17 In this [union and fellowship with Him], love is completed and perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him]; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love [dread does not exist]. But perfect (complete, full-grown) love drives out fear, because fear involves [the expectation of divine] punishment, so the one who is afraid [of God’s judgment] is not perfected in love [has not grown into a sufficient understanding of God’s love]. (1 John 4: 17-18, The Amplified Bible)
Imagine with me for a moment; as Jesus is in this time and place, so are we! Our shared union and fellowship with him opens our reality to infinite possibilities. All that Jesus now is, so are we! That thought takes my breath away!
Only in Jesus is love brought to perfection and fullness of expression in us. As Paul prayed for the believers in Ephesus; we too are freed of all fear of punishment and empowered to scale the heights, plumb the depths, measure the width and transverse the length of Father’s majestic love!
We are called to a journey of love’s mystery and discovery. Our desire for genuineness, calls us to an abundant perception of God’s love. Our extreme deficit becomes our greatest richness! Previously we were tormented by the lack of love, now our lives are known by love’s lavishness. Our security with Father is identical to Christ’s!
1-2 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. (Ephesians 5: 1-2, The Message)
Love makes more than enough room for mercy and grace to flourish in and through our lives. Yet apart from mercy and grace, love is halfhearted and implausible. Every relationship must be pollinated and nourished by love. Otherwise it is merely a cheap counterfeit.
God is love![p] Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them. 17 By living in God,[q] love has been brought to its full expression in us[r] so that we may fearlessly face the day of judgment,[s]because all that Jesus now is,[t] so are we in this world. 18 Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment[u] has not reached love’s perfection. (The Passion Translation)
17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home, and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love. (The Message)
9-10 “I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you’ll remain intimately at home in my love. That’s what I’ve done—kept my Father’s commands and made myself at home in his love. (John 15: 9-10, The Message)
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they’ll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they’ll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you’ve sent me and loved them
In the same way you’ve loved me. (John 17: 21-23, The Message)
But I have known you, and these disciples know
That you sent me on this mission.
I have made your very being known to them—
Who you are and what you do—
And continue to make it known,
So that your love for me
Might be in them
Exactly as I am in them. (John 17: 25-26, The Message)
He puts us through our paces—first this way, then that.
He commands us to do what he says all over the world.
Whether for discipline or grace or extravagant love,
he makes sure they (everything He sends our way) make their mark. (Job 37:13, The Message)
Is your life a fertile garden where love grows unhindered? We are sent with the same mandate as Jesus-to disclose Father’s love! Authentic love will always make its mark. It always makes a way where there seems to be none. Ron Ross
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