Today, we are considering 1 John 4:17-18, 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
All humans will live forever. We will, in eternity, live forever or we will die forever. At the end of time, everyone will give an account to God. Where we spend eternity weighs in the balance. In 1 John 4:17, John is saying that if we want to have boldness, confidence, in the day of judgment, then we must let (His) love be perfected among us because when love is perfected among us, we will have confidence for the day of judgment.
Note the phrase at the end of v.17, "In this world we are like Jesus." This phrase does not mean "our efforts of imitating Him". It means He has applied His perfection to us and He is living in us. It means, "whatever good I do, it is He that is doing it." All too often, we Christians fall into the age old diabolical trap of the enemy of trying to be good enough ourselves by trying to live in a way of convincing God that we are worthy of His acceptance and love. In fact, all religions do this. The goal of Hinduism is to be a god. The goal of Mormonism is to be a god on your own planet. That age old temptation that Eve bit into ... "you shall be like God."
This is not the way of God. His way is that of grace. As someone once said, "only the empty hand of faith receives from the full hand of grace." When God looks at my life and sees the application and activity of himself in me, then he will not deny himself at the day of judgment.
1 John 4:19 is a powerful verse, it reads, "There is no fear
in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with
punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." Love casts out fear. It gives us freedom from fear. What it really says in the original is, "fear has punishment," not "has to do with punishment," as though it always produces it. Even more literally, since this word for punishment comes from a root word which means to limit or to restrain, what John is saying here is that fear has limitation, fear imprisons us. Worry and anxiety are forms of fear, and they literally imprison us, they limit us. It is because fear has limitation. Fear imprisons us, boxes us in, binds us up, limits our life, pushes us into corners and keeps us there, and we cannot live as God intended for us to live.
John writes in v.18, "He who fears is not perfected in love." The Believer has the life of God in him. And if he isn't being defined by that life, he will not express it back to God and others. No wonder he finds himself all bound up inside. He is limited, unable to move and do as he should. But love, perfected, casts out fear. John is not talking about a perfect kind of love; it is love that is made perfect, love that is perfected, love that comes to its end and accomplishes its purpose. It is matured love. This explains why we make so many choices that we conclude at some point are stupid. His life and love best defines us. This is what frees us to live the life that He died to give us.
Australian-born Nick Vujicic was born without arms and legs. In Nicks words, "On the morning of my birth, Dad was beside her and could see my
shoulder had no arm. He nearly fainted and vomited, and the nurse had to
take him out of the room. I had phocemelia, no limbs, and there was no
medical explanation. It wasn’t genetic and it wasn't thalidomide. They
said I would be a vegetable. My mum said, “Take him away — I don’t
want to see him.” But my dad comforted her and said, “He’s beautiful.”
They took me home, but it took three to four months for my mother to
come to terms with it. I tried prosthetics at 6-years-old, but
after months of trying, I had already learned to do many things without
them and they limited my movements. I
was the first disabled person integrated into the Australian school
system. I was bullied in school. My parents said ignore them, but I
didn’t want to be special. I just wanted arms and legs to and to be like
everyone else. Everyone is looking for something to make them
happy — money drugs alcohol. I wanted to know I was not just a write
off. Every time a kid laughed at me or excluded me from a game, that
fear came back. My parents told me they would never give up on me. My
home was my refuge. When I was 10 years old I wanted to commit
suicide. I felt I had no value, and I thought I would always be a burden
to my parents and never get married. That was until I saw a boy with no
arms and legs like me, and I knew I could help him. As
a teenager, I wanted to be as independent as I could be. My parents
told me, “You don’t know what you can achieve until you try it.” I go
swimming and fishing and do many things now like snowboarding and
surfing. I can brush my teeth and wash my hair. In any situation, I do
the best that I can. It’s not what you have, but what you do with it. I
am not afraid to try and fail. I
started motivational speaking around Australia when I was 19 and then
traveled the world for five years. I had relatives in California and
they encouraged me to come over: “Nick, you can make your dreams come
true and reach the world.” I started up Life Without Limbs, and we just
celebrated our 10th anniversary. I have traveled to 58 countries
and 3 million miles — that’s no exaggeration. We are thankful to speak
to world leaders, but also to orphans and the disadvantaged and
forgotten. I have a caregiver to travel with me."
