1 John 4:16-19 (NKJV) 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. 17 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. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.
In our time this week, we have been looking at the words of Jesus in Matthew 5 concerning loving our enemies. Natural wisdom says we should love our friends and hate our enemies. Jesus tells us that we should do just the opposite. We should love our enemies, bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute us. There is a problem with this whole scenario. We cannot possibly do this. It is just too difficult
I asked the question as we closed yesterday, “What will it take for us to be able to live this kind of love.” Today we will answer that question.
In this scripture from 1 John, we see some statements that are key to loving as Jesus taught us to love. Let us start with verse 17 and we will go back to verse 16. First, we see that there is a connection between fear and love. We cannot love because we are afraid. We are afraid for the future. We are afraid that we will be mistreated. We are afraid that we will lose something important to us if we choose to do things like loving our enemies. Fear keeps us from being free to love.
Conversely, if we are perfected in love we will not fear. This seems like a catch 22. I must be made perfect in love to overcome fear but I cannot love because of fear. How can I find a way around this problem? We see a key in the next phrase. Fear has torment but there is no torment in love. As I read that, I realize John is not talking about our love. There is no torment if I am loved. If I question that I am loved I will experience torment over what will happen to me if I give love.
Verse 18 is one of the most important verses in the bible to me. We love him because he loved us first. Couple that with verse 10.
1 John 4:10 (NKJV) 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
When we read the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:43-48 and we think of the potential ramifications it is very difficult for us to accept that we can love that way. Fear rises and we assume Jesus is calling us to a life of being downtrodden and overwhelmed. That is not true. Paul says we should be more that conquerors. John says in 1 John 5 that we can overcome the world. Why would the words of Jesus telling us to love cause such a response?
The reason is simple. We focus on the wrong end of the love equation. We focus on our love. Our love has never been sufficient. The key is not our love at all. It is not even our love for God. It is God’s love for us!
I do not have to fear because God loves me. 1 John 17 says we can have boldness in the day of judgment because we are as he is in this world. This is true because love is perfected in us. We must understand that it is not our love for God that must be perfected. Verse 18 clearly shows it is our understanding of God’s love for us that must be perfected in us if we are going to walk free of fear.
Verse 10 tells us that the kind of love we are talking about can never originate with us. Someone I respect once said, “The issue is not how much God loves us but how much we love God.” In the context of the message I understood what this person meant. We do have a responsibility in this. However, I must disagree. The issue is not how much we love God. The issue is how much we accept the love of God for us.
Verse 16 is another key statement. We must know and believe the love God has for us. If we spend time getting to know the love God has for us, it will open our heart to love others. Let us look at the word translated know here. It has some interesting meanings.
Know means to allow, be aware of, feel, have knowledge of, perceive, be resolved, be sure and to understand. That is quite a mouth full. Let me break it down. We must have knowledge that God loves us. We must be sure of it. We must resolve to accept God’s love for us. How can we know God loves us? He tells he does.
I try to be a man of my word. I try to follow through with what I say. If I say I love someone then I will do my best to act accordingly. I am human. Therefore, I make mistakes. I fail in my love walk at times. So do you. God does not. If he says he loves us, than he does. There are far too many scriptures to list here that tell us God loves us. We could start with the ones quoted in this post. We could add the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16.
We should periodically study what the bible says about God’s love for us. That is the way we gain knowledge. The more we study the truth of God’s love for us the more we will come to an experiential knowledge of the love of God. God does not love us because we feel his love. He loves us because he says he loves us. When we meditate on the truth of his love, we will eventually feel his love. Remember, when you feel loved is not when he started loving you.
We must also allow God to love us. We have all tried to deal with people who would not let us love them. We do the same to God. I have spent time with people who seemed to want to convince me why it was impossible for God to love them. They struggle because they will not allow the love of God in. Fear is keeping them from understanding the very thing that will free them from fear.
This brings us to the other thing we must do where the love of God is concerned. We must believe it. To know it is step one. If we do not believe it we will never get beyond step one. How can I believe the love of God? Romans 10:17 says faith comes from the word. I will grow in believing the love of God the more I listen to God tell me he loves me in his word. I will grow in the love of God as I read about his love at work in the ministry of Jesus. I will grow in the love of God for me as I see it played out in the story of whole bible.
Believing has another element that often causes us trouble. Believing is not a feeling. It is a decision. We must choose to believe. Once we make that choice, we reinforce the decision to believe with the word of God. The more we reinforce our decision, the more we will feel faith rise in our hearts. It must start with the decision to believe what God says. This decision has another name. We call it trust.
I know that trust is very difficult for many people. I have tried to find some way around what I am going to say next but I just cannot. How can a person learn to trust? There is only one way. We must decide to trust someone. Fear tells us we cannot do that because that person will fail us. When we decide to trust God, we are not trusting a person alone. We are trusting God.
Hebrews 13:5 (NKJV) 5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Remember this. Start with God’s love for you. Study his love for you. Meditate on his love for you. That is what will drive out fear. Then respond to that love by knowing it and believing it. You will find the knowledge of and belief in his love for you spilling over into your daily responses for others. Even your enemies.
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