Fear to Love

1 John 3: 21-24
²¹Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²²and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. ²³And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

1 John 4:16b-18
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. ¹⁷In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. ¹⁸There 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.

May, thus far, has been an emotional month. Many feeling from December surfaced and once again I'm wrestling through issues of spirituality and religion. In retrospect, these issues have been simmering since January, but in a sudden burst they overflowed last weekend. At the same time, holding on to something I once enjoyed, I turned to the three books of John in the Bible. Nothing really struck me as I read through the first chapters, merely taking it in as a discipline. Then the above two passages caught my eye. Rereading them, thoughts started to form, but nothing too concrete. Sunday, we read the latter of the two scriptures in church and it seemed hardly coincidental.

Many of these internal struggles come from fear of doing something wrong...choosing something wrong...the fear that God's punishment will be upon me, so I better not mess up. That's what was so freeing about the beginning of this year as I explored grace, the sense that God had me and was not letting go. Fear has a way of making you forget grace. So instead of focusing on the fact that I've identified what's driving these feelings, I've begun to think about perfect love. It's what drives out fear and boy do I want this fear driven out. Fear paralizes you and robs you. Fear takes good and perfect and distorts it, telling you false things and stealing your hope.

Maybe following Jesus is more about love than doctrines and rules. This seems like a freeing thought and I've asked God, who is perfect love, to reveal this to me.

Perfect love. Love others. Love God.