Fearlessly Loving...

How many believers live their lives fearlessly loving others? For perfect love drives our fear. Why then do we stay silent when issues come up that we know are detrimental to its speakers? Is it because we fear man more than God? If true, perfect love, the kind only God can give (for He is the Source), casts out fear, why don’t we experience it? Why is it so hard to tell another that their lifestyle is eventually gonna kill them and hurt many of their closest family members and friends? If perfect love drives our fear, why then do we have such a hard time with it? Maybe it’s because we are not pursuing God like we should. Maybe it’s because we don’t understand Who He is. Maybe it’s because we are practicing a lifestyle ourselves that is contrary to His commands. Maybe our affections are directed to worldly things? Didn’t Paul remind Timothy in his letter to him that God didn’t give us a spirit of fear and timidity? One cannot experience this kind of love when you’re not connected to its SOURCE. You can’t give what you don’t possess.

7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.9 God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. 10 This is real love–not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us.13 And God has given us His Spirit as proof that we live in Him and He in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love.God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face Him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect love. 19 We love each other[T] because He loved us first.20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister,[U] that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And He has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters. 1 John 4:7-21

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7