There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection].
1 John 4:18 AMPC
Context and Charge:
From God's perspective, love and fear cannot exist in the same vessel. These two come from two very different sources, have two vey different realities and of course two very different eternal consequences. God is presented to us in the Bible as the personification of Love, and this would mean that any definition of love that does not reckon with who God and what He has done cannot be love. The world tries to present some other version as love, which is built on that which is solely physical. We call the act love, but forget that it is first a person, before it ever flows out into the action. The action is empty of life and impact if its foundation is not that which is God's. What do I have: is it the love that God defines, or the false hope that the world tries to sell off as the real deal?
Fear is the very opposite of love. Its foundation and impact are tied to the devil. Fear is tied to the thought of punishment, because it feels you with a sense of inadequacy. Fear keeps you from seeing yourself the way God sees you, and it will never allow you to experience or appreciate the full measure of the love that is in God. A man who has experienced love has a lot of room for growth in the right direction. A man who has not experienced love does not know who God is, who he is, and how he can grow into the fullness of the grace that is available in God. Fear only tells me what the law is, and what it demands from me, but it can never supply the grace and strength required to keep the law. It is love that supplies all that is required to seek to do God's perfect will.
Conviction and Conclusion:
Full grown love drives out fear. Fear is the default setting for all of us due to sin, but in Christ, we now have access to the love of God. When love comes in, fear has to leave. When love comes in, a man is persuaded to seek after God of his own freewill. There is no coercion; no compulsion, just a heart that is thrilled about who God is and what He has made available. This is where all of us have to decide and determine where we stand; who am I and where do I stand? Full maturity is in Christ, not in practice, convention or procedure. Do not let the devil deceive you into thinking you can earn God's love only by labour; all I need is to embrace the love of God represented in Christ. If I am in Christ, His love is birthed in me. If I do not have him, I do not belong to Him. All I have left is fear, the end of which is eternal death. Who am I? Who are you? God's time of favour is here.
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