John told his readers that love has no fear (1John 4:18). I believe his statement has reference to what he said immediately prior to this in 1John 4:14-17. Becoming like Jesus, having such a thing as our goal, is challenging, but it shouldn’t be a fearful desire, i.e. not in the sense of being respectful but in the sense of being afraid. To be afraid of loving another, to be afraid of the cost in doing so (Matthew 13:46;[1] cp. 1Corinthians 6:20; 7:23), to be afraid of giving one’s life for another (cp. John 15:13) may allow for one to desire to be like Jesus, but it certainly does not allow for one’s readiness to be like him. It would be like the alcoholic who would like to quit, but doesn’t have the will to make it happen.
Fear has torment (1John 4:18) when looking ahead, but love has joy (Hebrews 12:2)! Therefore, he that fears may love when he isn’t afraid, but such love isn’t as valuable as that which is expressed even in hard times, when love is bruised in the effort but still goes forward. Love is made perfect (1John 4:17), when love refuses to fear (1John 4:18). Therefore, he who is afraid of the cost of loving one’s brother hasn’t yet matured into that image of Christ, which is the goal of the believer (1John 4:18).
I believe John’s point is this. “We love because he first loved us!” (1John 4:19). In other words, had Christ not come in order to show us what kind of God created this world, we’d not be able to love as believers are expected to do since the crucifixion. Why, because there was no context of the existence of such love. It would have been like imagining that fourth prime color I spoke of in an earlier study. It isn’t that we didn’t have the capacity to love prior to Christ, but that we were ignorant of the possibility. We have been created to be an image of God. We are images and we will reflect whatever we respect or aspire to be like. God wants us to be like him, but in order for that to occur, he had to become manifest (John 1:1, 14) in order to show what he is like (John 1:18), and in so doing he created a context, which was humanly understandable, and to which we could aspire to be like (2Corinthians 3:18).
We need to keep in mind that none of this was done secretly or out of plain sight. Slavery was a common thing in the world prior to Christ, but today most nations look upon it as an abominable thing. Casting babies into town garbage heaps, because the child wasn’t the favored sex, was not only common, but it was a matter approved by the state. Yet, today, I cannot think of one nation that would approve of such a thing. Is this because man has evolved to become a better man? The godless may say so, but the truth is that after Christ, his disciples began checking the town dumps in an effort to find those unwanted babies and saved many of them from certain death. One may believe as he wishes, but the world, as dangerous as it is, is much better off today, because of the context Christianity offers it, than it would have been without Christ.[2] Am I saying Christian history is spotless? No! not by any means, but perfect love casts out the fear of the cost of living like Christ. We are who we are because of him, and change doesn’t occur all at once, but from glory to glory by his Spirit in us (2Corinthiasn 3:18), and the world is changed as it sees us change.
Into this context (1John 4:19), then, we must fit 1John 4:20. If God so loves us that he gave his Son for our redemption (1John 4:9-10; cp. John 3:16), how could it be possible for anyone to say he loves God but refuses or is afraid to do as God gave us an example in Christ to do (1John 4:20)? If God so loves my brother, but I refuse to love him like God does, I would be lying to say I love God, because I’m too afraid to make the effort to be like him. To say that I love what I cannot see but hate what I do see is to be in love with an idea, not reality. Such an idea is a lie in this physical world we live in. One cannot be a patriot, for example, and not be brave on the battlefield. Patriotism, like the love of God must be lived out. Otherwise, it’s simply a pipe dream (1John 4:21).
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[1] I have heard many sermons on this verse, all of which encourage the believer to sell all he has to buy Christ, but to my way of thinking, although this is good encouragement, it misses the mark. Only Christ sold all he had, and he did it to buy the elect, referred to as a pearl of great price here, which in my mind refers to the jewels the Lord spares as though they were his own son (Malachi 3:17).
[2] I used slavery and infanticide as examples, but there is far more I could have added to these, such as child abuse, abuse of women including stealing their inheritance and their abuse in brothels, torture in war, abuse of the elderly, the sick and the helpless: such as widows and orphans. Some call it liberalism and have made it a political elective, but, in reality, it is Christ in the believer, our hope of glory (Colossians 1:27), bringing the world to its senses and into a better place before God.
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