To Encourage You

1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”

The verse above talks about “perfect love.”  Understanding this concept is such a critical thing, for it is the antidote to fear, and who wants that, although we all experience it from time to time.  So, what does this mean – perfect love?  Well, the word translated from the Greek to the English word “perfect” means “complete,” or “brought to its end.”  You see, love is a two-way street.  Someone can give love, but if that love is never received, it’s not a completed thing.  Love between two persons involves a response.  That’s how love becomes complete, in a sense, in that only as love is given, received, and responded to does it become all that it was meant to be.

First and foremost, the love that John is talking about is the love of Christ.  Throughout the gospel that John wrote he refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” He was totally enthralled by the notion that the God Who created the universe loved him personally.  It was John that transcribed Jesus’ words that “God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16), as well as these: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).  Surely then, in the love of God there is no deficit, incompleteness, or imperfection in any way, for “God is Love (1 John 4:8).”  And Jesus gave His all for us on the cross, which was the greatest act of love ever demonstrated by anyone in the history of the world. 

So then, what about those on the receiving end of that love? What about us?  Listen to these words, again from John: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).  As one of my friends has often said, “our love isn’t very good.”  That is so true.  The perfect love to which John referred in the verse above surely isn’t our love.  Rather, it is God’s love.  But for that awesome love to be made complete, it must be received by us.  We must believe that God actually does love us, and if we believe this, if we put our faith in it, then our response to that love will be obedience.  Jesus told us this with these words “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).  He also said this: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46). 

So how does this all “cast out fear” you might ask?  Well, if we actually believe that the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Creator of both the heavens and the earth loves us, what have we to ever fear?  If we won’t do what He has asked us to do, like “preach the gospel to every creature,” because we are afraid of what might happen to us if we do, we are not demonstrating belief in the love that God has demonstrated toward us. If we fear anything at all, even for a moment, we are demonstrating doubt in the love that the one Who holds the whole world in His hands has toward us.  Such “love” is not perfect.  If we are believers in Christ, we have the love of a Father in heaven who loves us exactly the way He loves His only begotten Son.  Jesus never feared anything. He demonstrated magnificent courage in the shadow of the cross.  And He would have us to share in that confidence as He has told us such things as this: “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him” (John 14:21). 

What an awesome thing this is.  What an awesome treasure is the love of God.  Paul knew this and learned to have supreme confidence in that truth.  You see, Paul, the one who had persecuted the church and in so doing had persecuted Christ Himself, was nevertheless shown mercy and forgiven of it all, because of the magnificent love of Christ.  And as Paul reflected on this, he could say in wonder: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, o nakedness, or danger, or sword?As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39). 

So is that what you believe, because it’s absolutely true if you know Christ? May God help us to receive the wonderful love of God toward us.  It’s His desire. Might it be ours as well.  It’s an awesome thing. It’s an infinite thing, and it’s an eternal thing.  How wonderful is a love like that?