LOVE WITHOUT FEAR
“And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So, we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.”
1 John 4:17-18 NLT
What a profound statement! John has now reached the heart and core of his presentation of the love of God.
There are many emotions that play a part in our lives and not the least is fear. Many of God’s children are still plagued by doubts and fears, often like the weather patterns on any given day. Faith fluctuates with doubt and fear, depending on the circumstances of the day.
How is it possible to live through even one day with a steadfast faith that is not affected by our circumstances or our interaction with people?
We get up in the morning with a song in our hearts and the determination to sail through our day unaffected by the things that go on around us. However, by breakfast time, we have already been rattled by our family around us. By lunchtime we have blotted our copybook many times. Exasperated, we ask ourselves, “How can God love me when I have said… done…?” whatever has been the response of my flesh.
What are we doing to create such frustration and doubts in our hearts? We have allowed our circumstances to dictate our reactions, which are often aggressive or defensive.
John gives us another option, to live in God so that we grow in the love of God. What does that mean? It means a change of perspective. In our natural, often spontaneous responses, we see ourselves as the centre of the issue, whatever it is that has triggered a reaction. Our flesh rises up to the situation and sin is often the result. Anger, harsh words, retaliation, antagonism, taking offense, are often the ways in which we handle the situation.
We shrink back from God’s love because we fear His displeasure and its consequences. We view difficult or unpleasant circumstances as God’s punishment for our ungodly behaviour. Our response to His abiding love is immature and fluctuating.
John says that’s not the way to live on even keel. There’s a much better way. By changing our perspective to recognise that God is the centre of our lives, our adversities take on a different meaning. Living in God’s love implies that we learn to view our circumstances from His perspective. Bad things happen because He allows them to happen to test the resilience of our faith. Conflicts are not always bad if we use the opportunity to resolve them with love and patience.
Life is never about plain sailing. Life is about navigating an evil and sinful world by God’s grace. Living in the awareness of His love, no matter what, instead of living in self-awareness, taking offence in every situation, is character training for our lives in His eternal kingdom.
Growing this mature love frees us from the voice of the accuser. His lies will drive us to be afraid of God. The knowledge of the truth, Jesus said, will set us free from the power of that nagging voice. The Holy Spirit is not the accuser. He explains, enlightens, and provides the solution so that we turn to God, not run from Him.
So, John says, live in God as the centre of your awareness. Your confidence in His love will grow your faith in Him. You will stand before Him confident and unafraid because His grace at work in you has won the day.
Monthly Archives: October 2023
GROWING IN GOD’S LOVE
GROWING IN GOD’S LOVE
“Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”
1 John 4:14-16 NLT
Round and round … John circles around this great theme of God’s love, shown so clearly to us in the gift of His Son.
Why is this so important to John? There may be many reasons, but if we look into John’s own life, the “before and after” of his association with Jesus, the unforgettable Pentecost experience and his life “after death”, is it any wonder that he should be so enamoured with God’s love for us and the effects of that love on us.
Let’s look at the progress of John’s life. As a young disciple, together with his brother, James, he was a hothead. He wanted to call down fire on the Samaritans for not receiving Jesus.
“He (Jesus) sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival. But the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?”
Luke 9:52-54 NLT
Jesus rebuked them for their drastic solution. He nicknamed them “sons of thunder”!
During his three plus years with Jesus, John began to change. Unlike Peter, he seemed to listen more than talk. He was one of Jesus’ intimate three, with Peter and James, allowed privileges not given to the other nine.
What did Jesus see in these three young fishermen? They were rough diamonds but, after Pentecost, they each played a prominent role in the infant church. All three featured in the authorship of Scripture.
At the last Passover supper before the cross, it was John who occupied the privileged position beside Jesus, leaning against Him, which was apparently, perfectly acceptable behaviour then. He referred to himself more than once, not as Boanerges”, hothead, but as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”.
What changed him? Even before the Holy Spirit deluged the disciples at Pentecost, John could not be in the presence of such love without being changed. No doubt, Jesus’ love for him began to seep into his soul until all his doubts were removed. He was sure, as were his fellow disciples except Judas, that Jesus was the Son of God.
“Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”
John 6:67-69 NLT
John was the one who stood resolutely by the cross, sheltering Mary, watching the tragic scene unfold. No other disciples were named with him. To him, Jesus entrusted the most precious person in His earthly life, His mother.
It was “the disciple whom Jesus loved” who recognised Him on the shore of Galilee. Even in the early dawn mist, he knew that voice, he recognised that vague figure on the beach. “It’s Jesus!” he called out. It was Peter who impetuously abandoned his colleagues and jumped into the lake. It was John who helped get the boat to shore.
So many little details, together, paint a word picture of a man transformed. He could write with great assurance to his fellow believers,
“All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”
1 John 4:15-16 NLT
Like Paul, John could weave his own story into his encouragement of other believers. “We know” he said with confidence. This is the knowing he urges us, his 21st century believers, not just about, but the knowing of life and experience, that God’s love is real, powerful and enduring, and we can trust Him through thick and thin by paying it forward in the lives of others as He has faithfully loved us.
