I know for some people, this would be a 'duh' statement. Perfect love casts out fear. But do we really know what that means? How has this verse affected us individually, or has it?
Where do I begin? All through my life I would hear bits and pieces of the Gospel, but I never put the pieces together until I was about 17. I had heard about God's love for me, but I didn't really know what it meant. One of the songs I learned when I was little was, 'Jesus loves me'. But it was confusing for me to understand, for God was dealing with my heart and helping me to understand that not everything was o.k. in my life. I was under God's wrath because of my selfishness and sin. But doesn't the song say that 'little ones to Him belong'? If God really loves me as much as people say, then why should I have to worry about going to hell after I die? God doesn't send people He loves so much to hell, does He? That didn't make any sense to me.
And then there are people you have to contend with every day. Everything was fine until I got into second grade. Kids in my class made fun of me and some would do things to get me into trouble. It only got worse when I was older. There were the bullies and there were the betrayers. By the time I was 14, I stopped trusting people. If someone said something nice about me, I had my doubts. I could not accept a person's friendship unless they passed a rigid test I would put out for them.
Other children picked on me and bullied me around. But at age 14, the tables turned. Now I was the bully. I was the one starting fights with people. No one was going to bully me around or betray me anymore. I was the one to call the shots in any relationships I had.
But there were some serious affects in my life because of this. You see, I built walls around me to protect myself from rejection. I protected my emotions from being destroyed. But when a person comes to Christ and is regenerated, they are a new creation. They experience God's love, but if they don't understand what love is, they will not be made perfect in God's love (they will not mature in God's love).
The walls stayed up for many years. Of course, I didn't understand about these walls or what they meant, or even what to do about them. The walls became obvious to me when I found myself in church settings where people would hug one another. I can smile at people, and I can talk nice to them and probably even love them, but I could not hug people. What was my hang up? Why didn't I trust anyone? But even more than that, what is the cure for my aloofness?
After years of being in the same church, I did begin to trust people again. It took a long time, but I recovered from my lack of ability to hug people. Certainly, I am going to be careful about how much to entrust to each individual I encounter, for I know there are those who will betray, even if they think they have good intentions. But, in spite of the walls of hostility, God's love began to make the walls crumble.
But here is the real cure: 1 John 4:18 says "There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment and has to do with punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love."
Experiencing God's love for me is very healing. It will help the walls to crumble. It will demolish the devil's lies, which are continually before me. Knowing God's word and letting the word of God be activated in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, will cause us to be set free from the prisons we built around ourselves when others rejected us and bullied us around.
The second thing we need to have is the power of the Holy Spirit in us. You could see the difference in the lives of the Apostles after the Holy Spirit came down upon them and filled them. We can have the same thing today. Ephesians 5:18 tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We can know all about God, we can know tons of Scripture, but unless the Holy Spirit activates the word of God in our hearts, unless the word of God is applied to our lives, nothing will happen. We need a dynamic encounter with the true and living God.
A word of caution and clarification: A lot of people use God's love as an excuse to not repent. Many will be thinking, just like I did, that if God really loves me as much as everyone says He does, He's not going to send me to hell, for God doesn't send people He loves to hell. Here's the deal: God is holy. We are sinful. Because God is holy and just, He must punish sin. The white lie you told yesterday. The baby you aborted last year. The woman you were secretly having a relationship with. The porn magazines you have been reading. The list could go on and on. We continually sin and are storing up wrath for us on the Day of Judgment. In order for us to be cleared on the Day of Judgment, we would have to live a life where we never sinned. Not even once. We would have to have loved God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, 24/7. No one has ever done that, except One person.
So, why would a loving God send us to hell? Does this seem fair? Let's look at this issue a little deeper. God loves His creation so much, that He did something very spectacular, but very costly to Himself, so that human beings could now be cleared on Judgment Day. Around 2,000 years ago, God sent His Son, His only Son, to live on earth, the planet we ruined. But His Son never sinned or did anything wrong. He lived for about 33 years, and some mean people arrested Him and gave Him and unfair trial. Now, He could easily have gotten out of the trial because He didn't do anything wrong. But He went through the trial, and died an awful death, the death of crucifixion, which was one of the worst forms of execution in the entire course of History. He did this out of love for us. He chose to do this. It was voluntary on His part.
