This is a potluck at one of my interims. It brings back many memories of how the Holy Spirit used God’s Agape love to make this church One.
Early in our marriage when life was fearful, Victoria often quoted 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…” I could never get that passage. I just assumed that because my own love was imperfect, fear would always be with me.
But it bugged me that John said that full Agape love drives out fear. It means that something does happen. But how does that happen?
Then I discovered the other meanings of the Greek word for perfect. It is a is very hard to bring to life in English. Teleio can mean perfect, complete and full.
That is when I understood that God’s Love is complete and full in my heart. If we let God’s Love fill that quality of love in us, guess what happens?
You are right. Our divinely renewed love pushes out the feeling of fear!
For years, I blamed my introverted nature for being afraid to tell people about Jesus and salvation. How wrong I was! I was living in fear and not in God’s Love. That has all changed.
I wrote about this in chapter twenty nine of my book “Agape – A Scholarly Study,” “The Effect of Agape Love – A Personal Testimony.” It relates how God’s Love turned my heart to Him and opened my heart to a life without fear.
I ask you to feel the fullness of God’s Love in your heart and let it drive out your fear.
