1 John 4:12-21

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

1 John 4:12–21 ESV

12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 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. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 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. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, 28th Edition Chapter 4

12 θεὸν οὐδεὶς πώποτε τεθέαται.* ἐὰν ἀγαπῶμεν ἀλλήλους,* ὁ θεὸς ἐν ἡμῖν μένει καὶ ἡ ἀγάπη αὐτοῦ ♦⸂ἐν ἡμῖν τετελειωμένη ἐστιν⸃.* 13 Ἐν τούτῳ γινώσκομεν ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ μένομεν καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν ἡμῖν,* ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐτοῦ ⸀δέδωκεν ἡμῖν.* 14 καὶ ἡμεῖς ⸀τεθεάμεθα καὶ μαρτυροῦμεν ὅτι ὁ πατὴρ ἀπέσταλκεν* τὸν υἱὸν σωτῆρα τοῦ κόσμου.*15 ὃς ⸂ἐὰν ὁμολογήσῃ⸃* ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ⸆ ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ,* ὁ θεὸς ἐν αὐτῷ* μένει καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν ⸄τῷ θεῷ⸅.* 16 καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐγνώκαμεν καὶ ⸀πεπιστεύκαμεν τὴν ἀγάπην ἣν ἔχει ὁ θεὸς ἐν ἡμῖν.*

Ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν,* καὶ ὁ μένων ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ ἐν τῷ θεῷ μένει, καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἐν αὐτῷ °μένει.* 17 ἐν τούτῳ τετελείωται ἡ ἀγάπη μεθʼ ἡμῶν,* ἵνα παρρησίαν ἔχωμεν ἐν τῇ ⸀ἡμέρᾳ τῆς κρίσεως⸆,* ὅτι καθὼς ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν, καὶ ἡμεῖς ⸁ἐσμεν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ τούτῳ.* 18 φόβος οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ, ἀλλʼ ἡ τελεία ἀγάπη ἔξω βάλλει τὸν φόβον, ὅτι ὁ φόβος κόλασιν ἔχει, ὁ δὲ φοβούμενος οὐ τετελείωται ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ.* 19 ἡμεῖς ⸆ ἀγαπῶμεν⸇, ὅτι ⸀αὐτὸς ⸁πρῶτος ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς.* 20 ἐάν τις εἴπῃ ὅτι Ἀγαπῶ τὸν θεὸν καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ μισῇ,* ψεύστης ἐστίν· ὁ γὰρ μὴ ἀγαπῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ὃν ἑώρακεν, τὸν θεὸν ὃν οὐχ ἑώρακεν ♦⸀οὐ δύναται ἀγαπᾶν.* 21 καὶ ταύτην τὴν ἐντολὴν ⸂ἔχομεν ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ⸃, ἵνα ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν θεὸν ἀγαπᾷ καὶ τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ.

OPENING REMARKS

Jonathan Edwards once said; “God’s love is the most unstoppable force in the universe.”

The Apostle John takes care to repeat what he said back in verse 8; ‘God is love.’ He wants us to see that it’s not just that God loves, it’s that He is love.

There is no light in the planet but that which cometh from the sun; there is no light in the moon but that which is borrowed; and there is no true love in the heart, but that which cometh from God. Love is the light, the life, and way of the universe. - Spurgeon

Love is such a funny thing. It has an unrivalled potency to work wonders in the human soul. A child who experiences the consistent love and affection of a parent in their formative years is likely to be happier and healthier than a child who doesn’t. Yet, although love has such power it is also only possible to love by opening yourself up to pain. Love requires vulnerability. Love is sharing, love is what happens when you give yourself away.

We see this in the institution of marriage; where the bride and groom give themselves to one another in the highest earthly form of human relationship.

Love is something that we practice, it is a feeling, yes. But it’s much more than that. Loving is intentionally giving yourself away without requiring anything in return. To be loved is to live in grace, to live in unmerited favour, to be seen, to be known and to be cherished.

John tells us that our love is perfected or even completed as the NIV has it by virtue of God abiding within us. The inference being that our love isn’t perfect. Our love, is still tainted to one degree or another with the aftertaste of sin. No one loves perfectly.

You don’t need evidence from me to tell you that that’s true, you’ll each have your own experiences and stories of the pain and damage that can be wrought by imperfect love. Broken, imperfect love at it’s worst;

Always expects something in return. There are always strings attached to everything they do.

Uses you for it’s own ends. When you are no longer useful, the love is withdrawn.

Is dependent on your performance.

Is controlling, you’re not free to be you.

Is abusive. In this situation only one individual in the relationship is ever vulnerable. And their vulnerability is exploited

What is the natural reaction of anyone who has experienced this kind of ‘love’ to one degree or another? Fear!

