Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and send His Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His own Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as He is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If anyone says “I love God” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.
I John 4:7-21
We have spent an extensive amount of time reflecting on I Corinthians 13, which is St. Paul’s treatise on love. St. John the Evangelist (Theologian), who is also the beloved disciple of Christ, wrote the Gospel of John, three Epistles and the Book of Revelation. In I John 4, he has written his own treatise on love. Many of his ideas and St. Paul’s mirror one another, though each respective chapter has its own nuances. Let us examine St. John’s thoughts on love.
He begins by telling us to love one another. This is a good starting place, as the greatest commandments are to love God and to love one another. If love comes from God, and God is love (v. 8), then one cannot know God if one does not know love, or express love for others. St. John then outlines God’s love for the world, restating words from the Gospel of John, chapter 3, about God sending the Son into the world out of love, and the Son dying for our sins, so that we might live through Him. This imitates the words of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” St. John continues that if God loved us to this degree, to send His Son to die for us, that the most important connection to God is love, and the most important connection to one another should be love as well.
He continues in verse 12, that no man has ever seen God. However, we experience God through love. We don’t experience the essence of God, but the energy of God, experienced in love. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. Through love, we experience God, we feel God present within us. God’s love then also becomes present, and this strengthens and perfects our ability to love others. His perfect love abiding in us helps perfect our ability to love. When we are not open to experiencing God’s love, when we hold down what is in us, instead of allowing it to flourish within us, then we have a difficult time loving others because we haven’t fully opened ourselves up to knowing God. When we think of our relationships that are less than perfect, not only should we work on the relationships, but we should work on our relationship with God, and with His love and those relationships can improve as well.
God and love are synonymous. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. (v. 16) Through God we come to know love, and through love, we come to know God. Whether the starting point is God or love, when we start with one, we will find the other. It is very powerful to think that God abides in us, and this happens when we are filled with love. When we are filled with hate, it is like we are asking God to leave us, like kicking Him out of the house. When we love, it is as if we are asking God to sit beside us.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. (v. 18) Fear and love cannot co-exist. Just like sin and love cannot co-exist. In the moment we are sinning we are not loving, and in the moment we are loving, we are not sinning. Sin is the absence of love. When one is causing another to fear, there is no love in that moment. And in the moment one is experiencing love, there is also no fear. Love puts away fear and anxiety. A focus on God’s love, as an example, will ease anxiety and fear. When someone is pressuring another person to do something, there is no love there. There is coercion and that is not love. This matches St. Paul’s words that love does not insist on its own way. (I Corinthians 13:5) Pressure, coercion, manipulation, compulsion, threat, intimation of reprisal, there is no love present when we do these things, and it’s as if we remove God from ourselves when we are doing these things. Compliance done out of fear may ensure some sense of order, but it does not bring a sense of love. I think of how many things happen in churches that involve these things and that is an indication that we all have work to do in the area of love. Again, because perfect love casts out fear.
We love as a response to God’s love. It is not the other way around. God loved us first. (v. 19) And in seeking a loving relationship with God, we must love our brother. We can’t love God and hate our brother, that just doesn’t fit. For as St. John reasons, how can we love a God Whom we have not seen when we cannot love our brother who we have and do see. (v. 20) If we are going to love God, then we must also love our brother as well.
There is no fear in love. They cannot co-exist. If we are working on a loving relationship with God, then we must have a loving relationship with our brothers and sisters. We all know people who cause our blood pressure to rise when they enter a room or call us on the phone. We all know people we walk on eggshells around. We all know people who threaten reprisal if we speak freely. I would be mortified if I caused someone’s blood pressure to rise or made them feel like they had to tiptoe around me. I don’t think most people would want to be stress-inducing towards others. Yes, there are some people who might stress us out, like a college professor before a hard exam, so some of this is unavoidable. But if a person enjoys inducing stress in others, that’s another matter. We all need to work on our relationship with God, so we do not become people who stress out others. This is where frequent prayer comes in. Abiding in God’s love, through prayer, prepares us to love others.
Lord, thank You for the gift of Your love and the example of Your love, manifested in not only the death and Resurrection of Christ, but in His life of humility and service. Help me to desire to abide in Your love, and for Your love to be manifest in my interactions with people today. Help me to be a person who radiates love rather than inducing fear. Help me to be more patient, so that there can be love and not fear in my relationships. May Your perfect love cast out my fears and anxieties, and may I be a vessel of that love with those around me. Thank You for loving me. May I love You and others in the same way that You love me. Amen.
Fear and love cannot co-exist. There is no fear in love. And there is no love when one puts fear into others.
