Love... And not a check list

1 John 4:7 (NASB)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

1 John 4:7 (Amplified)

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is (springs) from God; and he who loves [his fellowmen] is begotten (born) of God and is coming [progressively] to know and understand God [to perceive and recognize and get a better and clearer knowledge of Him].

Do I walk with a motivation of love or of accomplishing things?

Before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 2:10), I will have to give account for the "deeds of my body." But will it be for following the checklist in life, for the things I accomplished? Or for being pleasing to Him. That is, did I do what He asked me to do? And did I stop and listen to what He wanted me to do?

It is clear from Jesus's own words that I must do the things that come out of knowing Him (Matthew 7:22-23). Just being prophetic or a teacher is not enough.

It is out of my faith, what I believe, that my works flow. If I know that I have to know Him, my works should show that knowledge, that faith.

If I put my faith in a God who loves, then I shall love. His love is exemplified in Jesus, who gave Himself up for me. If I believe that His love is a "divine and self-sacrificial love," then I will also love with that love.

Fear of the Lord, part 2

Psalm 111:10a (NASB 95)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom...

Luke 12:5 (NASB 95)
"But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!

1 Peter 2:17 (NASB 95)
Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

1 John 4:16-18 (NASB 95)
We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.


Thoughts:

“Perfect love casts out fear.” But what of the “fear of God?”

As I transfer my fears from the wrong things to Him, to my Lord Jesus, I declare that He is the proper recipient of the fear that I am feeling over something else.

So doing, the fear of something that is not God becomes the “reverential awe” of Him who is God. And only God deserves the fear that is also “reverential awe.”

And as I turn my fears over to Jesus, as I make Him to become the correct object of my fears, He casts them out. His love is perfected in me as I see His love for me. Ultimately, I have no fear of Jesus because I have no fear of punishment. The world may have its fears, its terrors, its worries, and its anxieties but the love that God is perfecting in me will drive it out.

I am yet living and as long as I live I will have fears, but now I know better how to deal with them, Who to give them to, and how to triumph over them. Where before I cowered before them, I now have the choice to triumph.