The Opposite of Love Is Fear, Not Hate

CONSECRATE Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  HEAR 1 John 4:17–18 (NIV) This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  CONSIDER Over and over, 1 John challenges us to think about what love is. Our twenty-first-century context sentimentalizes love in a way that John would never recognize. Of course, humans are capable of all sorts of loving expressions—not all great. One minute we speak of how much we love that new restaurant or coffee shop across town, and the next of how much we love our spouses (we even share these love expressions without distinction on our social media accounts). We need better categories to talk about love as John sees it. John chose the Greek term agape to capture what he meant by love. But what does this word mean? Sure, John could give a conceptual definition of agape—something like “the self-giving preferential treatment of another person at cost to yourself.” I can grasp a definition like this, but I still don’t know what it looks like. We insert the word holy in front of love to signify we are talking about love of another magnitude. The problem with all these definitions is the way they keep us talking around the subject. We must see an objective demonstration of this holy love of God. That’s why John points to a person. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.  We must move beyond a conceptual definition of love to a boots-on-the-ground, love-looks-like-this definition. Love is objective, and we can perceive it with our senses. To love looks like the time Jesus invited a despised tax collector to be his disciple. Love looks like the time Jesus struck up a conversation with the Samaritan woman of questionable reputation at the well. Love looks like the time Jesus saved his disciples’ lives by speaking peace to a raging storm. Love looks like the time Jesus told a dead little girl’s parents not to be afraid but to believe, after which he raised her back to life. Love looks like the time Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. In each of these scenarios (and many more), Jesus entered a situation characterized by fear and anxiety. Because his presence was the unadulterated expression of the holy love of God, fear and anxiety simply left. The presence of Jesus, which is to say the presence of holy love, drives out fear by displacing it. Sometimes it’s difficult to see ourselves in the shoes of Jesus. To what degree are we able to live out the same quality of the love that Jesus demonstrated and John describes? The journey of becoming like Jesus can be described in many ways. In my judgment, chief among them would be the process of going from a person of fear to a person of love. So I ask you: What experience do you evoke in other people? Does your presence cause anxiety or unease or fear? Or does your presence exude a quality of peace that communicates not only that it is well with your soul but that it is going to be okay for others too? My reminder to you (and me) is this: the path of following Jesus leads to perfect love, not because you will ever arrive at the place where you make no mistakes, but because the further we follow him, the more our presence exudes his presence. Jesus is himself the power of love in the face of fear. To the extent that you and I abide in Jesus, we become the power of love in the face of fear. You see? The opposite of love is fear, not hate—perfect love drives out fear. PRAY Lord Jesus, thank you for not only teaching about love but also showing us, time and time again, what real love looks like. Help us understand the difference between an ordinary act done in our own power and an ordinary act done in your power. I want to be done with fear so that I can help others be done with fear too. I know the secret is more love, which means more of you. I pray in your name, Jesus. Amen.