“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. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” (1 John 4:18-21 NASB1995)

God is love, and love which comes from God is perfect, pure, holy, righteous, godly, moral, upright, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord and to his New Covenant commands. So, if our faith is of God, and if we love God, it will result in us denying self, dying to sin, and walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, all in the power and wisdom of God, and not of our own doing nor of our own flesh. And if this is how we live, in practice, by the grace of God, we have salvation from sin and eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

So, we should have no fear of punishment or death, because we are abiding in (obeying, following, submitting to) Christ, and in his word, and we are following him wherever he leads us, and sin is no longer what we practice. This does not make us perfect, or mean that we will never sin (1 John 2:1-2), but that sin no longer has mastery (control, power) over our lives. For by faith in Jesus Christ we were delivered from our addiction to sin to now serve God with our lives in service to our Lord and to his perfect will for our lives.

But now fear doesn’t have to just be the fear of death or of punishment, but it can be the fear of anything, of people, of governments, of people who abuse others, of losing a job, or of not having enough money to pay your bills and to feed your family. It can be fear of what people think of you, or what they might say about you, or of how they might treat you if you are serious about following Jesus with your life. Or it can be fear of the results of medical examinations and what might be discovered as wrong in your body.

Or it can be fear of all these things we see, hear, and read about that are purportedly happening in the world, within world governments, and with wars, diseases, and persecutions, etc. But so much of this is photoshopped, faked, and AI generated. So much is play acted and performed for us, the audience, with the full intention to get us anxious, fearful, angry, upset, and fighting against one another. Is there real bad stuff going on in the world? Oh, absolutely!! And a large part of that is being “Hollywood produced.”

What I mean by that is that the bad part about it is that it is being faked and acted out for us to believe, hoping that we will be gullible enough to believe their lies and to respond accordingly. For if they can get us to believe their lies, they have us in their pockets, and they can get us to go the way they want us to go. This is largely persuaded by means of instilling fear within us, much of which is done via “false flag operations,” i.e. where they stage an attack, made to look like someone else did it, but in order to promote war.

But returning to the passage of Scripture, we are to be people of faith, and not of fear, and people who love with the love of God, and who do not hate anyone, even people we might be convinced are our worst enemies, which sometimes is a deliberate lie to get us to hate others. But love and hate do not mix, so we cannot love God and then hate other humans, no matter who they are. For we are told in the Scriptures to love our enemies, and those who persecute us, and who do evil against us. We are to do good to them.

[Proverbs 24:17-20; Proverbs 25:21-22; Matthew 5:8-12,43-48; Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:27-36; Luke 10:27; John 13:33-35; John 15:12; Romans 12:9-11,14-21; 1 Corinthians 13:1-8; 1 Corinthians 16:14; 1 John 4:7]

YOU RAISE ME UP

Brendan Graham / Rolf Lovland

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary
When troubles come and my heart burdened be
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

There is no life – no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But when you come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be.

Caution: This link may contain ads

No Fear in Love
An Original Work / January 14, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love