Love: The Antidote to Fear

Love.  That word gets thrown around a lot, but what does it really mean?

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.  (One translation puts it this way: 'he who fears has not fully experienced His perfect love.')  ~ 1 John 4:18

A friend loves at all times... ~ Proverbs 17:17

For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  
~2 Timothy 1:7

...God is Love ~ 1 John 4:8. 

Love in this context means "agape," or unconditional love.  Agapeo is used to describe the Love of the Father toward us.  The same word is used in John 3:16 ~ For God so loved (agapaō) the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

YOU are loved!

Love: the Great Commandment

But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.  Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. ~ Matthew 22:34-40. 

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Interesting aside:  Did you know that the same word, agapaō (unconditional love) was used in a very different context in scripture?  Yes, that word is also used in John 12:43 ~ "For they loved (agapaō) the praise of men more than the praise of God."  Also in John 3:19 ~ "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved (agapaō) darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."  Interesting, huh?  That same unconditional love with which God loved us and with which we are commanded to love others, can be twisted and misapplied.

Guess that's why 1 John 2:15 says, Love not the world (world systems), neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For additional study on this topic, click here.

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1 John 4:19 ~ We love, because (God) first loved us. 

I can't help but think of this song whenever I think of the Father's love for us.  I also think of this song, Bob Dylan's "To Make You Feel My Love."  

 

The beauty is Christ really did go to the ends of the earth for us. 

My prayer for us today is that we fully experience His perfect love, so that we may reach out and touch the lives of others with that same love.  As 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, "God is the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God."

As the Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:14-19, so I pray:

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell (remain) in your hearts by faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love (agape!), may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love (agape!) of Christ, which passes knowledge; that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.

Amen.  Know that you are LOVED today!  God and I love you.  Until next time, the peace of Christ remain with you.