[Anglican Devotional 19 April 2024] Topic: Perfect Love Casts Away Fear
TOPIC: Perfect Love Casts Away Fear
READ: 1 John 4: 7-21 (NKJV)
- Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone 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 of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
- In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.
- Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
- No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
- By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
- And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son [as] Savior of the world.
- Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
- And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
- Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in 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, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
- We love Him because He first loved us.
- If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
- And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God [must] love his brother also.
The MESSAGE:
God is love and this love is selfless love (agape). It is sacrificial and has no predetermined reason before it is shown; it is completely unconditional. For God is love, therefore when we are saved, we are born into this awesome love of God and the Holy Spirit activates it as it is written “… the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5: 5). This very love is perfect and truly casts away fear. For God has not given us a spirit of fear (2 Tim. 1: 7) and we did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but received the Spirit of adoption…(Rom.8: 15). Satan is on a mission to inject unhealthy fear in us-to paralyse and put us in perpetual bondage to fear but the truth is that Jesus shared in our flesh and blood that through death, He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb. 2: 14-15; paraphrased).
Trust in God and in His word and believe that He loves you. You must turn from sinful attitudes and resolve to live a godly life so you stand without guilt on the Lord’s side.
PRAYER: Loving and faithful Father, plant in me the love that casts away all forms offear in Jesus name. Amen.
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