Last Sunday I preached on 1 John
4:7-21. There’s so much in that
scripture to talk about that I could have been in the pulpit all day. I’m sure the people at Westminster
Presbyterian Church are thankful that I didn’t do that! One part of the scripture that I didn’t touch
on much is the part about love and fear.
Perfect love casts out fear.
This one sentence could be a sermon all by itself. Fear gets in our way so much!
I thought of this scripture when I saw the
movie Frozen.[1] When Elsa’s parents take her
to the rock people to figure out what’s going on with her power to freeze
things, Grand Pabbie tells them there is beauty in her power, but fear will be
her enemy.[2] Unfortunately, when her
parents die, Elsa lets fear rule her life and everything goes downhill from
there. What changes things in the end is
Anna’s love for her sister. Jesus said, “There
is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.” (John
15:13) This is exactly what Anna does
for Elsa, and what Jesus does for us.
Self-sacrifice is the ultimate act of love . . .perfect love.
In this scripture passage, John proposes that the real basis
for our fear is fear of death and/or punishment, and so the reason that perfect
love casts out fear is that through Jesus’ death we no longer have to fear
death or punishment. Because of Jesus’
sacrifice, our sins are forgiven—no more punishment, and death is no longer the
end—we can have eternal life with God in heaven. All that’s required is that we believe this
is true (Romans
10:9), and God even provides us with the faith to believe (Ephesians
2:8).
So although Elie Weisel says the opposite of love is
indifference, and some might say the opposite of love is hate, from another
perspective the inverse of love would be fear.
Love is certainly a good antidote.
What causes you fear?
How might love be the antidote to that fear?
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