Scriptural Sanctification - Media Sabda Org

We have purposely omitted many passages of Scripture usually quoted in the discussion of this
subject because they do not bear directly on the instantaneousness of this work. We will, however,
call attention to one. We confess to no small degree of surprise at the construction some writers put
on the "perfect love" spoken of in I John iv. 18. Dr. Mudge insists that the apostle here refers to
God's love to us -- "divine" love -- which he says is always perfect. We might well ask then how the
apostle can say, "Herein is our love made perfect." Is God's love ever "made perfect? And can we
with propriety call that "our love"? And the love which the apostle speaks of once had "fear" mixed
with it. Can "fear" be affirmed of God's love to us in any of its degrees? It really looks as if Dr.
Mudge here has more regard for his theory that "no one can be made perfect in love in this life" -free
from spiritual depravity -- than he has to the plain teaching of the apostle.
Dr. Whitehead, of Virginia, in a paper noticed more fully in another chapter, seems to take nearly
the same view, differing, however, somewhat from Dr. Mudge. He says: "The few passages in the
First Epistle of John in which 'perfect love' is found bear without forcing only the meaning of
sincere, genuine, real love, 'love in deed and in truth,' love free from slavish fear, which is simply
that 'love of God' which is 'shed abroad in the heart' of true believers 'by the Holy Spirit which is
given unto them.' (Rom. v. 5.)"
Dr. Whitehead here teaches (1) that this "perfect" love is simply "sincere, genuine, real," human
love, that is "free from slavish fear." We might ask if all love to God is not "sincere, genuine, and
real," whether "free from fear" or not? And does not St. John teach that there is such love -- love that
has not been made perfect or free from fear, though "sincere and real"? But (2) Dr. Whitehead seems,
like Dr. Mudge, to teach that it is "divine" love that St. John is writing about; for he says that it "is
the love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." It is
certainly God's love to us and not ours to him that is "shed abroad in our hearts," and which is always
"perfect," does not need to be "made perfect;" or "free from slavish fear." It is true that this love may
give birth to our love to God, which, although "sincere," is not always "perfect" or "free from fear."
We much prefer bishop Granbery's interpretation of St. John to that of either Dr. Mudge or Dr.
Whitehead. In reviewing the former's book, the bishop says:
"We must differ also with the author in his interpretation of 'perfect' as meaning 'divine' in I John
iv. 18 ... Perfect means complete, finished, every part present and sound, and all the parts rightly
adjusted. There is no reason for emptying it of its meaning by making 'love' and 'perfect love'
synonymous, or straining the sense by substituting 'divine' as its equivalent."
Again says the bishop:
"Love in the regenerate is the same as in the wholly sanctified, but in the one case it is more or
less mixed with selfishness; in the other it is entirely free from selfishness: they differ in the degree
of purity. Perfection in purity, in the exclusion of every alien, antagonistic principle, may be attained,
but not such perfection in degree as to exclude possibility of increase. The virtues, though perfect,
will still be finite. 'There is no fear in love,' but fear may linger in a loving heart."