Fear of:

Giving yourself away again, of being vulnerable again

Fear that you cannot trust anyone again

Fear that you are unlovable

Fear of yourself, that something about you is wrong. You don’t feel free to be you.

The result is that we can end up living in self-defence mode. We’ve always got our guard up. We’re not really sure how to be as Jesus was in this world. Maybe we’ve got just enough love to spare for our spouse, our families but that’s the limit.

Love isn’t something you can force is it? It’s not something that you can just create out of sheer will power. It isn’t like having good manners, or looking after your body. To be perfected in love we have to come into contact with PERFECT love.

Perhaps we might draw inspiration from moral heroes throughout history; Corrie ten Boom, Mother Teresa, George Muller. Yet even then, something needs to take place within our hearts. These individuals simply captured the light of perfect love better than most, much like Spurgeon’s image of the moon catching the light of the sun. We may see the light of the moon and be impressed by it but we won’t be transformed into it’s radiance by looking it, we have to bask in the source of the light; the sun.

It’s only when we behold PERFECT LOVE that we’re transformed. When God’s love shines in through the windows of our soul, pouring into every dark recess, warming the cold, hard walls of our indifference our love begins to grow.

John says this PERFECT LOVE is something that we can know and that we ought to believe.

God’s love is supernatural. Though we can’t see Him now with our physical eyes, we can receive His love now in the moment and know it. By faith, through the word we can know it to be true and in our hearts through the Holy Spirit we feel it’s truth.

Augustine believed that when John said God is love, He was literally talking about the person of the Holy Spirit, who Augustine saw as being the personal, divine, love bond between the Father and the Son.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit have existed eternally in relationship with one another, that’s how He is love. That’s how His love is perfect, it’s set upon a perfect being and it is given by a perfect being. It’s Holy, full, unchangeable, familial, all-powerful, eternal, unconditional to those who are in Christ, always present.

The Christian is loved by God in a very, very special way. There is a love of God which is often called common grace which He gives to all, from the most faithful of saints to the most depraved sinner - Matt 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. The Christian is loved by God by virtue of their union with Jesus Christ. The perfect love with which the Father loves the Son is the same love that is given to us by the Father. We are IN Christ and therefore everything He has is now ours, including the intimate and pure relationship He shares with God.

We mustnt be content with a mere rational knowledge of God’s love. Since if love is anything at all it’s a passion, there’s strong feelings and emotions. Love can’t be reduced to a cold hard fact.

“Love of necessity involves feeling and if there is not feeling in God there can be no love.” - Charles Hodge

God has feelings for us! Immutable, unchanging feelings which exist as strongly now as they every have and ever will. God is unchanging, therefore He cannot love changeably. Consider that! And that’s where believing His love comes in.

There are days when the fact of God’s unchangeing love towards us seems absurd, we can’t feel His love sometimes, it’s then that we must believe in His love for us.

PERFECT LOVE CASTS OUT FEAR

John says that the love of God has a cleansing effect on us. He says that this perfect love upon entry into our hearts casts out fear. The Greek here is ἔξω βάλλει or literally ‘throws out.’ It’s the same phrase often used for when Jesus cast out Demons. There is a violent clash of powers and it is God’s love that prevails.

What kind of fear is cast out? I know that even though the love of God has been shed abroad in my heart there are a few things that I still fear; tarantulas to name one. Is that what was meant here? More specifically this is what is cast out by perfect love:

Fear of punishment on the day of judgement - Romans 8:1 - There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Fear of rejection by God

Fear of man

So whoever lives in fear of these has not yet been perfected in love.

WE LOVE BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US

The evidence that we are being perfected in His love is indeed that we love God in return. This is a supernatural reality. No one is born loving God. There are some who would deny this, but it’s the clear revelation of scripture that we aren’t natural born God seekers but are instead children of wrath and disobedience (col 3:6, eph 2:3), haters of God (Rom 1:30).

Sure, anyone can love a God made in their own image, it’s easy to love a God who thinks exactly like me. But when it comes to the God of the Bible, the God who exists, the natural response of any sinner isn’t love but hatred.

So we love Him not by our own virtue but by His. He first loved you. His love for you didn’t start the moment you chose to follow Jesus, you see. His love for you started a long time before you were ever a twinkle in your Fathers eye!

English Standard Version Chapter 1

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Christ died for us while we were still sinners Romans 5:6 - For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Our love for God, however imperfect it might be exists because He love us! Do you love God today? That’s because He loves you! No one who loves the God of the Bible, the God of Jesus Christ has any reason to fear on the day of judgement!

Do you want to love God more, don’t look within yourself, meditate on His love for you! Our love for Him grows in direct proportion to our knowledge of His love for us.

Do you live with fear? Is there a lack of love in your heart today? Turn to Jesus; He is the evidence of God’s love for you. For God so loved YOU that He gave His only begotten son so that all who believe in Him might not perish but have eternal life.