea of divine love is thus complex. Love, in its very essence, is reciprocal. Its perfect ideal requires two parties. It is not enough to tell us, as a bare, abstract truth, that God is love. The truth must be rounded and filled out for us by the appreciable exertion of divine love upon an object, and by the response of the object. The love of God is perfected or completed by the perfect establishment of the relation of love between God and man. When man loves perfectly, his love is the love of God shed abroad in his heart. His love owes both its origin and its nature to the love of God.

The word verily ἀληθῶς is never used by John as a mere formula of affirmation, but has the meaning of a qualitative adverb, expressing not merely the actual existence of a thing, but its existence in a manner most absolutely corresponding to ἀλήθεια truth. Compare John 1:48; 8:31. Hath been perfected. John is presenting the ideal of life in God. This is the love of God that we keep His commandments. Therefore whosoever keepeth God's word, His message in its entirety, realizes the perfect relation of love.

Is the Word of God the most important thing you have? When you really love, it is the desire of your heart to please the one you love. To perfect the Love of God within yourself is to be completely sold out to Him.

we are in Him... And He in us, if His love is perfected in us. All through the Bible, there are blessings, if we are obedient to God, and curses, if we are not. This is no exception to that.

We are in Him.

The love of the Father (ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ πατρὸς)

The phrase occurs only here in the New Testament. It means love towards the Father, yet as generated by the Father's love to man. Compare 1Jhn. 3:1. See on love of God, 1Jhn. 2:5. Compare Act. 17:28.

On the other hand, obedience to God’s Word His commands, 1Jhn. 2:3) results in a rich and full experience of God’s love: God’s love is truly made complete in him. The Greek expression the love of God (rendered God’s love) could mean either His love for a Christian or a Christian’s love for God. But the NIV rendering is perhaps the best, particularly in light of John 14:21-23. In that passage an obedient disciple is promised a special experience of the love of the Father and Son. Since a Christian is already the object of God’s saving love, this additional, experiential realization of the divine affection may be properly said to make God’s love complete in him (cf. 1Jhn. 4:12, 4:17). That is to say, an obedient believer has a deep, full-orbed acquaintance with God’s love. Since God is love (1Jhn. 4:16), to know God intimately is to know His love intimately.

John then added, this is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. (The translators have supplied the word “Jesus” which is represented in the original by a pronoun.) In these statements, John used two other expressions (in Him and live in Him) which further his thought. As with the connection he makes between obedience and the knowledge of God, here too the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-16) is the seed-plot from which these ideas come. The concept involved is derived especially from the Parable of the Vine and the Branches (John 15:1-8). The vine-branch relationship is an image of the discipleship experience. Jesus said, “This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples” (John 15:8). In 1Jhn. 2:5-6 discipleship is also in view, as is seen from the reference to the imitation of Christ in 1Jhn. 2:6. Moreover, the Greek term rendered in the NIV by live menō is the same verb used in John 15:4 where the NIV translates it remain.