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Title: Perfect Love, Part Two
Last week we began by talking about this concept of “Perfect Love”
We defined Perfect Love in this way:
I. What is Perfect Love?
- Perfect Love is progressive, not instant.
- Perfect Love is the result of Sanctification (being made more Christ Like) over the course of our walk with Jesus.
- Some of the benefits of Perfect Love are received instantly, others take place over time.
We then talked about the first effect of perfect love. We said that because of the love being perfected in us, we should have boldness in the day of judgement. We then went on to say that one of the reasons we should have boldness is because we are gradually being called home to be with Jesus, and we have nothing to fear in faith at the day of judgement.
Today our focus will be on two ideas. The first is:
- Perfect Love casts out all fear
As we dig into this statement by John, let me just test it amongst us. Show of hands, how many of you believe love is being perfected in you by the hand of a sovereign savior? Now, how many of you experience fear? Doubt? Frustration with your own standing with God? Yeah, me too. Does this mean, then, that love is not being perfected in us? By no means. Remember the third point of our definition of perfect love: Some of the benefits of Perfect Love are received instantly, others take place over time. Some examples of an immediate benefit of Perfect Love is the ability to understand sin, the ability commune with God, the ability to honor God from selfless motives.
Look at the end of verse 18 “But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” Some of you may be anticipating my next question, and here it is…how in the world can we reconcile what John says here with Paul in Phillippians 2:12 “…work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”
There are two answers to this question, on is contextual, the other is conceptual.
- Conceptual
- A.Fortunately, the answer comes fairly quickly if we read Phillippians 2:13 “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure.” Some of the benefits of perfect love are immediate. Others are a process. How many of you, now having walked in the faith for some time. Having be devoted to the daily work of Christ, having set aside personal time to devote to personal quiet time with God, having set aside the lusts of the flesh to pursue the fruit of the spirit, having sat under solid preaching from charismatic, passionate, educated (good looking) pastors, would say that you are MORE SURE of your salvation today, then when you began your walk?
Why? (Take answers)
The reason is essentially universal amongst us gathered here today: God is presently, actively working in us, to perfect the love he’s given us. Part of that is the gradual driving out of fear.
- Contextual
The second answer is about knowing what John is talking about when he says that perfect love casts out all fear. The easy answer, the simple answer is to say, “Well John means that if love has been perfected in us we should have no fear of anything.” How many of you love roller coasters? How many of you dread them?
(Ask someone who dreads, how much money it would take for them to be able to get on the Millennium Force.)
If we say that John means that all types of fears are cast out by the love being perfected in us that means that no one should fear anything. Roller Coasters, bears, sharks, snakes, darkness, the Steelers. You get my point.
But that’s not what John is saying. Taken in context John is talking about all fears related to judgement. So if we were to combine what Paul says in Phillippians with what John writes here, we’d come up with this.
“Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God working in you to perfect the love he’s given you. And if you find, that after time on that walk, you still fear judgement as much as you used to, it is a good indicator that something is simply not right with your walk.” By definition, one of the characteristics of Perfect Love, one of the qualities of Perfect Love is that is casts out fear. Over time, over your walk with Christ.
II. Why?
Our first point was that Perfect Love casts out all fear, and now, I am going to briefly remind you why. I’m not going to tell you why, you should know this if you’ve listened to me for more than three sermons, rather I am reminding you of a stated, simple, biblical truth that is reinforced by every author of the New Testament. I’m not going to harp on this or argue and debate for hours on end, because it’s not a complex doctrine, it’s just hard for too many Christians to swallow…and it shouldn’t be.
The fact that this clearly Biblical concept has become controversial is our fault, not Scriptures’ fault.
We love Him because he first loved us.
Look at this letter. Look at 1st John. We’ve been in it for almost a year now. Anyone think John’s writing to non-Christians? Anyone think he’s writing to the world in general? Who’s he writing to? A group of believers. What does he say?
The only way anyone can truly love God is if He first loved them. In the context of the framework of what John has told us so far, this is an extremely encouraging thought. God first loved us, gave us love, is in the process of perfecting that love within us, and one of the results is that our fear of the judgement of the Almighty gets driven out by the assurance that we, the Church, the saints, the believers, the saved, the elect are being held in his sovereign hand, and not the other way around.
Understanding God’s sovereignty is not an anecdotal salve that we apply to any and all difficult situations to “take the sting away.”
Understanding God’s sovereignty is the most crucial step to fear being driven out in regards to the inevitable judgement of a perfect and holy God.