FRIDAY 24th
1 John 4:18-21
‘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. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.’
We will look at verse 18 in our devotion, as we have already covered so much of what follows in the verses before us already. ‘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.’
You will remember that the previous verses talked about our having confidence for the day of judgement, the verse today helps us to realise that when the love of God has been perfected in us, we do not need to fear the future judgement because fear is linked to punishment and because we are abiding in God, or as we often say are ‘in Christ’, there is no future punishment, Christ took it all on our behalf at Calvary.
Fear can be crippling, when I was a child and even well into my teenage years I had a terrible fear of water and as a result would make every excuse possible to ensure that I did not go to the swimming baths with the school for our PE lesson and I would avoid going into the sea. It wasn’t until my mid-thirties that I decided I needed to conquer that fear and so I enrolled in some swimming lessons, and although I cannot swim very well, what mattered most to me is that the crippling fear has gone. As you are reading this you may have a fear that cripples you, it could be anything that causes you to panic and be afraid and that robs you of confidence and peace, there is a sense in which there is a natural fear, this is that which is inbuilt in us and protects us or stops us from doing something stupid, but any other fear that has a negative affect upon your life can be overcome as we seek God’s help to help us to conquer them.
But back to our text, may we be reassured in our hearts that we do not need to fear any condemnation, for in Christ we have been justified and made right with God, our future is secure in him, we need not fear a future punishment for Christ victory over sin and death is the same victory that we can share in as we have come to trust in him by faith. John 3:18 says ‘Whoever believes in him is not condemned’ and Paul writing to the Church at Rome reminds them and therefore us as well ‘For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”’. This reminds us of what John himself has also said in this epistle, that we are the children of God (I John 3:1-2), therefore we do not need to fear, why, because God’s love is perfect love, and as we abide in him his love is perfected in us and perfect love casts out fear.