By This...

1 Jn. 4: 17

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world. 

Verse 13 begins with the same by this construction as is in verse 17. In verse 13 it refers to the fact that the love of God was manifested to us in Him sending His Son into that world to be the propitiation for our sin so that through Him we might live. Then the passage says, If we love one another, God's love abides in us and His love is perfected in us. So By this we know that we abide in Him and He is us, because He has given us of His Spirit. Loving each other is evidence of His love in us as is His Spirit living within us. 

Moving on through the passage, the verses that precede verse 17 say that if we confess Jesus as Son of God, then God abides in us and we abide in Him. Through this we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. So if we abide in love, we abide in God. By this abiding, His love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love because fear has to do with punishment, and our punishment was taken away by Jesus. He took it for us!  His great love has not only filled us, saved us, and impacted the way that we love others, but it has also taken away our punishment at the day of judgment. 

Father,

Thank You so much for Your great love for me, for sending Jesus as my propitiation, and for taking away my punishment. Help me to love as You would love. 

In His name,

Amen