We live in fearful times. Murders and mass shootings happen somewhere in our nation every week, our military service men and women are wounded and killed as they work out their assigned deployments, and our world is in the grips of a lethal global pandemic with an uncanny ability to change and mutate at will. People turn to their political leaders for hope when those very same leaders are stricken with dread at not knowing what to do; should we mandate masks or not, require vaccination or not, close country borders or not? Some people are going to church, after not having gone for years, trying to alleviate their fears. They are so filled with dread and fear. Hopelessness abounds. How do we cope with such circumstances?
“Perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18) Is it not amazing what peace this simple statement brings? First of all, just what is perfect love? We love our parents and they love us, but not everything we or they do is perfect. That is not “perfect” love. A man and woman are giddy in love and marry; to all appearances their love is perfect, but when the newlywed emotions wear off they find that will work at that love to maintain it. That is not “perfect” love. A woman’s love for her newborn baby is fierce. She nurtures and teaches it as it grows, yet as an adult that child hangs with the wrong crowd and gets in trouble with the law. Why wasn’t her love enough to keep him from the wrong path? It was not “perfect” love.
To find “perfect love” we only have to examine the previous two verses in John (4:16-17). Let’s examine them in The Passion Translation: “We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love he has for us. God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them. By living in God, love has been brought to its full expression in us so that we may fearlessly face the day of judgment, because all that Jesus now is, so are we in this world.” God IS love! As we yield our lives to Him He comes and lives in us, driving out all that fear. There is no room for fear where God lives. Can you try to imagine Fear trying to rear its ugly head in the Throne Room of God? Uh, uh; no way; not possible!
Perfect love does not simply make fear go away, it casts it out! Casting is a sudden violent act. Imagine it like a fisherman casting his lure and line into a river: he takes his pole and forces the line and lure out away from him in one fast sudden movement, pointing that pole to where he wants the lure and line to go. Or imagine a baseball pitcher who throws a fastball across home plate so hard and fast. He casts that ball in a fast-ball throw so violently away from himself that it speeds by the hitter before he has time to react and hit it. 1 John 4:18 in the VOICE translation states that “Love will never invoke fear. Perfect love expels fear,” and the PHILLIPS translation states, “Love contains no fear—indeed fully-developed love expels every particle of fear…” Brothers and Sisters in the Lord, isn’t it high time we allow the power of God’s love to indwell and infuse us so that fear has no room left to rear its ugly head in this age of lies, trickery, and deceptive circumstances? I remember once, when a friend asked me how I was, I responded, “Under the circumstances…” and went on to share the woes I was going through. After I finished my friend said, “What are you doing UNDER the circumstances?” My, how that was a wake-up call for me. I know that I no longer have to live UNDER the circumstances of fearful things in this world. I can live enveloped in the everlasting, ever living, ever powerful Love of the Lord. Do you care to join me?
“The Lord is with me, so I will not be afraid. No one on earth can do anything to harm me.” –Psalm 118:6 ERV
“Pushed to the wall, I called to God; from the wide open spaces, he answered. God’s now at my side and I’m not afraid; who would dare lay a hand on me? God’s my strong champion; I flick off my enemies like flies. Far better to take refuge in God than trust in people; Far better to take refuge in God than trust in celebrities. Hemmed in by barbarians, in God’s name I rubbed their faces in the dirt; Hemmed in and with no way out, in God’s name I rubbed their faces in the dirt; Like swarming bees, like wild prairie fire, they hemmed me in; in God’s name I rubbed their faces in the dirt. I was right on the cliff-edge, ready to fall, when God grabbed and held me. God’s my strength, he’s also my song, and now he’s my salvation. Hear the shouts, hear the triumph songs in the camp of the saved? “The hand of God has turned the tide! The hand of God is raised in victory! The hand of God has turned the tide!” –Psalm 118:5-16 MSG
