English Lesson

 

I was reading my Bible Saturday evening, and I was intrigued by two verses in I John.  Well, actually, I was not as intrigued as I was excited.  So, as I read these two verses, my English major in college perked up.  There are two types of verbs: transitive and intransitive.  Transitive verbs “transfer” the action of the subject to an object.  Like, “John hit the ball.”  John is the subject and ball is the object.  The action started by John is transferred to the ball.  Now, don’t stop reading just because I’m getting technical on you, because I’m going somewhere with this English lesson, and eventually, you will be excited too.  Trust me.  I John 4:18 says, “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.”  In this verse the word love is used as a noun (not as a verb) three times and the word fear is used four times, three times as a noun and once as a verb (actually feareth).  In this verse, love doesn’t have an object because love IS the object.  The old apostle John is telling us to love … not to love something, but just to love.  And fear is the antithesis of love.  John says to love and not to fear.  Actually, love and fear are mutually exclusive.  This is exciting: If you love, you can’t fear; and if you fear, you can’t love.  But then John goes on in verse 19 to say, “We love him, because he first loved us.”  And in this verse, the word love is a transitive verb.  Both times!  The action of the subject is transferred to the object.  How wonderful!  We love God because God first loved us!  What a complete circle!  The love of God is lavished upon us, and we just can’t help but love God right back because He is so wonderful!  See, an English lesson can be wonderful … but not as wonderful as the love of God.