Perfect love - understand and be free
There is no fear in love: true love has no room for fear, because where fear is, there is pain; and he who is not free from fear is not complete in love.
- 1 Jn 4:18 (BBE)
I was pondering this earlier today as we all know perfect love casts off all fear. So to be rid of fear, one needs to be complete in love. But how?
First we need to know what Perfect Love is to be able to answer the above question. If we do not know what perfect love is, we cannot understand what it means to be or not be complete in it.
So I looked at earlier quotes from 1 John -
1Jn 4:7 My loved ones, let us have love for one another: because love is of God, and everyone who has love is a child of God and has knowledge of God.
1Jn 4:8 He who has no love has no knowledge of God, because God is love.
1Jn 4:9 And the love of God was made clear to us when he sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.
1Jn 4:10 And this is love, not that we had love for God, but that he had love for us, and sent his Son to be an offering for our sins.
1Jn 4:11 My loved ones, if God had such love for us, it is right for us to have love for one another.
1Jn 4:12 No man has ever seen God: if we have love for one another, God is in us and his love is made complete in us:
1Jn 4:13 And his Spirit which he has given us is the witness that we are in him and he is in us.
So from the above it is clear that
1) God is love.
2) If we have love, we are a children of God and we have knowledge of God
3) We know He loves us because of Jesus's ultimate sacrifice on the cross to redeem us from the curses of the Law and from sin so that we can become the righteousness of God through Christ, that by His stripes we ARE HEALED, and that we have become heirs to the promises of Abraham and have the promise of eternal life in Him
4) Love is not about how much we love Him but about how much He loves us. Our love ebs and flows, His is constant.
5) His love is complete in us when we love one another - not because we have seen Him. Through the Holy Spirit, we know He is in us and we are in Him.
SO...
To be in perfect love is to know how much God loves you, that He is in you and you are in Him & this is complete when we love one another as Christ loves us... uncondtionally and unwavering.
We know that when Christ died on the cross - He said IT IS FINISHED - altho' we have trials and tribulations in this life, we know that they have been conquered on the cross 2000 years ago. We can have the confidence to confess that the battle belongs to the LORD. He traded places with us on that cross - to be the absolute stink so that we can be fragrant to our Heavenly Daddy... to be the abomination so that we can be lovely in our Heavenly Daddy's eyes. He took all that we are so that we can be wrapped up in all that He is.
We know we can now come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and help for every situation - not because we are perfect (we can never be perfect) but because we are made perfect through Jesus and because God is perfect love itself.
From the above quoets, I also learned that we should heap love on our enemies - and once we do, we have nothing to fear from them because what can they do to us? They did bad but we stopped that vicious cycle of revenge by choosing to love them because Christ first loved us. We don't do in the dark what we would not do in the day - we act in obedience to the ways of our LORD, not the ways of the world.
A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye is not of the New Covenant we are under!
We understand that the same God who loves us so much He send Christ to die on the cross for us, also sent Christ to die for them.
So once we understand what perfect love is - that we can't be perfect love but we are in perfect love, covered by it - we can let go of fears that we are not good enough, fears that we cannot win the victory, fears that our illness will consume us, fears of the recession affecting us, etc
Perfect love is all encompassing and when He died on that cross, He left no stone unturned. He has perfectly saved, He perfectly provides, He perfectly protects, gives us perfect Shalom, and He perfectly loves - today, tomorrow and forever because He is the constant that we seek. =)
- 1 Jn 4:18 (BBE)
I was pondering this earlier today as we all know perfect love casts off all fear. So to be rid of fear, one needs to be complete in love. But how?
First we need to know what Perfect Love is to be able to answer the above question. If we do not know what perfect love is, we cannot understand what it means to be or not be complete in it.
So I looked at earlier quotes from 1 John -
1Jn 4:7 My loved ones, let us have love for one another: because love is of God, and everyone who has love is a child of God and has knowledge of God.
1Jn 4:8 He who has no love has no knowledge of God, because God is love.
1Jn 4:9 And the love of God was made clear to us when he sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.
1Jn 4:10 And this is love, not that we had love for God, but that he had love for us, and sent his Son to be an offering for our sins.
1Jn 4:11 My loved ones, if God had such love for us, it is right for us to have love for one another.
1Jn 4:12 No man has ever seen God: if we have love for one another, God is in us and his love is made complete in us:
1Jn 4:13 And his Spirit which he has given us is the witness that we are in him and he is in us.
So from the above it is clear that
1) God is love.
2) If we have love, we are a children of God and we have knowledge of God
3) We know He loves us because of Jesus's ultimate sacrifice on the cross to redeem us from the curses of the Law and from sin so that we can become the righteousness of God through Christ, that by His stripes we ARE HEALED, and that we have become heirs to the promises of Abraham and have the promise of eternal life in Him
4) Love is not about how much we love Him but about how much He loves us. Our love ebs and flows, His is constant.
5) His love is complete in us when we love one another - not because we have seen Him. Through the Holy Spirit, we know He is in us and we are in Him.
SO...
To be in perfect love is to know how much God loves you, that He is in you and you are in Him & this is complete when we love one another as Christ loves us... uncondtionally and unwavering.
We know that when Christ died on the cross - He said IT IS FINISHED - altho' we have trials and tribulations in this life, we know that they have been conquered on the cross 2000 years ago. We can have the confidence to confess that the battle belongs to the LORD. He traded places with us on that cross - to be the absolute stink so that we can be fragrant to our Heavenly Daddy... to be the abomination so that we can be lovely in our Heavenly Daddy's eyes. He took all that we are so that we can be wrapped up in all that He is.
We know we can now come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy and help for every situation - not because we are perfect (we can never be perfect) but because we are made perfect through Jesus and because God is perfect love itself.
From the above quoets, I also learned that we should heap love on our enemies - and once we do, we have nothing to fear from them because what can they do to us? They did bad but we stopped that vicious cycle of revenge by choosing to love them because Christ first loved us. We don't do in the dark what we would not do in the day - we act in obedience to the ways of our LORD, not the ways of the world.
A tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye is not of the New Covenant we are under!
We understand that the same God who loves us so much He send Christ to die on the cross for us, also sent Christ to die for them.
So once we understand what perfect love is - that we can't be perfect love but we are in perfect love, covered by it - we can let go of fears that we are not good enough, fears that we cannot win the victory, fears that our illness will consume us, fears of the recession affecting us, etc
Perfect love is all encompassing and when He died on that cross, He left no stone unturned. He has perfectly saved, He perfectly provides, He perfectly protects, gives us perfect Shalom, and He perfectly loves - today, tomorrow and forever because He is the constant that we seek. =)
Comments
Post a Comment