NOTES for Jo1 4:20-21

Here John links love for God and love for neighbor into one whole. This link was rooted in the Torah, and it was well known to the rabbinic tradition of the Gospel era. But John considers it in the context of the new, Christian revelation. For him, love is not merely a relationship between people, as it was in pre-Christian times; for him it is inseparable from the very nature of the Kingdom.

Previously, love, like its opposite, hatred, was above all a relationship connecting people with one another, just as hatred was a relationship that separated people. The environment within which relationships were built remained natural, chiefly psychological. Moreover, it was the nature of the fallen world, at whose foundation lay natural energy that did not so much reveal God to the human person as conceal Him. Love as a spiritual reality could not help coming into conflict with such a God-concealing nature, and therefore love in the fallen world could not reveal itself in all its fullness. Where it could not penetrate, room remained for fallen nature with all its manifestations, including the fears proper to the psyche of fallen humanity, not always conscious, but always real and always hindering a person from living a full spiritual life.

The Kingdom is different. Here natural energy is replaced by the energy of God's love. It is like natural energy in that it gives the possibility of being to all existing forms and manifestations of natural life. But, unlike the natural energy of the fallen world, the energy of God's love does not hide God; on the contrary, it reveals Him, His will, and His presence.

Such an environment fully corresponds to relationships of love between people: spirit and nature are brought into complete harmony. Love can now reveal itself in all its fullness: in the Kingdom, unlike in the untransformed world, nothing hinders it. Therefore complete deliverance from fear is possible here, for the former psychological nature gives way to a new one that is fully obedient to the human will. Love is manifested in fullness, and there is no room left for fears in the human soul. This is the Christian life to which John and the other apostles bore witness.