WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? (part four)
During this series I’ve covered what love has to do with salvation, my relationship with God, my service for God and my relationships with others. In the next few weeks I’m going to focus on what love has to do with overcoming; specifically overcoming fear, unforgiveness and the world.
What’s love got to do with overcoming fear?
1st John 4:13-18, “We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
The Apostle John is dealing with having the fear that I’m not really born-again. Typically, this fear is derives from repeated sin or a lack of commitment and involvement in serving Christ. I’m sure we’ve all gone through times where we didn’t feel saved but for some that feeling develops into a legitimate fear to where they become convinced that they are no longer saved.
So John wants to help alleviate that fear by putting things in perspective for us. He first mentions that we can know we are saved because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When we can identify the voice of God ministering to us, teaching us, challenging us and rebuking us on a regular basis then we know he lives in us and us in him. When the voice of truth breaks through and you know it’s not your own thoughts or reasoning because it’s something new or because your thoughts were not good but suddenly the right counter-thought came-that’s how we know.
Now, I believe the Holy Spirit can influence someone who’s not a Christian and prompt them to go in the right direction when they’re open to it; but that’s different than the Holy Spirit living in you. It’s a constant presence; you would experience it more than just once in a while and in more ways than just one or two.
Next John states that if we acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God then we are saved. This pertains to more than just an intellectual acknowledgement because there are a lot of people who have that but it isn’t any deeper than that. What John is talking about here is being convinced that Jesus is who he said he is and to the point that it changes your life.
“Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.” That’s how we know that a true change has taken place. We live in God when we live in love and obedience.
1st John 3:18-24, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”
When my life is characterized by love and obedience than I can have confidence. When I can identify that a legitimate change has taken place in my life regarding how I am towards God and others then I can qualify being in the faith. So when I feel like I’m condemned because of sin I need to come back to the reality that my belief hasn’t changed I’ve simply fallen short.
It’s so easy to be self-condemning. Not that we shouldn’t take sin seriously but when we allow it to render us cast-off by God we are not responding to it appropriately. John wants us to rely on the love God has for us. God loved us when we didn’t care at all about him.
Obviously we’re not saved simply because God loves us but when we believed in his love, relied on his love and trusted his love we made a commitment to live in his love. That’s how love is made complete in us. We couple God’s love for us with our love for him and it completes us.
The problem is when we start compromising on that love we can develop the fear that because of our sins or apathy God will stop loving us and cut us off. That’s not true. God’s love for us never changes; it is always full and constant-regardless of how we are towards him. Therefore, we can be sure that if we struggle in our devotion to him he will not give up on us; he will be there to welcome us back if we’ll simply repent and come back; much like what happened with the prodigal son and his father waiting for him with open arms of love.
1st John 4:18-“There is no fear in love”. This doesn’t contradict the verses that talk about our need to fear God. Those verses have to do with reverence-a healthy fear; this verse has to do with uncertainty and disbelief-unhealthy fear. God’s perfect love should drive away our fear of thinking we’re not really saved when we know we’ve trusted Christ for salvation and a change has taken place because of it.
Satan wants to evoke the fear in us that we can’t trust what God has said. The chapter starts out with telling us not to believe every spirit but to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. Verse six talks about the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. From the very beginning, starting with Eve, Satan’s purpose is to get us to think that God and his word are not trustworthy. We can’t believe his promises and there’s no need to take his warnings seriously.
But even when we become convinced that God and his word are truth Satan will still try to weasel his way in with some lie or distortion to try to take us down and drag us away. He wants to wrack us with guilt over the things we’ve done to the point of believing that there’s no way we could be forgiven. He wants to convince us that God doesn’t love us so we that will live in shame, sorrow and fear.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. If we are convinced of God’s love for us and our love for him then there will be no reason to fear his judgment because we know that Jesus already paid the penalty for all the rotten things we’ve done (or will do) and our trust is in him.
“Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.” The perfect love that God displayed in sending Jesus and the perfect love that Jesus displayed in dying for our sins should drive away any fear of judgment in those who have trusted Christ for salvation; who have put their faith in what he did. If I am convinced that I am the recipient of that perfect love then the idea of being forever punished for my sins is not a factor-the slate has been wiped clean-there is no sin to be punished for. That doesn’t mean there isn’t still consequences for my sins but they won’t be eternal ones. Understanding God’s perfect love pushes fear far away.
“The one who fears is not made perfect in love”. The one who lives in the fear of condemnation has not understood the perfect love that has set them free. And living in this trap of fear will cause us to distance ourselves from Christ and the fellowship. We conclude that since I am condemned why bother. My fate is sealed; I’m doomed to destruction. Therefore, I might just as well live in sin; or worse-I might just as well end my life.
That’s the destructiveness of living with this fear. But the reality is your fate is only sealed if you choose to continue to live in fear. You are able to do something about it. You have the power of the Holy Spirit to climb out of that pit of despair and live.
Rom. 8:13-16, “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
Paul is making it clear that we as Christians have a choice as to how we will live. Will we choose to become a slave to sin all over again or will we live as a slave to righteousness and continue to move forward? Will we choose to exercise the power of the Spirit and kill the sin in our life or will we be captivated by the fear that it’s impossible to?
If we are led by the Spirit of God then we show ourselves to be his child. If we find ourselves doing what he wants us to do and resisting the urge to do what we want to do then we don’t have to be afraid. And none of us do this perfectly; you just have to read the previous chapter of Romans to realize that. It’s about our lifestyle as a whole.
So whenever these irrational fears haunt us we need to see that they’re not of God. God does not give us a spirit of fearing death and its consequences; he gave us a spirit of hope, confidence and victory.
Heb. 10:15-23, “The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”
God has made a promise and he will be faithful in keeping that promise. Therefore, since his promise is that he has removed our sins from us and is not counting them against us let us do what that freedom allows us to do and draw near to God and have the intimate relationship with him that he desires.
But when we feel condemned in our hearts, when we have a guilty conscience we will not draw near to God in full assurance we will retreat in fear. We won’t hold unswervingly to hope; we will find ourselves struggling in hopelessness.
But we don’t have to; that’s the thing. We have a choice. If we live in accordance with our new nature we will live in this sure hope and in the promises of God-without fear of judgment and condemnation. It’s when we are living in accordance to our old nature that we have this fear. That’s the destructiveness of living in accordance with our sinful nature. We will die because it will draw us further and further away from God-if we allow it to. And the further we drift away the more convinced we will be that there’s no hope.
Therefore-we shouldn’t play around. You might not be in this category of fear but you’re playing around with sin. You may not have cut yourself off from the fellowship but it’s getting easier for you to miss a Sunday or a Wednesday. You may think you’re standing firm but watch out-Satan is clever and crafty-little by little, bit by bit his purpose is to wear you down, pull you away and get you less interested in pleasing Christ and more interested in pleasing self.
I’ve seen it in action. And I’ve also ministered to Christians who, because of how they were living, were afraid that they had lost their salvation. I would try to comfort them by saying that anyone who is afraid they’ve lost it hasn’t. The ones who don’t care about it anymore are the ones who should be afraid because they’re at the greatest risk of losing it-not because they will have it taken away by God but because they will willingly hand it back to him by completely abandoning the faith.
But as long as you have even a little bit of faith you have hope. You may be slipping away but at any time you are able to change your course. It might not be an easy road back but at least you’ll be heading in the right direction. You’ll be leaving the dark forest of fear and heading into the clearing of peace and rest. All because you’ve recognized your need to remain in the perfect love of God that drives away your fear.