THE PROOF IS REAL
THE PROOF IS REAL
“Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.”
1 John 4:11-13 NLT
Once again, John comes back to one of his main themes, loving each other because God first loved us. Much of our assurance of salvation hangs on our response to God’s love. This response, in turn, has everything to do with the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives. These three truths are indissolubly linked together.
1. God loved us while we were still sinners and while we were His enemies.
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners…. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.”
Romans 5:8, 10 NLT
2. We responded to His love by believing in His Son, a response that the Holy Spirit both activated and acted on by raising us from spiritual death to spiritual life.
“… Even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:5-6 NLT
3. The Holy Spirit now lives in us and fills our hearts with God’s love.
“And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Romans 5:5 NLT
When these three realities happen and coincide in our lives, God’s love in us will reach out in expressions of love to others which is a very real part of our new nature in Christ.
This love of God is in us in seed form but needs to be cultivated and encouraged to grow as we obey to Jesus’ commands and respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit in us.
REAL LOVE ACTS
REAL LOVE ACTS
“God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
1 John 4:9-10 NLT
Jesus made a statement to Nicodemus that could not be clearer and can never be bettered.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 NLT
Once again, John repeats that statement in his letter, to declare not only the extent and scope of that love but also to reveal the motive for the gift of His Son to a rebellious and sinful world.
“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
1 John 4:10 NLT
How often we have heard preachers expounding on our “first love” as that love we had for Jesus when we first believed in Him. We loved Him so much that we even went to excesses to show Him how much we love Him!
However, the Bible never makes our love for Jesus the motive for our actions but rather the response to His love. We don’t serve Jesus so much because we love Him but rather because He loved us first.
“We love because he first loved us.”
1 John 4:19 NIV
Furthermore, God demonstrated His love for us, not by merely telling us but by giving us His most precious gift, His own beloved Son. He made
no bones about His love for Jesus. He declared His love publicly on two occasions, at Jesus’ baptism and at His transfiguration. He affirmed His love for His Son by His intimate presence, fellowship with, and supervision of Jesus throughout His earthly journey.
His most powerful affirmation came through the resurrection
“The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 1:3-4 NLT
and Jesus’ subsequent reward.
“… He humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Philippians 2:8-11 NLT
Real loves gives. God gave His best for us and to us. He gave us Jesus, the Lord ehinning and end of everything we need in this life to reach our destination and receive the inheritance waiting for us.
“Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?”
Romans 8:32 NLT
Scripture makes it clear that God’s love, demonstrated by the greatest gift He could have ever given to us, is the root and our love for Him the fruit of that love. Our love is fickle and will not last. God’s love for us is eternal and changeless because He IS love.
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.”
Ephesians 3:16-17 NLT
“And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Romans 5:5 NLT
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
Colossians 2:6-7 NLT
Without a strong root system going deep into the love of God, and the work of God’s Spirit, pouring God’s love into our hearts, the work we do for Jesus will be a sterile, cold, and heartless offering.
The key to this real love response to the love of God lies in our doing what Jesus told us to do.
“I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.”
John 15:9-10 NLT
It’s this love of God, strong and alive in us by the power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to love and serve people in His name.
SHOW ME HOW MUCH YOU LOVE HIM
SHOW ME HOW MUCH YOU LOVE HIM
“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8 NLT
This expression of love is another of John’s repetitive themes and another way of recognising a true believer.
John began this letter by declaring, “God is light.” Now that’s a powerful statement! God is not a light, one among many, but light itself, the very source of light. There is no light brighter than God in both the literal and spiritual sense.
What does John mean by “light”? He recorded Jesus’ words in his gospel,
“Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
John 8:12 NLT
The imagery of light and darkness is one of the great themes of the Bible. Light exposes and illuminates. Darkness conceals, allowing evil to flourish in secret.
Jesus diagnosed the reason for wickedness in the world.
“And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
John 3:19-21 NLT
God is light, and there is no darkness in Him, implies that He has no sin in Him and He will have nothing to do with sin. He is holy, utterly separated from sin. God’s Word is often compared to a light, illuminating God’s nature and ways so that we can know what He requires of us, His children.
“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”
Psalms 119:105 NLT
So, since Jesus is God’s Word to us in human form, and since Jesus lived His life in obedience to God’s Word, we will learn to live our lives in obedience to God’s Word if we follow His example.
“God is love”, John’s second great declaration, is the other side of the coin. These two statements, God is light and God is love, perfectly sum up the nature of God. We can say the same thing in these two words, God is “holy-love”. These two qualities keep God’s nature in perfect balance.
Since we are God’s “tekna”, offspring, of the same nature as God through our new birth by the Spirit, we reveal that nature by loving one another as He loves us. Loving one another means that we do everything in our power to promote peace and harmony, to care for each other’s needs, and to build one another up in our faith.
Those who do not express God’s love in these ways, despite their claims, do not know God. It’s as simple as that.