“Christian Love’s Crowning Touch: Loving One Another” (1 John 4:12, Greek & Latin)

Interestingly, during last Sunday’s worship service, I found the Greek and the Latin complementing each other quite well as I observed the Greek and Latin (side-by-side) text of 1 John 4:12b. In the context of the entire verse, Christians, obligated by the love that God has shown to us in Christ, are told that “if we should love one another, God’s love has been fulfilled/made perfect (τελειόω) in us.” The Latin Vulgate closely parallels the Greek here, using a verbal form (consummata est) from which one can easily recognize the roots of our English word “consummation.” Among the lexical Latin definitions of the root word (including: "add/reckon/total/sum/make up; finish off, end; bring about, achieve/accomplish; bring to perfection; be grown)" is to “put the finishing/crowning touch.” Broken down even further, the student of Latin (or English) can readily spot the basis for the English word “summit” within this Latin word. So, like water increasingly poured into a previously empty glass, or as one standing upon a mountain’s “summit,” God’s love is “fulfilled,” in us, matured to the “crowning touch” when we love one another in Christ.