February 6, 2016
Scripture Reading: 1 John 4:17-18
17This 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. 18There 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.
Questions for Reflection:
One of the major reasons that John was writing to his readers was to give them assurance in their salvation. There was a fear that was gripping the church that John wanted to address. He set out to help them understand grace and salvation by penning the gospel and this first letter. Geoff Ashley explains:
The apostle John’s first epistle is one helpful instrument to assess our spiritual sicknesses. Having written his gospel “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31), John takes up the pen and writes an epistle “to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). He writes the gospel so that the church might believe, and he writes the epistle so that they may know that they have believed.
How does John say that we can have “confidence on the day of judgement”? What sparks this confidence? One of the more commonly quoted phrases from 1 John is found in verse 18. Often Christians will quote: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…” but they miss the rest of the verse and the overall context. What are John’s readers afraid of? Their fear was not that a loved one might pass away or that they might lose their job; their fear was that they would lose their salvation and face punishment apart from the grace of Jesus. John wants them to have confidence that if they love then they are like Jesus and have no reason to fear.
Have you ever faced doubts surrounding your faith? How can John’s letter help give you confidence that God’s love has been made complete (or whole) in you? How can you rest in the perfect love that you have been given? How can you live out that love to others? How does that assurance encourage you to worship God extravagantly?