Title: Love Without Fear
(Lecture 45) 1 John 4:18 Love without fear
<text>
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has a punishment, for he who fears is not perfected in love (1 John 4:18).
<sermon>
The basis for believers to be bold in God's judgment is not in our good works, but in the righteous deeds of Jesus. Believers can see God's love in Jesus' righteous deeds, that is, death on the cross, and it is boldness that God's love is perfected in us. Therefore, believers who live in God's love do not have to worry about falling into destruction because of their transgressions. This is why we must base our faith on Jesus alone.
It is not that we live a good life or a bad life that determines our eternity, but our unbelief that we cannot see the righteous works of Jesus determines our eternity.
The text says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has its punishment, for the one who fears is not perfected in love.”
What kind of fear is meant here? If you connect it with last week's words, it can be seen as a fear of the day of judgment.
What will a person fear on the day of judgment? Isn't that the fear that he might not be saved and that he might be destroyed? And such concerns are always generated by looking at one's own actions in the past. It is to judge good or evil based on one's own ethics and morals for one's actions.
While speaking of Jesus, since we base our faith on good deeds, we lose our confidence in our faith because we do not live a good life and do not have good deeds. That is, the belief itself is questioned. This puts you in fear.
Judgment, calamity, and these words are probably the words that the church uses to urge its members. By saying things like, ‘Will you go to heaven because you have become so lazy of faith?’, you make them fear the judgment, and in the end, they make you work hard to go to heaven. However, this is only the tyranny of the church, not the content of the Bible.
Fear of judgment is not right for believers. Because it is outside of God's love. God's love makes believers taste happiness. Because of God's love, you can taste the happiness of living without any fear, longing for the time when Jesus will come.
However, busy minds about the world prevent them from enjoying this happiness. It seems that our hearts cannot afford to taste the happiness of God's love. Because life is so hard. My mind is too busy trying to live a life that goes backwards to achieve what I want, rather than a life that goes with the flow. So, although we are talking about grace and love, our hearts for joy, joy, and gratitude are already far away.
We need to put us on the judgment seat of God. When we stand at the judgment seat of God that must be fulfilled, we must be able to properly see what saves us. When you stand before the judgment seat, will you not discover what is truly valuable?
The world can live without God's grace, but at the judgment seat, nothing is needed, only grace. Even our good deeds are treated as garbage at the judgment seat. Therefore, you will realize how great and great God's love shown in Jesus is at the judgment seat.
Believers should be able to find themselves unable to live without God's grace and love. We must be able to realize and be thankful that God's love protects and protects us from the judgment seat. The world looks down on judgment itself, but aren't believers witnessing God's judgment through the cross that sent his Son to die? Haven't you shown that by killing your son, He pays for your sins thoroughly in judgment? Therefore, the believer cannot neglect the day of God's judgment.
God's love is a strong fence for believers. There is nothing more reassuring than that you do not see our good and bad things and love you just because you have chosen and called us. If you turn away from this kind of love, what do you depend on, what do you want to see and live?
It is a world where it seems as if we can live as long as we have money, but the years of living with money are only temporary. Life with power is only temporary. But the years of love are eternal. This love casts fear away from the believer.
Hebrews 9:27 says, “It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that comes judgment.” Please remember these words. Many people forget about death and live, but it is a determined rule that a person dies once. And after death there is judgment. Because believers believe in these words, they cannot but look to Jesus, who is the power of salvation.
Noah built the ark, but in good weather the ark is of no value. Rather, only those who build the ark are treated as insane. A believer is just such a being. The world sees the present as a normal age. Because they see it as the age of living without Jesus, they treat believing in Jesus as futile. However, just as the value of the ark is revealed at the time of the flood, the value of faith will shine at the judgment. And you will rejoice and be grateful. You will realize that believing in Jesus was a more precious blessing than anything in the world. The important thing is to live while enjoying a little bit of it in this era. For that, you need to put yourself on the judgment seat of God.
Even if it seems that faith has no benefit to me now, even if it seems as if God does not exist, when the time of judgment comes, the truth will be revealed in its entirety. The believer is living by seeing it in advance.
If he can taste the Lord's forgiveness and how great God's love is like this, he will treat his brother as a forgiven person. You will treat your brother with the forgiving heart of the Lord.
The hour of judgment now turns our hearts more toward Christ. For believers, judgment is not a day of fear, but a day of realizing and confirming how precious God's love was. If there is fear, he is without God's love, so there will be punishment in the end. Believers are held captive by the power of love. So death is not a fear. Rather, it is the joy of meeting the Lord. I hope that we will be able to confirm God's love more deeply on the cross.