(1 John 4:18)
20. Love Casts Out Fear (1 John 4:18)
Let us look now at what John says about confidence. How are we to recognize that love is perfect? There is no fear in love. Then what shall we say of those who have begun to fear the day of judgment? If their love were perfect, they wouldn't feel any fear. Perfect love would produce perfect righteousness, and they would have no reason to fear. Instead they'd have reason to desire that wickedness pass away and God's kingdom come. So there is no fear in love. But this is not true of love that has only begun to exist. Of what love is it true, then? But perfect love, John says, casts out fear. Fear, then, is the beginning, because
"the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Fear, we may say, prepares a place for love, but when love begins to dwell there, the fear that has prepared the place for it is driven out. As the one grows the other decreases; as love becomes more interior, fear is driven outside. The more love there is, the less fear; the less love, the more fear.
But if there is no fear, there is no way love can come in. When we sew something we use a needle to introduce the thread. The needle goes in first, but it has to come out if the thread is to follow. In the same way fear first occupies our minds. But it doesn't remain there, because it only enters to introduce love. And once security is established in our souls, what joy we have in this world and in the world to come! Even in this world, who can harm us if we are filled with love? Listen to the Apostle rejoicing in love: Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" he asks. "Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?" And Peter: *And who is there who can harm you if you are zealous for what is good?"
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear has to do with torment. The consciousness of sins torments the heart. Justification hasn't yet been accomplished, and there's something there that irritates and stings. Accordingly, what does the psalmist say concerning the perfection of justice? "You have turned for me my mourning into gladness; you have stripped off my sackcloth and girded me with joy, so that my glory may sing to you and I may not be stung by remorse." What does this last phrase mean? It means that my conscience is untroubled. Fear does trouble it but then love comes in and heals the wound fear has made. Fear of God wounds like a surgeon's knife; it cuts out the festering part and seems to enlarge the wound. While the festering remained in the body, the wound was smaller but dangerous. Then comes the surgeon's knife, and the pain is greater now as he opens the wound. The treatment is more painful than leaving it alone, but the added pain of the treatment serves to end pain by restoring health. Let fear occupy your hearts, then, so that love can enter them. A healing scar follows the surgeon's knife. But our Physician is such that no scars appear! Just submit to his hand. If you are without fear you cannot be justified; there's a line of Scripture that says this. Fear must enter first so that love can come in. Fear is the treatment, love is health. One who fears is not perfected in love. This is because fear has to do with torment, just like the surgeon's incision.
But there is another line of Scripture that seems to contradict this one, unless it's rightly understood. In a certain place in the psalms it is said, "The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever." The psalmist is telling us of a fear that is eternal but pure. But if he's showing us an eternal fear, isn't John contradicting him when he says that there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear?
Let us examine these two words of God. Even if there are two books, two mouths, two tongues, there is only one Spirit. One of these words is John's, one is David's. But don't think that the Spirit is more than one. If one breath can fill twin
LOVECASTS OUT FEAR / 93 pipes, can't one Spirit fill two hearts and move two tongues? And if twin pipes filled by a single breath blend, can two voices moved by God's breath be out of harmony? There must then be some agreement, some harmony, in these texts, but we have to be able to listen.
We must look at the difference between the two fears, and thereby comprehend the harmony of the twin pipes. How are we to understand and distinguish between them? Dear friends, listen. There are people who fear God because they fear being cast into hell to burn with the devil in eternal fire. This the fear that introduces love, but it only enters to go out again. If you still fear God on account of the punishment you may receive from him, then you aren't yet loving him. You're not longing for good things, but trying to avoid bad ones. Then because you want to escape evils, you amend yourself and begin to desire good things. And when you do this, it will be a pure fear that is in you. But what is this pure fear? It's a fear of losing what is good. Notice this: it's one thing to fear God because he may send you to hell with the devil, and another to fear him lest he forsake you. The first kind isn't yet pure; it doesn't come from love of God but from fear of punishment. Only when you fear God lest his presence leave you are you embracing him and longing to enjoy him.
I don't think I can show the difference between these two kinds of fear, the one that love casts out and the pure fear that endures forever, better than by comparing two married women. Suppose that one of them wants to commit adultery. She enjoys her wicked desire, but she's afraid that her husband will accuse her. She fears her husband but her fear comes from her love of wickedness. Her husband's presence is no pleasure to her but a burden, and if she lives sinfully she fears his coming. People who fear the day of judgment are like this woman. But imagine another woman, one who loves her husband. She keeps herself for him, never staining her mind with adulterous thoughts. This woman longs for her husband's presence. And how does this help us to distinguish between the two kinds of fear? Ask both of the women whether they are afraid, and they will give you exactly the same answer. They say the same words, but their thoughts are different. Ask them again, and this time ask them why they are afraid. One will tell you that she fears her husband's coming, and the other that she fears her husband's going. One is afraid of being accused, the other of being left alone. Now apply this distinction to Christian hearts, and you will find one fear that love casts out and another fear that is pure and that endures forever.
Let me speak first to those people who fear God like the woman who enjoys wickedness and is afraid her husband may accuse her. Souls, as you feel aversion to this woman, feel aversion to yourselves! If you have husbands or wives, do you want them to fear your accusations? Do you want them to enjoy their wickedness and be restrained only by their fear of you, not by their hatred of evil? Wouldn't you rather they were chaste from love of you and not from fear? Then show yourselves to God as you want them to be to you. And for the unmarried who want to marry, this is the kind of spouse you should want.
Let me explain, my friends. Perhaps the woman who fears her husband because he may accuse her doesn't commit adultery just because her husband might find it out and deprive her of light and life. Perhaps she can fool him, for he's only human, just as she is. Still she's afraid of him, even though she can escape discovery. And you, don't you fear the eyes of the One no one can deceive? Or the presence of the One who can't be turned away from you? Beseech God to look upon you and to turn his face away from your sins. But how might you deserve to have him do this? It's if you don't turn your own face away. As the psalm says, it's "because I know my iniquity, and my sin is ever before me." Feel misgiving for yourself and he will be forgiving toward you.
I've been talking to those souls who still have the fear that doesn't endure forever, the fear that love casts out. Now T'll address those who already have a pure fear, the fear that en-
LOVE CASTS OUT FEAR / 95 dures forever. Do you think I'll find any like that to address? Any among our people? In this church? On this earth? There must be but they are hidden. It's winter and the greenness is inside, in the root. Perhaps my words are reaching their ears. But wherever they may be, I wish I could find them, and instead of having them listen to me I'd listen to them. Those souls would teach me rather than learn from me. A holy soul, a soul on fire with longing for God's kingdom: it's not I who speak to this soul but God himself. This is how he consoles it as it lives in patience on this earth: "Already you want me to come, and I know that this is what you want. I know what you are, that you are waiting without anxiety for my coming. I know this is troubling to you, but continue your waiting and be patient: I come, and I come quickly." But time moves slowly for a loving soul. Listen to it singing like a lily among thorns: "I will sing, and I will give heed in a way that is blameless: 'When will you come to me?' " In the "way that is blameless" there is no need for fear, because perfect love casts out fear. But even when this soul comes to its Spouse's embrace it will fear—but in peace. What will it fear then? It will take care to guard itself from its iniquity lest it sin again. It won't fear being cast into everlasting fire, but it will fear being forsaken by God. In that soul there will be ''a pure fear, enduring forever."'
We've been listening to two pipes playing in harmony. Both tell of fear: one of the fear of being accused, the other of the fear of being forsaken. One is the fear that love excludes, the other the fear that endures forever.