4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God;
everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
4:9 God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only
Son into the world so that we might live through him.
4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and
sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
4:11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one
another.
4:12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in
us, and his love is perfected in us.
4:13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he
has given us of his Spirit.
4:14 And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his
Son as the Savior of the world.
4:15 God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God,
and they abide in God.
4:16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God
is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in
them.
4:17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have
boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this
world.
4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for
fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached
perfection in love.
4:19 We love because he first loved us.
4:20 Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or
sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister
whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.
4:21 The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God
must love their brothers and sisters also.
There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear. Is that
true?
How is our fear being cast out today? We use the word "love" for
many things but how much of what we do as a church helps to cast out
fear?
Believing that perfect love casts out fear is a matter of faith,
because we cannot comprehend the full breadth of a love that is
perfect. We believe in a God who loves with perfect love, but we are
still viewing that love "through a mirror, dimly." So,we still have
to deal with the presence of our own fears. Thise fears are very
real, and I think "No Fear" turned most Christians off because the
slogan and the attitude of those who took up the slogan suggested
that there wasn't really anything to be afraid of, a kind of an "I'm
unconquerable" frame of mind. We know that thereis plenty to fear,
and that we have no real protection from the pitfalls & dark valleys
of life. But there is a Christian equivalent. Even though we can't
stand against the darkness on our own, we believe in the One whose
perfect love can cast out our strongest enemies and our fear with
them. It's the One who says to us, "Fear Not!" Ken in WV
Thanks Ken in WV I believe that fear is the opposite of love and not
hate. the t-shirt slogan "no fear" is a faith in the power of the
self-- I am strong, you are weak. But our faith is "no fear" because
we are weak but He is strong. We have no reason to fear and every
reason to love because of God's perfect love. --I may tie this into
Acts, where Philip demonstrates love and lack of fear by telling a
foreigner, an ethiopian eunuch, the good news. I am going to title
my sermon "No Fear". KB in AB
I plan to preach about being a loving community, about basing our
church life on love, rather than other values, like having things in
common, or even liking one another.
But real love needs to be defined. Love, in this context, is not
sentimentality or even affection. Last week's epistle lesson equated
love with sharing one's food and clothing. Love is both word and
action. Though I'm not sure how, or if, I'll fit it in, I was
reminded of one part of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, where
Screwtape, the supervising devil, advises his underling and nephew,
Wormwood, to make Wormwood's "patient" (the new Christian, young
man) focus on the people sitting in the pews when he went to church.
Screwtape encourages Wormwood to have the man be distracted by their
appearance and their petty faults, and that way find the idea of
being united with them in the body of Christ a distasteful prospect.
Love, on the other hand, is not about liking or admiring one
another. But about serving each other the way Christ served us.
Thanks be to God that affection and warmth often follow, but these
are not the basis of our community. Something much stronger is:
love.
JGC in MA
A bit of humor on this text...A man was invited to the wedding of a
girl he knew and befriended in college but whom he had not seen in
several years. Due to distance and schedules, he regretted being
unable to attend. Instead, he sent the following telegram due to
arrive on the wedding day. "On this special day, I wish you the
best. Always remember the words of I JOHN 4:18. One of your many
friends, Jim." As the telegram was being copied, the clerk, thinking
the "I JOHN" was a misprint, simply omitted the "I" making the text
John 4:18. The couple received the telegram but instead of reading
the intended 1 JOHN text, "There is no fear in love but perfect love
drives out fear..." the bride, quickly fetching a Bible, leafed
through it and read aloud JOHN 4:18. "The fact is, you have had five
husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband!" Oops! Army
Chaplain E, Ft Belvoir
