Excerpted from Greater Love: A Devotional Journey through 1 John, pages 84-85
No Fear in Love
“. . .that we may have boldness in the day of judgment. . .”
(1 John 4:17)
Listen to secular music from any era and you will hear songs about love. The same goes for sacred music. The difference is that, while secular music waxes eloquent about the drama and excitement of love in human relationships, sacred music adds the dimension of a love relationship between Creator and creature. Love from God and in God and for God is not like the fleeting thrill of a rollercoaster, or the passing beauty of a sunrise, or the frail delight of a flower that blooms glorious but will eventually wither.
Throughout his epistle, John has described love that is beyond our comprehension. God is love and, somehow through the Spirit in our union with Christ, we find ourselves immersed in this love, in eternal, unbroken communion with the triune God. Though we give ourselves over to a lifetime of study, meditation, and pursuit, we will never fully grasp the love of God for us in Jesus.
John enriches our understanding of this love when he sets it against judgment and fear. “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” (1 John 4:17–18). The word translated “torment” speaks to punishment as a consequence of judgment (see Matt. 25:46), that is overcome by love.
I would venture to say that just about all of us have had our hearts broken. Someone we loved deeply has betrayed us or abandoned us. In fact, we may be reticent to enter into another relationship where we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, for fear we may again be let down.
But John points us to a love that will not let us go. In his Gospel account, John records these words of our Lord: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24). How can that be? Doesn’t the Bible teach that it is appointed for each of us to die once and to face judgment (Heb. 9:27)? How can we have already been judged and already passed from death to life? The answer is love.
When we appear before the throne of God on the Day of Judgment, we need not fear words of condemnation and rejection. God so loved us that He gave His only begotten Son to secure us for Himself, and in that love we can rest secure.
Even in the most stable of human relationships there exists the possibility of failure, of breakdown. But with God there is perfect love. Nothing can assail it. Paul puts it this way: “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37–39). Nothing in creation can wrest us from the love of our Creator and Redeemer.
The greater our knowledge of the love of God, the more we will rest in it, and the greater will be our confidence and contentment in it.
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How can we rest more fully in the perfected love of God for us in Christ?
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Greater Love: A Devotional Journey through 1 John (Stanley D. Gale, Waxed Tablet Publications, 2025) is a devotional exploration that immerses us in John’s rich teaching and exhorts us in a more intimate walk with our God.
