How does Perfect Love Cast Out Fear?
There is not fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).
Today we conclude this 4-part series on the fear of God (Check out https://blog.ficm.org/blog to read the prior 3 devotionals!). God intends for us to live in a way and in relationship with Him that does not include fear. As Adam and Eve show in the garden, fear is not what we were created for. Instead, it is a part of the fall. 1 John 4:18 indicates we can overcome the results of the fall in our own lives as we learn to live in perfect love and therefore without fear. But how does this occur? What is the path to removal of fear?
During the many years that we were parenting, we eventually settled on just four principles by which we disciplined our children. These were:
If it is lying,
If it is rebellion,
If it is being disrespectful, or
Doing something that would bring them or someone else harm.
We communicated these four simple principles with them, and we evaluated what they did in the light of these simple principles. There we some difficult calls, such as, “I really hate when you do that. But you know what? It is not one of the four.” Having these principles generated a safe and comfortable space for our children to exercise their creativity.
As we read through 1 John 4:13-17, it appears that God shows us the path to a safe and secure place for us to operate. Here are the principles he discusses:
We have the Holy Spirit God gave us. Because we have the Holy Spirit, we can know that we abide in God (1 John 4:13). And “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God (1 John 4:15).”
Abiding in God leads us to understand that God loves us. “So, we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us (1 John 4:16a).”
God’s character is love. It is basic to God’s nature. Those who come into contact with God’s nature start to radiate love themselves. As John says, “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him (1 John 4:16b).”
As we live in the presence of God’s love and abide in him, our love is perfected. “By this (abiding in God and he in us) 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 the world (1 John 4:117).”.” We emanate God’s loving character because we abide in Him and His love shines out from us.
The sum of this is, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear...(1 John 4:18a).” Why? Because, “fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love (1 John 4:18).” So, as we abide and become more complete in the love God gave us and gives us, we move away from fear.
There is another element. As with our children, abiding in a safe place is a result of abandoning what takes us outside the boundaries for which we were designed. Living outside the boundary is one of the basic definitions of sin. We abide in God when we learn to live within the boundaries He has set and so according to God’s design for us.
How does this work in practice? If we assume that The Steps to Freedom outline the seven categories of sin, these seven steps outline the key boundaries within which we find “freedom” and abide in God’s love.
So, then removing fear is a result of abiding and experiencing God’s love and
Abandoning occult practices (Step 1)
Believing truth rather than lies (Step 2)
Moving forward with complete forgiveness (Step 3)
Rejecting rebellion (Step 4)
Abandoning pride (Step 5)
Breaking the ties to lust in all its forms (Step 6)
And abandoning the sin patterns we inherited from our forefathers (Step 7)
Perfect love is perfected in us over time as we continue to seek and understand God’s love and as we continue to peel away the layers of unhealthy practices embedded in us. Doing so is to live out the true identity we actually already have but just have not yet fully understood, embraced, and put into practice. The fear of God and the goodness of God call us forward into this deeper relationship steeped in God’s love.
“Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 33:18).