God is love.
We are called to love.
Love is essential to the Christian life.
So what is love? I *love* the picture of love in I Jn. 4:16-21.
The end of this passage is fairly familiar, but I think that v. 18 gives a great picture of love.
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear"
The context has to do with punishment, but I think it applies as a general account of love.
This perfect love then: (i) does not fear what others will think (ie. whether it is seen as appropriate or not/whether it falls in line with cultural or social conventions etc.), and (ii) does not fear not being loved in return or having one's love abused (it is not consequential in nature).
It is completely other-directed.
In sum, it is a love that continues or endures 'come what may'.
Fear, or worry, is a perennial problem. A new way to look at fear is seeing it as the result of an incomplete or imperfect love.
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1 comment:
totally agree and that is one of those verses that i've memorized before. it's a bit harder to live it out though.
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