July 24, 2019 -- I John 4:17-18 -- Perfect love drives out fear
/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. 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.
I John 4 English Standard Version
Perfect love casts out fear. There are enough things I fear. There are so many diversions I meander along rather than face these fears. The promise of the Bible is that perfect love casts out fear. The problem is that I don’t have perfect love. My love ebbs and flows, rises and falls and sometimes seems so thin. How can such love drive out fear? It can’t.
Perfect love refers to the love of God. Consider this translation of I John 4, it is Eugene Petersen’s translation:
17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
I John 4 The Message
Recently Carolyn and I moved to Moncton. There is a river running through the downtown—the Petitcodiac River. It has a tide—every six hours and twenty five minutes the tide rushes in and the river begins filling and swelling and when it reaches its peak, the river begins draining—going out with the tide—for six hours and twenty-five minutes it rushes out. And then the whole process begins again. For this Ontario boy, it is quite a sight. I am unaccustomed to a river with a tide! But the illustration is great. I feel there are times the tide pulls in and the waters of love rush in and displace fear. But all too often, with too much regularity, it feels like the courage that accompanies love is just draining out of me. This illustration is not what I John 4 is picturing. Look again at the passage—especially the Message translation.
God moves in. He takes up residence in the heart of the believer. His presence displaces fear. His grandeur and the weight of glory fills my thoughts and heart so that what is said earlier in this very same chapter is true: ‘for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” God is greater than my fears. God’s love is perfect and it is being perfected in me.
Here I am preaching to my own soul this morning. When fear seems to have overtaken me, or fear seems to be all I see, then the Word of God reminds me—Jesus has taken up residence in my heart. Jesus, Who endured the cross, the punishment of God against my sin, that same Jesus lives in my heart and He brings His perfect love to me and as my love waxes or wanes, the flow of His love fills me up in every part. The love of Jesus Christ is taking up residence in every part of my life. When I allow myself to give in to fear, what I am doing is opening the small storage space of unbelief, the places where I keep the dilapidated trophies of my old life and every time these disappoint. Just as they did at first so they continue to do now, they fail me. Only the love of Jesus, perfect and relentless, drives out fear.
Read the Bible. Get re-acquainted, o my soul, with the grandeur of God. Think on His splendour and power.
Look at creation—God the Creator, never tires of calling out the sun to shine and at night giving the moon and the stars in their courses. For the last five thousand seven hundred and seventy plus years He has never tired of giving orders to the sun to rise and set. He never wearies of commanding sun rises and sun sets, or delighting in the ordering of the constellations. Know this, fearful heart, this same Majestic God of Power will never tire of directing His love into every part of my being.
Consider the cross, oh fearful and fickle mind, look—Jesus’ perfect love for His Father and great obedience unmanned the devil and disarmed all his fiery barbs. Jesus’ love is perfect and it is His love that is filling me and displacing my fear.
Father of all mercy, thank You for Your patient, steadfast love for a fickle and floundering Christian such as I am. Jesus, thank You for Your perfect love, which drives out all fear. I confess this morning that is not my experience of Your love: perfect and driving out all my fear; however that is the promise of Your Word. Your Spirit verifies as true all that the Bible teaches. So, Spirit of God, remind me over and over again of the royal resident, Jesus, Who lives in me. Spirit of God let the truth of the Word drive out any and all fear. Spirit of God clear out all the go-to-cupboards of my heart where fear would still linger within me. Spirit of God, Who ever points me to Jesus, in my heart, in my words, in my life, let King Jesus, be glorified to the praise of the Father in heaven. Amen.
