"Perfect Love Casts Out Fear"
"What is this Perfect Love"
"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 yet perfected in Love." 1 John 4:18
"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 yet perfected in Love." 1 John 4:18
So, if we contemplate on this "Perfect Love casts out fear", we can discover that it has two sides, just like a coin. On one side, there's that "Perfect Love" again. On the other side, however, we have "fear". Wait just a minute. You mean we have to have "fear" imposed on us as well? What on earth do we have to fear? Well, if we take our heads out of sand, and look past the school year, the soccer games, the church benefits, the never ending flow of bills; maybe, just maybe, our eyes would be open to the darkness enveloping our lives at an accelerating rate. Why in the world didn't anyone warn us that we, and our loved ones are on the verge of being devoured? Oh wait a minute! Someone does warn us. It's written in Words centuries back. It takes us back to The One Who constantly flashes this "Perfect Love" in our faces.
People, it's true! Nothing lasts forever. Sooner, or later the sand we bury our heads in so intensely will all be washed away. We NEED that "Perfect Love"!!! Without it, we are doomed. I don't care if we are the richest people in the world. It doesn't matter if we give our inner most being to care for the poor, or hold positions of the highest political power. Without Love we are doomed! People don't realize that the only thing keeping them taking air into their lungs is "Infallible Love". You know, the Perfect Kind??? It is so freely offered to us, we ignore it, and sometimes yet rant against it. We get irritated if someone wants to remind us of it. Yet, without it's sustaining power, we would simple fall into a worthless pile of dust. If you recall, we were created from dust. Unless, you're convinced that everything just came into being by a random explosion. That wouldn't matter, anyway. An explosion brought you here. An explosion can take you out.
So, What is Perfect Love? I would say it is the very thing that is keeping all of creation in one piece. Without it, we would be doomed. Our kids would be doomed. Our homes would be destroyed. I can go on, but I think I'm making my point. This Love needs to be accepted. It's what keeps you holding your children in your arms. It's what gives you those warm summer evenings rocking your grand baby on the front porch. It's what compelled a Loving Creator to devise a plan to take back what He loved so dearly, His Children. Everything good came from Him. But in His Heart, you and I were astounding! He was NOT going to give us up. Because of our free will and our fallen nature, we gave ourselves over to one who could not wait to devour us, our children, and our children's children. Yes, we are all on the evil one's hit list. Everything we have done in our earthly lives is full of mistakes. As adults, we teach our children that when we do something wrong, we need to face the consequences. If we, as mankind were to face consequences for all our wrong actions, we would forever be paying for them. It's consequences would be death, separation from Life and torment forever. We could never pay it back. We would be separated from Perfect Love, and we would be separated from each other, eternally, no turning back.
However, "The One Who is Love" wisely and gracious planned ahead. He anguished at the thought of us in dark and lonely separation for eternity. But most of all, He could not bear the thought of being separated those He would so willingly give His Life for. But what about the law of sin and death. Some may call it "cause and effect". We provide the cause when we reject His Love. We suffer the effect. Unfortunately the effect ends up being death, permanently.
So God, contemplating the laws that come attached to creation, He came up with a brilliant idea. Because a law is a law, and where there is sin, there is death. He decided since death is the full consequence of sin, He would die in order to satisfy the law. The Law says, you sin, you die. He couldn't let that happen. He knew we weren't perfect. But He Loves us so much that he gave us life. Just as we get excited when we have a child. We give them life, and we are not readily going to give them up. We want them in our lives. He realized that there was an enormous amount of sin, and with it an enormous amount of compensation. So, Whoever covered the expenses was going to have to suffer unreasonably for that tremendous amount of sin. But who could He get to do it? He didn't know anybody that selfless. This is the moment that "Perfect Love" stepped into the picture. He then accepted the fact that He was just going to have to do it Himself. It was a tall order. But if He wanted to be with those He loved so dearly, this was the way.
As He thought it through, He decided that He as a Deity, felt it had to be someone similar to those who committed the offenses. It was then, He realized that He Himself would have to take the same path as His Creation. He would come to earth born as an infant, and grow up up just the same as us. And since He alone had the power to overcome death, He would allow Himself to go through death, torment, and agony. But keep in mind, He didn't just suffer my death, torment, and agony, or yours. He took on Himself the death, torment, darkness and agony of His Children from the beginning to the end of time, all at once. This became our redemption. Because He paid the penalty of death for sin, we are free to Live. Once we realize Who He is, and How He Loves us, we should be willing to give our hearts, trust, and lives to Him. And in that almost magical moment that we do; we pass from darkness and death to Life Everlasting. It is the we see that "death has forever lost it's sting.".
Perfect Love is finally here.
