The Right Heart

1 John 4:18 NIV

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.

Fear and love are two extremes. The two aren't made to co-exist in the same heart. God is love personified and love can never be understood or truly felt outside of him. A man who seeks to experience love has to first of all experience God. When a man has God, then He can have and know love.

Fear, on the other hand, is rooted in the law. The law was given to regulate man and his behaviour and it prescribed punishment for all who fell foul of its requirements. Because it was not possible to obey all the requirements of the law by human power, it then meant that punishment was frequently applied. Fear of punishment was therefore  valid and could make a man so conscious of the law's requirement that He had no room for love. A man who's therefore under the law can never fully comprehend love and its demands.

The man who has Christ has been freed from the dictates and demands of the law. He's subject to a higher law that gives freedom. He's still obedient to physical laws, but he's not reliant on his strength to obey,but on God, who gives strength to obey. He's dependent on the higher law of liberty, and his heart is set free to truly experience and show love.

Which one are you bound by: the law that oppresses or the law that gives liberty? If you want your life to make impact as it was created to do, then your heart must be truly free for it to make impact. What you don't have, you can't give. Is your heart set free? Has it itself experienced God's love? His time of favour is here.