Perfect Love/No Fear

“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.  We love Him, because He first loved us.”  I John 4:18-19

If we love like Christ, our love is complete.  It meets the standard of which God has ordained for His children.  If our love has fulfilled that standard, that is, a self-sacrificial love for all people, a love so deep that we desire that every person repent and receive Christ, for that would be the best thing that could happen to them, then we can be bold and confident when we stand before Christ who will judge our works as children of God.  Believers are conformed to be the image of Christ (Romans 8:29) and not conformed to the world (Romans 12:2).  If we are living like Jesus in our world, then we have nothing of which to be ashamed or to regret at the end of our life.  Hopefully, He will say to us, “Well done, thou good and faithful servants” (Matthew 25:21).  If non-Christians could only know the joy and peace that comes from living for Christ, they might just give the way that they are living some serious consideration.  If you think about it, there are those whom we know who have not surrendered to Christ, and what they know about living the Christian life is what they see in us.  Something for us to consider.

John wrote that “there is no fear in love”.  Fear can either be a deep sense of dread or of being afraid of something.  Being afraid is how “fear” is meant in John’s statement.  This kind of fear when applied to one’s relationship with Almighty God usually stems from feelings of guilt.  God is feared as a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29; Deuteronomy 4:24) just waiting to strike down a sinner.  The term “fear” as used here is translated from the Greek “phobos” from which we get the term “phobia”, an excessive or irrational fear.  When we love God with all of our heart, we don’t have this fear or phobia, because we know that God loves us, and we are assured of His love.  Therefore, we don’t have to be fearful that He will condemn us or crush us with His great power and might.

On the other hand, people who don’t love God, even though He loves them, should be fearful of paying the price for their sin.  But these days, many sinners do not fear God.  They do not see Him as the sovereign and righteous Lord of all heaven and earth to whom they will be held accountable.  They do not respect Him nor stand in awe of Him.  Those who are afraid of God, both believers and unbelievers, live in torment, just waiting for the ground to open up and swallow them (see Numbers 16:1-35) or to be struck by lightning from heaven.  That’s no way to live.  Believers who live this way have a love for God that is far from perfect.  They have doubts and questions concerning God’s love for them, fearful of losing their salvation, or of receiving a harsh judgment for some sin they have committed.

We are accountable to confess sin, but God will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness (I John 1:9) when we repent.  God is, first of all, the sovereign, righteous, and holy God of all creation, but He is also a Father who loves His children and only wants the best for them which sometimes requires correction in order to put His children back on the right track when they wander off.  (I worked with a lady who said that she and her husband loved their son too much to discipline him.  I didn’t have children at the time, but I knew that wasn’t right.  I can only imagine how he might have turned out.)  God’s love is perfect, His parenting skills are perfect, and His mercy is perfect.  We know that He won’t put more on us than we can bear, thus, we can trust Him and not be afraid of Him.

We aren’t the ones who sought God.  There is nothing about sinners that would cause God to love us, except that He does.  We don’t deserve His love.  The chief aim of sinful man is to be the opposite of what God intended for His creation.  He loved us long before we were born on this earth.  He knew we would sin, but He allowed us to become a citizen of His earth anyway.  Because of His love for His creation, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to take the penalty for our sin upon Himself.  With that kind of love, how could we not love him?

I have written this several times, but I will write it once more.  My definition for what it means to “fear” God is to recognize Him as the sovereign Lord over the entire universe, and to know that He can do whatever He desires, whenever He desires, to whomever He desires, and be perfectly justified in doing so.  We don’t know what the next few years hold for us and for our nation.  It could go either way–further falling into sin, perversion, and away from God or perhaps a little more time to escape God’s judgment and see a revival of people turning to the Lord before the final last days come upon the world.  It is all in God’s hands.  No matter which way our nation turns, God will use it to further His kingdom.  I know that God says what He means, and means what He says, and no one can thwart His plans and purposes.  The best thing that believers can do is to stay prayed up as we look for Jesus’ return because it could be sooner rather than later.