The Apostle then characterizes the habitual temper of mind, which exists where this abiding in the love of God has reached its maturity. "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness [joyfulness] in the day of judgment; because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth, is not made perfect in love." This fellowship of life with God has for its fruit, a confidence in him, undisturbed by fear. By the word which Luther here translates "joyfulness" is indicated such a relation to another, as allows us to walk with him in free familiar converse, to tell him without reserve all that is in our hearts, to turn to him in all our concerns with perfect confidence. Such a state of joyful assured confidence, disturbed by no fear no apprehension, in which under all circumstances and necessities we turn to God, is the one here indicated. Particularly is excluded fear in view of a future judgment of the holy God, before whom no sin can find allowance. To him who stands in this relation to God, the day of judgment is indeed ever present; and it is no false or light-minded security by which he is raised above it. But that final decision has for him no such terrors, as for those who have in God a stern judge to fear; who feel themselves estranged from him by sin, and are therefore conscious of the wrath of God. He looks towards that day with joyful confidence, for he knows that he has no judgment to fear; that through the love of God revealed to him in Christ, of which he has the assurance in his inner being, he is exempt from judgment. True, he is conscious of still inhering sin. He has a sharper eye to detect its presence, than those who have made less advancement in the development of the christian life. But even sin has for him lost its sting. He knows that God has forgiven him; and as he feels and knows himself to be united through love with the God who is love, he is certain also that this still inhering sin can no longer separate him from God; and that God, through the Spirit which he has given him, will purify him more and more, will carry on the begun work to its completion. It is not the believer's own worthiness, or perfectness, which John regards as the ground of this confidence. Were that the foundation of his trust, it would rest on a very frail support, soon betraying its worthessness under the temptations and conflicts of the earthly life. It has an immovable foundation, -- the revelation of the love of God in Christ, through which the believer knows himself to be one with Christ. Christ is indeed in heaven, and the believer still belongs outwardly to earth. Yet, through his oneness with Christ, who is to him as present as if still living on earth, he is conscious that he stands in the same relation to God as Christ himself; that, belonging to Christ as a member of his body, he can no more be separated from God than Christ himself; that in him he has become the object of divine love, divine complacency. And thus, in Christ's relation to God, he has the pledge of his own. This is the immovable ground of his confidence.

The Apostle here contrasts two religious states. The one is this fellowship of love, of sonship to God which has its root in Christ; when as a child of God, mall is conscious of holding the same relation to him, which Christ as Son bears to the Father. In the other, God is viewed as the stern judge, the object of fear; the apprehension of divine punishment weighs down the spirit. So elsewhere in the New Testament, the filial relation to God and the slavish relation are contrasted with each other. It is true, indeed, that where this fellowship of love has already commenced, doubts and apprehensions, arising from the former slavish relation, may still mingle in it their disturbing influence. But the Apostle points out a stage of the christian life so high, where love has so gained the preponderance, that fear is wholly banished. No terrors of impending punishment disturb the joyful confidence in God. He would, indeed, by no means banish that holy awe, which impels him who lives in the consciousness of still inhering sin, to watch continually over himself, to shun everything which might mar his fellowship with God. He will be led to do this, by the power of that very love in which his life has its root; and in this there is no "torment," at that high stage of the christian life, where all is possible to Love.