God’s Love is Perfection Beyond Compare

1 John 4:18(NKJV)

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.  But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”

How do we get the most we possibly can out of love without getting hurt? It isn’t too much of a stretch to think that many have been searching for the answer to this question a long time. Heartbreak, sadness, let-down, loneliness, and disappointment are some of the most painful feelings. We all run the risk of experiencing them when we allow ourselves to care for another individual, but God has given us a way to avoid risking our hearts through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He does this by first helping us to discern real love, and then He gives us a defining characteristic of this love. It doesn’t have fear.

There are many people that will say things like, “I am very careful because I’ve been burned before.” This is typically spoken by a person that has gone through a painful relationship and break-up. It reminds me of when parents warn their children to stay away from fire or anything that is so hot it could burn them. Well, children have been known to disobey their parents, but usually all it takes is one time to touch a hot stove. The burn is so uncomfortable that it makes an indelible imprint and the child will most likely not need to be warned again.

God gives us a similar warning in Proverbs 4:23(NLT). He tells us, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” To guard is to watch what goes in and watch what comes out. God would not tell us to do something we are not capable of doing. He has instructed us to be careful what goes in and out of our hearts, because this is something He holds us responsible for. He’s given us free-will, and we are in charge of this aspect of soul housekeeping.

The love that God is talking about in 1John 4:18 is the love of Jesus Christ. This is the real love that God expects and has commanded us to fill our hearts with. Because we have been saturated with the world’s or society’s definition and standard of love, we mistakenly make this our own, and we must renew our minds to God’s definition of love to correct this. He tells us in Romans 12:2 that we should not allow the world’s culture, traditions, and standards to conform us, but instead, we should saturate our minds and hearts with His Word so that He can transform us into what He desires us to be.

Many of us have developed a fear of people getting too close, because we’ve gotten too close to the hot stove before, and we got burned. It’s the worse feeling but we should know that protecting or guarding our hearts is different from having fear about them. This is because the motivation behind the two is different. Our motivation to guard and protect our hearts should be, first and foremost, to make sure they are open and pliable to God. It’s not about losing ourselves in another person, because this is always a big mistake. We don’t belong to ourselves. 1Corinthians 6:19 tells us that we belong to God, because He purchased us with the price of His only begotten Son’s life. We should only want to lose ourselves in God, to the point that we become like Him and exhibit His nature.  We must walk in the example of Jesus Christ so that we please and honor God, and this must always be the most important thing in life to a follower of Christ.

1Thessalonians 2:4(NLT) gives us our mandate. It says, “For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.” Our job is to keep our hearts pure so that when God examines them, He will not find anything like obsession, fear, anger, jealousy, or resentment. Instead, He will find our commitment to put Him first. When we do this, any walls we’ve constructed of fear will come tumbling down, because God’s love is real and perfection beyond compare. It will keep us in perfect peace, as we humble ourselves and stay anchored in His protection and care.■

Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“God’s Love is Perfection Beyond Compare”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2020. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.