ICS Daily Devotions
God’s Love Casts Out Fear
1 John 4:18 (NKJV) There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
The church is supposed to be the most powerful force in the world when we are walking in love towards God and our fellow brothers in Christ. This is the heart of God for the church today. It is for us to return to our first love for God after salvation and the decision to love one another despite of our weaknesses and differences so that the world will know God through us.
The love of God makes the difference. It is very challenging to be a witness to the world without a proper relationship with God and the believers around us. Generally speaking if there are strives, divisions and church politics, then we are still carnal.
The members will be stumbled, and the world will scorn at us. The world is already very divisive starting from the family unit, the community and the corporate world. What is truly lacking is genuine love and care for people starting from the church. The church should be able to show forth God’s unconditional love.
There is no perfect love in this world except the love of Christ. We are referring to God’s unconditional love, which needs to be experienced to properly release our spiritual freedom.
Many people live a very guarded life because they have lost trust in people including people whom they think will protect and love them. We are very skeptical when people treat us well because we think that there is an agenda that follows.
We might have been abandoned by our parents when we were young due to a bitter divorce. In fact, some people might have been so hurt by people that they have built up an inner protective mechanism to never love again. We are fearful to love. We might not even know how to express love because there was not a role model for us.
We live in an imperfect world and many are selfish. The world operates in phileo love, which is a conditional love. It is a love where we love only if we are loved back.
Since phileo is a conditional love, we have a tendency of being fearful of not meeting the expectation of the person whom we are seeking for love. We always try to measure up to the expectation.
Therefore, if we do not understand the agape, which is the unconditional perfect love of God, we will always be fearful about God and the impending judgment. It can be tormenting! We need to understand the love of God so that we can use the same love to love others.
1 John 4:10,19 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins… We love Him because He first loved us.
God is a holy, righteous and just God, and therefore, He has to judge the sin of mankind. But due to our inability, He cannot allow us not to pay for the penalty of our sins.
We are helpless in redeeming ourselves from our sin. But His love was manifested when He sent Jesus to become the propitiation of our sins. Jesus’ sacrifice brought atonement and reconciliation between God and men.
Romans 5:1 (NKJV) Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no longer any form of torment that arises from fear when we know that we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. He has become sin for us, his blood has bought atonement and reconciliation with God for us. It is an expression of His perfect and unconditional love. Thus, we should not be tormented by the fear of judgment in time to come. The penalty and the price for sin has been settled through the blood of Jesus Christ. We have peace with God!
Sermon series: Our Church Experiencing God Together (CG Campaign 1)