When He died, God the Father put all of our sins on His Son, whom He loved, and He willingly took the punishment that He didn't deserve, and died. While He was dying, many things happened. For 3 hours, there was darkness over the whole land (this was during the day). One of the last sayings of Jesus was 'It is finished'. He was telling us that His death on the Cross had accomplished what we needed to have to be saved from God's wrath. Another thing that happened was that the heavy curtain that separated the people from the 'Holy of Holies'* was torn in two. Now the people could enter a place that was formerly forbidden, for God's presence was in the 'Holy of holies' and no one could go in there unless they were completely purified according to God's instructions.
Jesus made the way open between God and man. Now, mankind can have access to God, but, it is only through the shed blood of God's Son. Anything else we try to do or bring to God will be an offense to Him.
But Jesus did not only die for us. He rose from the grave, and He ascended back into Heaven. Today, He is praying for those who are His.
So, now do you see how God's love works? His love does not keep us in our sins and say it is o.k. His love provided a way for us to be forgiven of our sins, cleansed from our sins, restoration brought to us, and reconciliation between us and God. Now we can not only be cleansed, but we can know God personally and He dwells with His people by His Holy Spirit.
When we realize God's love and nearness, the walls of hostility that we built will come down, brick by brick. If we dwell in God's love, the walls will continue to come down. We will experience healing and those things which blocked us from seeing God will also fall down. Plus, we will be able to discern the difference between God's voice and the devil's. The devil puts thoughts and ideas in our minds that sound plausible to our thinking, and without realizing it, we believe the lies, then we start acting upon them as if they are real. These lies end up affecting everything we do. They also affect what we believe about ourselves and about God, and they can keep us from trusting God. They can also keep us in fear.
Faith is the opposite of fear. Faith comes about when we hear the word of God, and when God's word is activated in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The Bible has a lot to say about God's love for us. God wants to have a relationship with us. God promises to work all things together for our good and for His glory. But these promises only apply to people who know God. Only those who have Jesus Christ as their Lord/Savior can have this type of relationship with God the Father.
Some Christians actually think and teach that God is after us to punish us the second we fall. It is like God is just waiting for that moment when we sin, and bam, we become toast. But this is not true. God knows when each one of us is going to sin. God also provides a way for us to escape having to sin. He also gives us a new heart that hates sin. He gives us His Holy Spirit to have the power for us to say 'no' to sin. All of these things are available to us because of God's great love for His people.
If you are a person who has trusted in Jesus Christ to save you from your sins, and have turned from sin and turned to God, then I would encourage you to spend time in the word. Take your time and don't read the Bible just because it is the 'Christian' thing to do. The Bible is like spiritual food, and we need to have it to grow with. Wait upon God and let Him speak to your heart. Anything God tells us is always based upon Scriptures.
If you are a person who has not yet come to Jesus Christ for salvation, I would encourage you to go to http://thegospelconversation.blogspot.com or http://test4gp.wordpress.com Both of these pages will help you understand the Gospel better, and will help you understand why you need to be saved from your sins (from God's wrath and from the slavery of sin). Don't be afraid to go here. God wants you to understand the Gospel and what He has done for you. The devil will put all kinds of lies in your head as to why it isn't important, or, that you really don't need it. But the key part of life is listening to God and rejecting the devil and separating the two opposing voices that can so easily sound the same to us.
* Holy of Holies is a specific room in the Temple where the priest would go in once a year to bring the atonement offering. If there were any impurities in the priest, he would die in the Holy of Holies. I have heard that they would tie a rope around him and attach bells to him and if they didn't hear the bells, and if they assumed he died, they would have been able to pull him out with the attached rope. I do not know the accuracy of this, but, the seriousness of the Holy of Holies is just like that. God is unapproachable. But now we can have access directly to God, because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
