Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear

Is there such a thing as a “perfect love?” There is a website that attempts to help one discover whether or not they are “in love.” Their “Love Test” has 100 questions—some of which are:

Have you ever:

1.Felt weak in the knees at the sight of them?

2.Have you ever done something that seemed ludicrous at the time to impress them?

3.Have you experienced a loss of appetite because they were not with you?

12.Do you have trouble remembering your life before them?

14.Do you put them first in your life, even before yourself?

15.Do presents from them seem more enjoyable than any other gift, even before you know what they are?

62.Have you remained faithful to them, never cheating?

70.If you had to be separated by a large distance, could you keep your feelings alive?

100.Would you be willing to lay down your life to save theirs?

In the letter of 1st John we find a description of “perfect love”—it is the kind of love that gives us “confidence in the day of judgment.”

(1 John 4:17 NKJV) Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.

In the Garden of Eden, before Adam’s disobedience, there was this kind of boldness and confidence. Adam and Eve had an intimate communion with God. They also shared a special intimacy with one another. There was peace and tranquility as the Bible describes in Genesis chapter two:

Gen 2:8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.

Gen 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Gen 2:10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads.

There is an indication in the book of Genesis that the Lord God would fellowship with Adam and Eve as He walked with them in the garden in the cool of the day. That is, until man sinned.

Gen 3:8 And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

Something has drastically changed. Adam and Eve suddenly go from walking with God to hiding from Him.

Gen 3:9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"

Gen 3:10 So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself."

In the foreword to Neil Anderson and Rich Miller’s book, Freedom from Fear, we read that the Bible clearly identifies the first negative feeling that entered the human experience. In the Garden, fear was the original disturbing emotion resulting from Adam’s disobedience and rebellion. Anxiety, fear, and the panic that originated at the fall have prevailed ever since.

We know from the record of Scripture that God did something about this rift in their fellowship.

God removed the stigma that resulted from Adam’s sin

Col 1:21-22 - And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight…

He gave His only Son Jesus Christ to bring man back into a warm fellowship with his Creator.

1 Pet 3:18 - For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God…

God reconciled man back to Himself so that we who trusted in Christ would no longer be His enemies but His friends.

Rom 5:10 - For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

John knows that some of his readers are having a hard time grasping this wonderful truth. Some of his readers are still experiencing the kind of fear that leads to torment. Some of his readers are doing what Adam and Eve did and hiding themselves from the presence of the Lord.

So John attempts in this letter to communicate the truth that God really does love His children and that there is no need to fear:

1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.