“There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” – 1 John 4:18
I would suggest reading the whole letter of 1 John to establish full context, but chapter 4 does a sufficient job of explaining itself. I will recommend reading 1 John 4 first before proceeding.
“[7] Beloved, let’s love one another; for love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. [8] The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us.”
1 John 4:7-8, 12
John says “love one another”, “love is from God”, and “God is love”. So to understand the intent of what he is writing, we must understand the biblical definition of love—which is very simple as our loving Father has already laid this out for us, and His son reiterated it to us.
Yeshua was asked, “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?” And he responds, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.” The second is like it, he says, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole law and prophets.“
Love, then, fulfills the law. Not that love does away with the law, but love carries out and performs the law. It satisfies the requirement of the law for righteousness (or right behavior) because it adheres to the commands of the law. For example, if you love someone, you won’t kill him. You won’t steal from him, covet his possessions, lie with his wife, falsely testify against him, you will feed him when he is hungry, give him something to drink, clothe him when he is without, lend to him without interest, return to him his animal that escaped confinement, and so much more. All of these things that I listed are all commandments in the law of the “Old Testament”. This is not only for people you want to love (like close friends and family), but for every brother and sister of the faith, and even our enemies.
So when John says love one another, there is a specific meaning. It means we keep the commandments.
“2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and follow His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”
1 John 5:2-3
So this love that is from God is the instructions (torah) that we received from God. God is love because all of the instructions, commandments, and ordinances that He gave us to keep, He “keeps” them Himself because each of them are a part of His character and behavior. He wants us to be like him, not only in appearance and likeness—for it is written: “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY” (Lev 11:44, 1 Peter 1:16), “For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His face.” (Psalms 11:7), “The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His work” (Psalms 145:17). There is no other biblical definition of holiness, it is only said of those who are upright and blameless—those who walk in the ways of God, and that is, His commandments. When we keep the commandments, we are conforming ourselves to His character and behavior, becoming just like Him.
“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.”
1 John 4:16
This parrots 1 John 2:3, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if keep His commandments.” There is a consistent theme in scripture and I hope it is becoming more clear.
Now back to the verse, “Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.” All of the law and the prophets are summarized and categorized by these two commands, all of the law and prophets are satisfied by these two commands (as I said before, this does not mean the rest of it is done away with, that would be ignorant, you would lose the definition of love entirely without the law and the prophets). The rest of the law explains how to love God and and how to love your neighbor. So if we remain in love, that is His commands, we remain in God, and God remains in us.
“[17] By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world. [18] There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”
1 John 4:17
By keeping God’s instructions and not transgressing them we are perfected in love (which is loving God and your neighbor, which is keeping the commands). Once perfected in love, we have no need to fear the day of judgement because we are upright and blameless before God. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because you do not fear His judgement when you are walking upright in His ways because fear involves punishment, that is the fear of the punishment from His judgement when you are in violation of His ways. So if you are fearful of judgement, you are not perfected in love, you are not walking blameless according to His ways. We will be perfected in love, which is the resurrection into our glorified bodies, and on that day we will no longer fear judgment and condemnation because we will never transgress God’s law until the end of eternity (which is never). Until that day, that is why we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
Just as a child that knowingly does something his parents told him not to do, he is wary of the punishment that he will receive. So it is with us, if we knowingly do something that our Father told us not to do, we are fearful of His punishment. But just as a child that does what is right and does not do the things his parents instructed him were wrong, he is at peace and ease (he’s not looking over his shoulder) because he won’t be punished for doing what is right, so it is when we do what is right and not do the things the Father instructed us were wrong, we are at peace and ease (not looking over our shoulders) because we won’t be punished by Him for doing what is right.
Deuteronomy 8:5 – “So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.”
Hebrews 12:6 – “FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE PUNISHES EVERY SON WHOM HE ACCEPTS.”
Revelation 3:19 – “Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.”
Psalm 94:12 – “Blessed is the man You discipline, O LORD, and teach from Your law,”
The rest should interpret itself, 1 John 4:19-21 – “[19] We love, because He first loved us. [20] If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. [21] And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.“
Shabbat shalom!
