The Perfection of God’s Love

According to 1 John 4:16-18, it states that “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him. In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.”

Isn’t that the most amazing thing? God loves us and we did nothing to earn it or even deserve it! However, that is the beauty of God’s love. It doesn’t come with strings or conditions. It just is. In fact, to ensure that we were going to be able to be with God in Heaven, He sent His Son, Jesus down to us. God sacrificed His own Son to die on the cross in order to take our sins from us. He essentially freed us, so that we could be with Him!

If that is not perfect love then I don’t know what is!!!

In the passage of 1 John 4:16-18, John is telling us that knowing what we know about our God, we don’t need to be afraid. We don’t need to have fear. If you have lived a good life, God knows and sees that. Even when you’ve made mistakes, He knows that as well and loves us despite when we’ve done wrong things. He knows what is in our hearts. He can and will forgive us but we have to be willing to ask for forgiveness. We know that we can’t hide from God, because when we try to hide, then we aren’t understanding that He loves us despite our many faults. He just desires to have a relationship with us. When we talk to Him, give Him our thanks, our burdens and ask for forgiveness then that is when we begin to understand that all of our fears can just melt away. (Related post: Unending Love)

So, what did I learn from this? The world (and I include myself here) sees all of my imperfections but God sees what’s in my heart. The world (and I include myself here) judges me based on how I look and act but God knows what’s in my heart. The world doesn’t love me for who I am and what I could be but God loves me because I’m me. I am the imperfectly perfect person that He created. That right there cancels out any fears that I could ever have.

What can you gain from this? We live in such a highly digital age, that we tend to judge others based on what they report is happening but we don’t actually know what really is going on. God’s not like that. He knows what we want even before we do. How? He knows what’s in our hearts. There is never any need to be afraid to share with God our deepest desires and hurts. He wants to be a part of the solution that causes all the fear you feel to be replaced by love.