Skip to main content

The fearlessness of love

What is love? How do I know that I love others as I am supposed to? Is it possible to love others and not like them?  How do I grow in love? These are just some of the many questions we all have about love. They are also questions that early followers of Jesus had. The first letter of 1 John was written to answer some of these questions. Here is how John expressed one of his answers: 
God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgement, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. [1 JOHN 4:16-18]
The Bible teaches us that history of the world is linear, with God standing at the end of the line as our final Judge. Just as you did not choose when you were born, you will not choose when you start the final leg of your journey into eternity! Why will God judge the world? Because he must punish all who have rejected His love and continue to cling to sin.

On Judgement Day, all those who have refused to accept Jesus will suffer eternal torment beyond imagination. We think of the most terrible tragedies we have witnessed in the world over the last few months, Hell will be infinitely worse! We should be absolutely clear that anyone who dies today without Jesus is already judged and enters eternity in Hell on remand as they await their final sentence in Hell forever! 

We should also be clear that all human beings will be judged, including all followers of Jesus, as Paul makes clear to the church at Corinth. The key difference between followers of Jesus and those that have rejected Jesus  is that for all true followers of Jesus, the day of judgement will be our welcome home party.

I wonder, how do you feel when you read such words? How do you feel about the prospect of appearing before the judgement seat of Christ, to stand before His throne? If you know who God is, you are certainly not feeling indifferent. You know standing before God is not just another day in court. What I hope you are feeling is excitement. The prospect of meeting God as Judge should fill you with excitement because if you  belong to Jesus you have reason to be confident that you truly belong to God the Judge of all mankind.

John’s concern is that some of us feel the opposite emotion. The prospect of facing God makes us fearful.Human beings are full of fear. The original word for fear in the Bible is phobia. If you search online you will find hundreds of phobias people have. I recently discovered that that some people have a fear of being in church. It has been termed ecclesiophobia. John is concerned by a fear some call krisisphobia - the fear of facing God on judgement day!

John recognises that followers of Jesus may lack assurance that they belong to God. We know that God is real and that He is holy and powerful. Sometimes that worries us because we know that we let God down so many times and we wonder whether we belong to him at all! When we look at how we lives and compare them to the standard of the Bible, we worry that perhaps we are not born again at all. This lack of confidence that we genuinely belong to God and that we may have to face God can live us paralyzed and feeling empty.

An academic study undertaken in 2004 asked 100 students whether the love they received from their parents seemed to depend on whether they had succeeded in school. It turned out that children who felt they received such conditional love still did as their parents wanted. But their obedience increased the resentment and dislike of their parents. Also, their happiness after succeeding in school was usually short-lived and often led to feelings of being ashamed.

What is true in our human relationships is also true in spiritual life. If we are not confident that we are loved by God we may outwardly do many things for God, but inside we grow distant from him. Slowly our fear of judgement will move us to “works based” relationship with God rather than the grace found in the Jesus! As Adrian Rodgers says, “trying to live as Christians without full and absolute confidence in God is like driving a car with the brakes on”.

So how should we respond to our fear of facing God on judgement day? Not by pretending we don’t have fears. John assumes we do! What we need to do is to put them to bed by exposing them before the evidence of God’s love in our lives. The awesome truth of 1 John is that God is love and this God of love has taken permanent residence within the walls of our hearts. So, the way for us to confront our fears and doubts is to look at the evidence of the love of God being made visible in our lives.

The word “perfected” means “complete” or “maturity”. John is saying as God’s love matures in us, it transforms us from inside out. How can we tell whether we are maturing as a Christian? John is saying spiritual growth is growing in loving God and His people. Your spiritual maturity is not measured by your age, how long you have been a Christian, or have been a member of a certain church. It is not even measured by your Bible knowledge or the level of your  giving. It is measured by the growth of your love. If you are growing in loving God and loving others then you have no reason to fear the day of judgement. No one is perfect in love. But as we live for God we become more like our Father in our love because as He is so we are.

Maybe you are in that season where you worry about death and judgement. The question you need to ask yourself is this: are you growing in loving God and his people? Is there more and more evidence that you are longing to know and obey God? Is your love increasingly practical, willing, sacrificial and never asks anything in return? Can you see a growth trend upwards?

If your answers to these question are yes, then you have no reason to fear judgement day. Be confident and fearless that you belong to God! If you do not see evidence then it may be that you do not belong to Jesus. So, repent now and truly accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour!


Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2017
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I am what I am by Gloria Gaynor

Beverly Knight closed the opening ceremony of the Paralympics with what has been dubbed the signature tune of the Paralympics. I had no idea Ms Knight is still in the singing business. And clearly going by the raving reviews she will continue to be around. One media source says her performance was so electric that "there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as she sang the lyrics to the song and people even watching at home felt the passion in her words" . The song was Gloria Gaynor's I am what I am . Clearly not written by Gloria Gaynor but certainly musically owned and popularized by her. It opens triumphantly: I am what I am / I am my own special creation / So come take a look / Give me the hook or the ovation / It's my world that I want to have a little pride in / My world and it's not a place I have to hide in / Life's not worth a damn till you can say I am what I am The words “I am what I am” echo over ten times in the song. A bold declaration that she
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

The Price of Obedience

If we obey God it is going to cost other people more than it costs us, and that is where the sting comes in. If we are in love with our Lord, obedience does not cost us anything, it is a delight, but it costs those who do not love Him a good deal. If we obey God it will mean that other people’s plans are upset, and they will gibe us with it—“You call this Christianity?” We can prevent the suffering; but if we are going to obey God, we must not prevent it, we must let the cost be. - OSWALD CHAMBERS This is by far the hardest thing we are likely to struggle with as we seek to live lives that are totally surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. What if obeying God meant that your family members lost a well-known or well-loved circle of acquaintances? Had to move to a smaller house? Drove uglier cars? Wore older clothes? Lived by a weekly rather monthly budget?Accepting this part of obeying God is especially difficult for men or women who are the breadwinners for their families. The c
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

Workers for Your Joy (A Review)

Workers for your Joy (WFYJ) is about what Christ calls leaders in his church to be and do, particularly the teaching office in the church (i.e. pastor or elder).  It presents a biblical vision of leadership by going through the fifteen qualifications of elders listed 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. The central question Mathis is basically asking is – how should we pastor or lead the church in light of these qualifications? The target audience of the book seems to be those who are in the early stages of pastoral ministry. The book was part of the seminary syllabus at Bethlehem. However, the author does explicitly state that the book is also meant to be of use to church members in considering what Christ expects of leadership in the local church.   Mathis has written this book because he believes leadership has fallen on hard times. The church in the west and the society around us has become increasingly discontent with being led due to the high-profile cases that have sprung about leadership.
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →