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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain 1 John 4:17:
I John 4:17-18
Excerpted from: Love's Greatest ChallengesIt is difficult to conclude which of these two major challenges—laziness or fear—is the greatest. Both of them are difficult to deal with, but it is my personal opinion that love's greatest challenge is the second one—fear. Let us go back to a scripture that we have been spending a great deal of time in.
Consider the principle that John is espousing because it contains much of the answer we need for overcoming fear. Think of this: humanly, the more two people love each other, the less they fear what the other will do. Why? Because they know the other person, inside and out, we might say. John is trying to get us to know God, inside and out. And the reason they do not fear is because trust, confidence, in each other grows. The more perfected in love, the less anxious we are about loss before people because our trust is in God and His reaction, and our trust is in the truth of His Word. And we grow then because we know He is going to approve and give us strength.
Fear is the most self-centered of all emotions. The cure for fear lies partly in removing external threats to our security. And we do that. We lock the doors to our house. We make sure that when we are walking in certain areas we walk in the light, or we walk by the safest route that we can possibly find. So we do move to try to remove threats to our security physically.
But the real cure is eliminating excessive consciousness of the self. This is the principle that John is espousing. Love does this because the essence of love is self-denial and self-surrender. Love casts out fear because it gradually casts out self-consciousness.
The "fear involves torment" in verse 18 is contrasted to "boldness" in verse 17. In this context, love and fear are opposites. Love's closest companion is confidence, boldness. When we are completely confident we do not fear that we can do what is required of us. That is the way two people in a marriage who really love one another are. They know each other so well they are absolutely confident of what the other’s action, reaction, words, thoughts might be. Right? Confidence is there. Maybe even boldness.
In relation to God, if we really know God and we are really loving God, we are not cutting ourselves off through fear, but we are challenging the fears and we are overcoming because of it and our relationship with God is growing closer and closer. The problem here is that we are not yet perfected in love, so we fear.
The only way to meet and overcome our fear is to grow. Each day we have to take advantage of the opportunities to exercise ourselves in small acts of love. Just as a musician practices every day, an athlete practices every day, artists practice every day, a person becomes confident in his speaking ability because his skills grow little by little by doing a great deal of speaking before groups. We are talking about the principle here that practice makes perfect—taking advantage of each day’s little opportunities to show love. Our practice is aimed toward becoming skilled at living God’s way of life. As we practice extending ourselves in love to others, the fear of loss or suffering or rejection begins to lessen. Our confidence in God and His truth will build until we can even become bold.
I John 4:17-18
Excerpted from: Four Views of Christ (Part 2)All of us fear to some degree. We are not made perfect yet. But I want to go back to verse 17 and I want to concentrate on "love has been perfected." I am going to quote something to you from Wuest Commentary, Volume 2, page 169. He is going to be expounding upon this phrase, "is made perfect."
He starts by saying it is written in the perfect tense and it could be translated "has been made perfect." Or, an alternate translation for the word perfect is "has been made complete or mature." Now what it means is that whatever it is that he is talking about exists in its finished state.
Now again quoting present reality. "It represents a past fact, as been perfected and therefore is a present reality." It exists now, whatever it is he is talking about. What is he talking about? He is talking about love. God is love, therefore Christ is love. Christ is God. God is love. He therefore is writing this as though we also are love. Unfortunately, we are not completely grown up there yet. But that love has been perfected in us.
Quoting again, "Our love is literally the love with us." Now here is where I think it gets interesting. "This is not primarily God's love for us or our love for Him, but the love which God is, in His nature, produced in us by His holy spirit." Remember Paul said in Romans 5:5, "The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the holy spirit."
I have told you this in the past and I will tell it again. We can operate according to the love of God! He has already given it to us! There is sufficient there to do whatever God requires. He is not stingy with His Holy Spirit! The problem is we have not grown yet to the place where we can use it in the same way that Christ could use it and the same way Christ could reflect what God is to mankind. But we are growing to that point, but that love is there! This is what I want to get across to you. That love is there, ready to be used.
I John 4:17
Excerpted from: Four Views of Christ (Part 3)Connect this with the opening: "As He is, so are we in this world." Because of that, we need not fear condemnation in the judgment. You put these things together and what John is saying in effect is, God will respond to what He sees of Himself in us. He cannot deny Himself. He cannot condemn Himself, because what He is is totally good. When He sees the Word of God in us, then we are infused, endued, and endowed with boldness and with confidence.
John is saying then that a Christian is Christ's living likeness. "As He is, so are we in this world." Christ is not here, except in us. A Christian is Christ's living likeness, but get this: It is not His likeness as He was as a human, but as He is, now! Do you get the tense that is there in that verse? As He is, not as He was! As He is, right now, so are we in the world! We are not being conformed to Jesus the man, we are being conformed to the risen Jesus Christ!
I John 4:17
Excerpted from: The Paradox of Terror and RejoicingThe absence of fear in love does not exclude the presence and positive influence of the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of knowledge. Here, John refers to fear of death and final judgment. However, he notes in the previous verse that love gives us boldness on the day of judgment.
So God's perfect love for His people drives out the fear of wrath and final judgment. Love that is complete, or love that is allowed to exert its proper influence on the heart and mind delivers the mind from anxiety and with love. When love exists in an absolute perfect state, it is entirely free from all dread, everything dreadful.
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