True community and connection with Jesus responds to God’s love by rejecting the fear of final judgment...

This week we are looking at a section of a letter that has been preserved and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of 1 John. Yesterday we looked on as John revealed for us the timeless truth that true community and connection with Jesus is revealed by our response to God’s love. In 1 John 4:15-21, we will see John reveal three different ways that true community and connection with Jesus will respond to God’s love.

First, in 1 John 4:15-16, we see John reveal for us the reality that true community and connection with Jesus responds to God’s love by remaining connected with God in love. The timeless reality is that, because God is love, the person who remains in true community and connection with Jesus will respond to the love of God by remaining in close community and connection with God. And because they remain in close community and connection with God, God ' close community and connection with them will produce a life of love towards God.

But not only does true community and connection with Jesus responds to God’s love by remaining connected with God in love. As John continues this section of his letter, we see John reveal a second way that true community and connection with Jesus will respond to God’s love. So let’s discover that second way together, beginning in verse 17-18:

 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

Here we see John reveal the result that occurs in the life of a follower of Jesus who responds to God’s love by remaining connected with God in love.  John explains that by this, in other words by responding to God’s love by remaining connected to God in love, love is perfected with us.

As we discovered last week, the word perfected, in the language that this letter was originally written in, literally means to overcome or replace an imperfect state by one that is perfect and free from objection. This word conveys the sense of something that happens to us that has an ongoing result in our lives. With this phrase, John is revealing for us the reality that responding to God’s love by remaining connected to God in love results in love growing to perfection in the life of a follower of Jesus.

John then explained that as a result of love growing to perfection by remaining connected to God in love, we may have confidence in the day of judgment. When John uses the word judgment here, he is referring to the end of God’s story on earth when humanity will stand before God to be judged by God. John’s point is that as a result of their love growing to perfection by remaining connected to God in love, followers of Jesus can have confidence when they stand before God at the end of God’s story here on earth, when they will be judged for how they lived their life here on earth.  

John then provided the reason why followers of Jesus would be able to stand before God with such confidence: because as He is, so also are we in this world. John’s point is that as followers of Jesus respond to God’s love by remaining connected to God in love, they increasingly become like Jesus and increasingly love like Jesus. And it is a life that loves and looks like Jesus that provides followers of Jesus confidence when they stand before God to give an account of how they lived their lives here on earth.

John reinforced this reality in verse 18 by proclaiming that there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. Now the word fear here conveys the sense of a fear that enslaves us to something, in this case punishment. John’s point here is that as a follower of Jesus responds to God’s love by remaining connected to God in love, as they increasingly become like Jesus and increasingly love like Jesus, that growing love will drive out the fear of punishment that can enslave humanity.

However, for the person who is still enslaved by fear when it comes to standing before God to give an account of their life, John explains that such a person is not perfected in love. In other words, the person who is enslaved by fear of punishment when it comes to standing before God has not grown in love to the point that that love replaces and overcomes such fear.

The person who fears judgment by God truly has not come to the place to truly understand the love of God. The person who fears judgment by God truly has not come to the place where they are living a life that looks like Jesus and that loves like Jesus. The person who fears judgment by God truly has not come to the place of maturity where the love of God drives out and expels the fear of punishment by God.

And it is here that John reveals for us the reality that true community and connection with Jesus responds to God’s love by rejecting the fear of final judgment. The person who remains in true community and connection with Jesus will respond to the love of God by becoming like Jesus and loving like Jesus. And as a result of becoming like Jesus and loving like Jesus as a result of remaining in community and connection with Jesus, that love will expel and cast out the slavish fear of punishment that can enslave humanity when  it comes to standing before God to give an account for how they lived their lives.

True community and connection with Jesus rejects the fear of final punishment because true community and connection with Jesus produces a true understanding of the love of God. True community and connection with Jesus rejects the fear of final punishment because true community and connection with Jesus produces a life that looks like Jesus and that loves like Jesus. True community and connection with Jesus rejects the fear of final punishment because true community and connection with Jesus produces a life of spiritual maturity where the love of God drives out and expels the fear of punishment by God.

Friday, we will see John reveal a third way that true community and connection with Jesus will respond to God’s love…